20+ Useful CSS3 and HTML5 Frameworks, Tools and Templates
Rochester OliveiraI hope you have heard a little about CSS3 and HTML5. And I’m sure you’ve used at least one of the cool features they offer. But now it is time to use them at their full (or almost full) power.
You may be asking yourself “It is time to change? Should I forget everything I know and dive into this new world?”. Well dear padawan, you don’t need to do so. We have a lot of tools that make our transition to new and better technologies safer (ultimately we can’t just crash our customer’s website, we have bills to pay :D).
Frameworks are helpful with this. They’ve already been tried, tested and proven. Of course, you can always make them better, but they are a really good starting point.
This time we will talk a little about frameworks and other tools, like generators and templates.
So, let’s rock.
HTML5 Boilerplate – Templating that fits all needs
This is the most useful for me. I usually have jobs that need easy setup, but a lot of optimizations tools (minifiers and more) and, at the same time, I’m quite familiar with CSS, so too much preset CSS is a waste of time to me (since I spend a few hours coding CSS, but much more to understand and re-utilize framework’s code).
Cool features:
- Constantly improving – Last update says that they reduced the overall size of the published boilerplate by 50%
- Build script – .js and .css minify, image optimization, html optimization, server configurations for caching…
- Custom install setup – So you can choose what you want in “your” boilerplate
- Cross-Browser compatible
- HTML5 Ready
- Print stylesheet ready to use
52framework – Supports almost anything
I am amazed by all the things you can do with this framework. It has a lot of resources that I thought would never work on IE. This is a good option when you want a somewhat styled template and are planning to use almost all power of HTML5.
What do I like:
- Almost anything you want with HTML – Local Storage, video player, canvas, forms…
- A lot of CSS3 proprieties – As you can see in CSS demo, it has a good CSS3 support
- Video Tutorials – Yeah, it makes even easier to understand 52′s workflow
G5 Framework – Good tools collection
Actually Greg Babula says that it meant to be just a personal project. But it is much powerful than he thinks.
As it was made from personal experience, it has a lot of tools that we already know how to use (Modernizr, CSS Reset, jQuery, Orbit Image Slider…), thus we don’t waste too much time learning.
Perkins – Lighweight and LESS
I must admit that I should use LESS much more than I do. If you think this way, Perkins may be a good option for you. It comes with a set of LESS stylesheets and mixins for common tasks such as creating navigation, rounded corners, gradients and much more.
Sprites.js – Animation framework (HTML5 support, of course)
Yeah, sometimes our customer wants some animations on their site. Why should you use flash when (almost every time) you can use HTML5?
Sprite.js provides a simple integration for canvas and HTML animations so you can do easily some animations, with maximum performance.
Lime.js – Gaming framework
Just take a look at the demo games, and tell me if it isn’t amazing.
Some features (HTML5) that you can use on it:
- Optional install – For mobile users it is really good, just bookmark your game and you’re done
- KeyFrame animations
- Full support of sprite sheets
- Stroke support – So you can draw a stroke around shapes
- Good documentation – Just take a look at all classes you can use with it, pretty cool :D
HTML5 multimedia framework for WordPress
If you are a WordPress person, you will find it useful. With this plugin, you just have to add a shortcode and you have a HTML5 media player in your site.
The framework currently supports:
- mp4 (h.264,aac)
- ogg (theora,vorbis)
- mp3 (audio only)
- webm (vp8,vorbis).
- wmv (via MediaElement.js)
- flv (via MediaElement.js)
- wma (via MediaElement.js)
Modernizr – HTML5 & CSS3 with fallbacks
Modernizr helps us to implement HTML5 and CSS3 for browsers that don’t natively support it. Actually many of the tools mentioned above use it.
Want to know more about its amazing features? Just read The All-In-One Entirely-Not-Alphabetical No-Bullshit Guide to HTML5 Fallbacks.
It is really simple to use, when modernizr detects your browser’s features, it adds classes to you HTML, so you can easily switch to a valid fallback. Try to run the demo and see its results for a better comprehension.
Select[ivizr] – CSS3 Selectors for IE
IE (6-8 mainly) is surely the greatest barrier to CSS3 spread. CSS3 selectors are almost forgotten for some developers, that just know they exist because can use them with jQuery.
You just need one of the 7 supported JavaScript libraries and you are ready to install it (via conditional comments, so just IE will see it). And then you’re done, just write you pretty CSS3 selectors as you aways wanted.
CSS3 button framework
With this framework you have easily a lot of good buttons options. It is specially useful for back-end developers, that aways need some pretty buttons, but don’t have time (or budget) to do so.
They are all CSS3 ready, and can be easily customized.
Templates – General HTML5 and CSS3 samples
Coming Soon Template
Design Company
Real State
Free HTML5 & CSS3 theme
Create An Elegant Website With HTML 5 And CSS3
Starter Pack
Much more inspiration at HTML5 Gallery
Some useful tools
CSS3 Button Maker
CSS Transforms code generator
CSS3 Gradient generator
CSS3 Drop Shadow Generator
CSS Generator for radius, shadows, rgba, @font-face, columns and more
The best @font-face generator I’ve ever seen
HTML5 Visual Cheat Sheet
Ready to start experimenting with HTML5?
You may notice that I didn’t even mention any mobile frameworks. It is because they are so cool that they deserve a dedicated post.
