Bluelib

What is Bluelib?

Bluelib is a modular CSS library for web pages which aims to provide great customization and flexibility while trying to keep HTML as "basic" as possible.

This page itself acts both as a documentation of the library and as a live preview of its capabilities.

If you're on a browser which supports that, you can right click any element of this page and then click Inspect Element to see how something is done.

Table of contents

1. Welcome to Bluelib!
2. Rulesets, selectorsets, targets
3. Installation and usage
4. Panels
5. Chapters
6. Modifiers
7. Separators
8. Lists
9. Glossaries
10. Text elements
11. Tables
12. Images
13. Inputs
14. Forms

Glossary

• Abbreviation
• Anchor
• Annotation, unarticulated
• Area
• Bring attention
• Bluelib
• Box
• Button
• Chapter
• Checkbox
• Citation
• Code
• Color
• Color input
• Definition
• Deleted text
• Details
• Dialog
• Fade
• Field
• File input
• Float
• Form
• Flex form
• Idiomatic expressions
• Input
• Inserted text
• Limited images
• List, definition
• List, ordered
• List, unordered
• Mark
• Multiselect
• Panel
• Parenthesis
• Preformatted text
• Quote
• Radio
• Range
• Ruby
• Ruleset
• Sample, input
• Sample, output
• Select
• Selectorset
• Separator
• Separator, heavy
• Separator, light
• Small comment
• Strike
• Strong importance
• Table
• Table panel
• Target
• Todo
• Variable

Targets

A Bluelib target is a CSS document where CSS rulesets of a certain type are grouped together.

It is composed by two parts: the ruleset, determining the CSS rules to use, and the selectorset, determining the elements to apply the CSS rules on.

Targets always have a predictable name, which is:

Be sure to choose the ones matching your needs!

By running dist/_build.sh, new targets are generated and compiled from Less to CSS.

The cartesian product is applied between all rulesets in src/rulesets and all selectorsets in src/selectorsets, compiling a new target for each pair.

Available selectorsets

Root

Simple selectors for usage in plain HTML pages, with short and human-friendly class names.

Module

All selectors use class names, allowing the usage of the target with CSS Modules. Useful for React or similar web app projects.

Via UNPKG

The easiest way to use Bluelib on your website is by using UNPKG.

Simply link the stylesheets in the header of your project like this:

To save a bit extra bandwidth, at the cost of harder-to-read stylesheets, you can use minified stylesheets, like this:

Panel

A Panel is a container styled with a slight background color and no borders.

Box

A Box is a container adding borders of all four sides to the base appearence of a Panel.

Dialog

A Dialog is a container adding a left border to the base appearence of a Panel.

Snake? Snake??? SNAKEEEEEEE!

Parenthesis

A Parenthesis is a container styled as a Panel and with smaller text.

Panel usage

When using Bluelib, text should always be either an header or inside a Panel.

Since Panels often denote "sections" of text, they should usually be <section> elements.

When they are only used cosmetically, <div> elements should be used instead.

When used to create forms, they may also be <form> elements.

Box usage

A Box creates a visible separation between the content inside it and the content outside it, and should be used when this separation is desired, like when describing a topic (like here).

To achieve the best visual style, Boxes should always be the outmost panels: you should never place a Box inside a Panel or a Dialog, but you can place one inside another Box.

Dialog usage

A Dialog creates a visible indentation of the content inside it, and should be used when this indentation is desired, like in quotes or examples.

When containing a quote, they should use <blockquote> elements.

Like Boxes, Dialogs should never be placed into containers with less borders than them, such as Panels.

Parenthesis usage

A Parenthesis removes importance from its contents, and therefore makes for a great container for notes or additional information about a topic.

Having no borders, they should be considered as Panels when placing them: never add Boxes or Dialogs inside them.

Nesting

As you have seen in the sections before, panels can be nested many times (until the text becomes undistinguishable)!

Chapter

A chapter is a grouping of an heading and multiple panels containing tightly related information.

They split their children into a preset amount of columns: this one, for example, splits panels into two columns.

The maximum number of columns in a chapter is 9; beyond that, you'll need to write your own chapter code.

Panel heights

In a chapter, all panels on a row inherit the height of the tallest panel in it, so that no empty space is left.

Element floats

A float is a utility class to align items in panels without having to write CSS.

For example, if a panel has some empty space, elements can be made to float to the bottom, which can be useful for example for buttons in sibling panels.

Auto-wrapping

Panels in a numbered chapter will automatically wrap if their contents won't fit horizontally.

Wrapped panels' heights ignore the height of panels in other rows.

To have a constant height, one has to be set manually.

Auto-sizing

Panels in a "zero" chapter will instead automatically resize to fit everything in a single row.

To set a constant width, one has to be set manually.

Fade

The fade modifier reduces the opacity of the elements it is applied to.

Mark

The mark modifier distinguishes the elements it is applied to from the surrounding ones by applying a strong color contrast.

To do

The todo modifier emphasises that the contents of the elements it is applied to are not correct or final.

