9 Timeless 3 Column Layout Techniques

Our Target is find a Layout that have Total Layout Flexibility, Equal Height Columns and just works fine. Lets digg deep and see below a list of resources which offer gorgeous and valid 3 Column CSS-based Layouts- usually with  full layout structure, such as headers, navigation bars, content containers, sidebars and footers.

Two Fixed and one Fluid

1) 3 Columns, The Holy Grail- Nice simple 3-column CSS layout to adapt.

1. #leftcontent {
position: absolute;
left:10px;
top:50px;
width:200px;
}
2. #centercontent {
margin-left: 199px;
margin-right:199px;
margin-left: 201px;
margin-right:201px;
}
html>body #centercontent {
margin-left: 201px;
margin-right:201px;
}
3. #rightcontent {
position: absolute;
right:10px;
top:50px;
width:200px;
}

2) 3 Column Fluid CSS Layout- With Faux Columns and 100% height

1. #left { float: left; width: 155px; padding: 5px; position: relative;/*** IE needs this ***/ }
2. #right { float: right; width: 110px; padding: 5px; position: relative; /*** IE needs this ***/ margin-right: -120px; /** This negative margin-right value is the same as the right column width (width + padding). ***/ position: relative; /*** IE needs this ***/ }
3. #content { float: right; margin-right: -165px;/*** Same length as .outer padding-left but with negative value ***/ width: 100%; position: relative;/*** IE needs this ***/ }

3) 3-col Layout Via CSS

No tables, no absolute positioning (no positioning at all), no hacks(!), same height of all columns.

1. #left { float:left; width:150px; margin:0; padding:0; background:url("corner.gif") top right no-repeat; font-size:80%; }
2. #right { float:right; width:150px; margin:0; padding:0; background:url("corner.gif") top right no-repeat; font-size:80%; }
3. #middle { margin:0 150px; background:yellow; font-size:80%; }

4) 3 Columns - Flanking Menus

Three columns, intelligent order of elements.

Fixed Fixed Fixed

5) Multi-Column Layouts Climb Out of the Box

This is part of the List Apart Article , This three-column layout takes a slightly different approach: the borders are applied directly to the container div.

1. #container{ background-color:#0ff; float:left; width:500px; border-left:150px solid #0f0; » /* The width and color of the left rail */ border-right:200px solid #f00; » /* The width and color of the right rail */ }
2. #leftRail{ float:left; width:150px; margin-left:-150px; position:relative; }
3. #center{ float:left; width:500px; margin-right:-500px; }
4. #rightRail{ float:right; width:200px; margin-right:-200px; position:relative; }

6) LayoutGala's 3 Fixed Columns

1. div#container {width:700px;margin:0 auto}
2. div#wrapper {float:left;width:100%}
3. div#content {margin-right: 300px}
4. div#navigation {float:left;width:150px;margin-left:-150px}
5. div#extra {float:left;width:150px;margin-left:-300px}

7) 3 Col Fixed SEO

1. #page_margins {width: 980px; min-width: 980px; max-width:none }
2. #main { float:left; width: 100%; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(../../images/bg_pattern.png); background-repeat:repeat-y; background-position:left; }
3. #col1 { width: 480px; float:left; margin-left: 240px; }
4. #col2 { width: 240px; float:left; margin-left: -720px; }
5. #col3 { margin-left: -5px; margin-right: 0; width: 240px; float:right;}

Fluid

8 ) One True Layout

1. #block_1 { float: left; width: 34%; margin-left: 33%; }
2. #block_2 { float: left; width: 33%; margin-left: -67%; }
3. #block_3 { float: left; width: 33%; }

9) Max Design- Liquid insanity

A very good liquid example, could be used as a Newspaper like layout.

Must check Layout Banks

CSS Layouts - 950 pixels- Simplify your CSS designs with these easy Pure CSS Layouts

ThreeColumnLayouts- CSS-discuss has collected a ton of 3 column layouts and a quicky summary of each, i.e. fluid/fixed, header/footer!

Little Boxes- 16 Layouts Examples

Layout Gala- A set of 40 layouts that we've thought worth sharing: on each of them you'll find also a download link (if you want, you can download the entire collection, 40 HTML pages in a single zip file).

Tutorials and Good Practices

The Perfect 3 Column Liquid Layout- No CSS hacks. SEO friendly. No Images. No JavaScript. Cross-browser & iPhone compatible.

Position Is Everything- Great site that explains some obtuse CSS bugs in modern browsers, provide demo examples of interesting CSS behaviors and show how to "make it work" without using tables for layout purposes.

Creating a CSS layout from scratch- A Step by step (12 pages worth) guide to developing a CSS based site, after all unless you understand the concepts you will never fully be satisified with the other articles. Its set at a good pace for intermediate coders with at least some CSS experience and is worth a read regardless of background or ability