I certainly have missed some other good resources. Why don’t you comment and share what you know?
For Further Reading:
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Samuel Asher Rivello
Posted 14 days ago 39Great post!
We have MANY choices of HTM5 App Frameworks. Here is a fantastic summary of all HTML5 App Frameworks
http://www.rivellomultimediaconsulting.com/html5-app-frameworks/
Tiffany John
Posted 31 days ago 38Hi Rochester Oliveira, Thanks for uploading and sharing such a nice articles which are really fantastic combination of CSS3 and HTML5.
pranav
Posted 37 days ago 37Wow, what a article… bookmarking it.
Deryn
Posted 92 days ago 35Very informative and helpful article :) great list of tools and CSS generators.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 51 days ago 36Thanks Deryn!
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id meneo
Posted 159 days ago 31An excellent list that I bookmark right away. Html5 seems pretty rough and it will be useful for me to save some time with these templates.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 154 days ago 34Hey id, we’ll have much more content about HTML5 here soon, keep coming!
:)
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Web Design Aberdeen
Posted 196 days ago 30In regards to css frameworks we always just write our own code from the ground up on confirmed projects. Traditional but at least you know exactly whats going on. Tools like Modernizr are incredidbly handy and the generators are clever although sometimes don’t get updated when browsers have native support. Thanks, great list.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 154 days ago 32I agree with you since you really know what is going on :)
I mean, many people say “I don’t use (CSS) frameworks because I want to understand what is going on every time!” but actually they don’t, they are just copy & pasting code from somewhere else and pretend to understand what they’re doing..
And actually many people what is going on when using frameworks..
I mean, whether you are or aren’t using a framework you should ALWAYS know what is going on!
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Rochester
Valentin
Posted 225 days ago 28An Another CSS3 Framework Buttons :
http://www.geekeries.fr/buttons/ ;)
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 220 days ago 29Hey Valenntin,
It seems to be great.. Do you have anything about it translated to english? I don’t know almost anything in french :)
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Alex
Posted 243 days ago 24If you like to use HTML5 and CSS3 with a WordPress Framework, you should check out Xtreme Theme at http://xtreme-theme.com , the one and only WordPress Framework with HTML5 and CSS3, very flexible and powerful.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 243 days ago 25We’ve focused in free tools here, alex but your suggestion in great. I’ll check it out!
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Alex
Posted 238 days ago 26Hey Rocherster, didn’t recognize you focused in free tools, but if you have a post about premium tools, you surely should check it out.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 238 days ago 27That is a good idea, since premium resources come with much more resources and maybe services together, you know..
Thank you!
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Ennove designs
Posted 244 days ago 22Awesome tools,and I am in a process to create my designing website,and thanks to your list I will be able to do it much better now.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 243 days ago 23Hey Ennove,
Really hope it helps you!
Kepp reading, we have much more grat content to go!
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sanji
Posted 268 days ago 19Wow! great stuff here, didn’t know there are many frameworks and css3 generators..thanks!!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 268 days ago 20Hey sanji, thank you!
We have other articles about it, why not browse here for a while? :)
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Antown
Posted 270 days ago 18Could you give a link to some good books on CSS3 and Html5 or at least the book’s title? I would like most in the whole deal.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 154 days ago 33Oh Antown there is a lot of really good references out there. But usually I read content in portuguese so my best source is maujor.com.br
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dimaks
Posted 272 days ago 17Fantastic list you got here. Back in my HTML working days in a private institution, I was not able to enjoy these kinds of brilliant tools, as well as references. How time flies and so do free and useful tools to grab. Thanks for featuring them!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 268 days ago 21Hey dimaks, why don’t you put all your intentions in a side project?
Then you could use all this almost experimental stuff and have fun for a while :D
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Alex Patin
Posted 272 days ago 15What a seriously awesome list! I got started using HTML5 Boilerplate at the end of April, and I love what it can do! Definitely a great way to start out I think.
Thanks!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 272 days ago 16Thank you alex!
I think boilerplate is the best for many of us too. But for some specific applications the other ones can be much better :D
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Rochester
Lex Koff
Posted 273 days ago 13Amazing! Thank You very much!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 272 days ago 14Hey, Lex, you are welcome!
Andrey
Posted 275 days ago 9On my blog i using Lime.JS framework. It’s realy simple and very functional!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 275 days ago 10Yeah, Lime.JS is great!
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Enursa
Posted 275 days ago 8really useful tools list dude. i like it.
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 275 days ago 11Hey Enrusa,
Thank you! Keep coming!
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Web Technology News
Posted 276 days ago 7A nice round up of articles.
It’ll be interesting to see what tools we have in a year!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 275 days ago 12Hi!
Thank you.
We surely missed some cool tools, there is a lot of people doing the hard work for us ;)
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cipro
Posted 276 days ago 3Mind blowing stuff, already added to bookmarks. Thanks. cipro
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 276 days ago 6Hey cipro,
Keep coming, there is a lot of cool stuff to be published!
Thank you
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Alexey
Posted 276 days ago 2Cool! Add to bookmarks!
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 276 days ago 5Hey Alexey, thank you!
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aditia
Posted 276 days ago 1wow i did not know before, there are a game framework for html5, must be manipulating the canvas element, thx btw
Rochester Oliveira
Posted 276 days ago 4Hey aditia,
Isn’t it amazing? we can definitely do coll stuff with HTML5 :D
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