Color modifiers

The color modifiers change the colors of the elements they are applied to.

Separator

A separator is a horizontal line that fills all the horizontal space available on a panel, forcing a line wrap.

Top Text

Light separator

A light separator is a less eye-catching separator, to be used if the regular separator distracts too much from the flow of the text.

Bottom Text

Heavy separator

A heavy separator is a very eye-catching separator, to be used if the regular separator isn't apparent enough.

Bottom Text 2: Electric Boogaloo

Ordered list

A ordered list displays a series of items whose order is relevant.

1. First
2. Second
3. Third
4. Fourth
5. Fifth
6. Sixth
7. Seventh
8. Eight
9. Ninth
10. Tenth
11. Eleventh
12. Twelfth

Unordered list

An unordered list displays a series of items whose order is irrelevant.

• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth
• Fifth
• Sixth
• Seventh
• Eight
• Ninth
• Tenth
• Eleventh
• Twelfth

Definition list

A definition list displays a series of term-description pairs.

Term

Description

Other term

Other description

Collapsible details

A details element hides its contents, displaying only a summary until either the marker or the summary itself is activated.

Anchors

An anchor is an interactable element which can be clicked to go to a different page, or a different part of the same page, or to perform an action with a different application!

Idiomatic expressions

An idiomatic expression should be used when a domain-specific term is used.

Emphasis

An emphasis should be used when a certain word should be stressed more than the others in a text.

Bring attention

An attention-bringer element denotes parts of text as more important than the others.

Strong importance

A strong importance element denotes parts of text that are even more important than the ones denoted by attention-bringers.

Unarticulated annotations

An unarticulated annotation denotes parts of text that were given an annotation without any comment.

Strike

A strike marks a part of text as incorrect.

Inserted and deleted text

When comparing changes to a text, parts of it can be marked as inserted or deleted.

Small comment

A small comment element denotes a part of a text as less important than the others.

It can be considered the opposite of attention-bringers, and similar to the parenthesis panel.

Preformatted text

A preformatted text element denotes text where lines and positioning are significant; this prevents them from being rearranged by the browser.

It should be used for poetry, code, ASCII art, kaomoji, etc.

   mm    mmmm    mmm  mmmmm  mmmmm
##   #"   " m"   "   #      #
#  #  "#mmm  #        #      #
#mm#      "# #        #      #
#    # "mmm#"  "mmm" mm#mm  mm#mm

Code

A code element denotes that its contents are some kind of code (probably belonging to a programming language).

If displayed as a block instead of inline, it should be used with a preformatted text element.

<div class="panel">
<p>
Contents
</p>
</div>

Keyboard input and sample output

Input samples and output samples from a computer have elements which denote them, and are formatted appropriately.

A sample inside another creates emphasises the individual element, creating a combination.

Variables

A variable denotes a placeholder for something in a formula or algorithm.

Quotes and citations

A quote element indicates an inline quote, and may be optionally include a citation element indicating the source of the quote.

Definitions

A definition element indicates the term that is being defined in the contained paragraph.

Abbreviations

An abbreviation element marks its contents as an acronym or abbreviation and allows the user to view the expanded abbreviation by hovering it with the mouse.

Note that no mobile browsers currently support this feature, so you'll have to manually provide an alternative for mobile users to see the full abbreviation.

Ruby

A ruby text element is text with small annotations above, commonly used in East Asian texts.

Table

A table is an element whose children are aligned in a grid.

Table caption

Tables can have captions attached to their top.

Tables can also have headings and captions attached to their bottom.

Default

Images are automatically centered and resized to fit the panel they are in.

Limited

Images can be limited to prevent them from taking up too much screen space, like the previous one did.

Half

The following image has a limit of half the vertical viewport:

Quarter

The following image has a limit of a quarter of the vertical viewport:

Input

An Input is an interactive element which allows the user to interact with the web page.

Field

A Field is an Input which allows the user to enter single-line free-form text.

Special types of Fields

A Field may require a particular type of data, such as an email or a phone number.

Area

An Area is a resizable Input which allows the user to enter multi-line free-form text.

Select

A Select is an Input which allow the user to select between one of multiple options.

Multiselect

A Multiselect is an Input which allows the user to enable or disable multiple options.

Be aware that the average user will probably not know how to interact with the Multiselect: to select options not adjacent to each other on a desktop browser, it requires holding the Ctrl key.

Radio

Radios are Inputs which, like a Select, allow the user to select between one of multiple options when grouped together.

Checkbox

Checkboxes are Inputs which, like a Multiselect, allows the user to enable or disable multiple options when grouped together.

Color

A color input is an Input which allows the user to select a RGB color.

Since browsers usually delegate the rendering of this element to the operating system, it cannot be styled.

File

A file input is an Input which allows the user to upload a file from their computer.

Since browsers usually delegate the rendering of this element to the operating system, it cannot be styled.

Button

A Button is an Input which the user can click to trigger an action.

Form

An form is a non-interactive element which positions Inputs in commonly used ways.

Flex form

A flex form is a block form aligning labels and inputs to a pseudo-grid.