valenski

the minimal SASS library

Source on Github

valenski is a lightweight set of SASS mixins, classes, resets and values that simplify your workflow. By Hay Kranen.

Philosophy

valenski was written because i needed it. I produce many static websites with very different requirements and designs, so something like Bootstrap is far too heavy and opinionated. After producing more than 100 websites in two years i discovered that the only things i always needed where:

• A very bare-bones CSS reset that puts an emphasis on using the rem unit.
• Some SASS variables for common responsive breakpoints.
• SASS utility mixins, for making responsive design easier and for reusing some common CSS hacks.
• Optional buffer classes for overwriting default margins on elements.

Installation

valenski only works with SASS. You'll probably want to use a package manager, such as npm. Then add it to your project:

npm install --save valenski

And include the master file in your SASS file.

@use "node_modules/valenski/valenski";

Or if you have set the load-path properly or if you're using a bundler:

@use "valenski/valenski";

Optionally you can only include the reset without the classes:

@use "valenski/valenski-reset";

Or even just the values and mixins:

@use "valenski/values";
@use "valenski/mixins";

Mixins

valenski contains around 20 simple yet powerful utilities.

respond-*

You can use respond-from, respond-until and respond-between to simplify the writing of media queries. Use these mixins in conjunction with the screen breakpoint values.

@use "valenski/mixins";

.grid {
    display: flex;
    flex-wrap: wrap;

    @include mixins.respond-until(values.$screen-sm) {
        li {
            width: 100%;
        }
    }

    @include mixins.respond-between(values.$screen-sm, values.$screen-md) {
        li {
            width: 50%;
        }
    }

    @include mixins.respond-from(values.$screen-md) {
        li {
            width: 25%;
        }
    }
}

wh

wh is a shortcut for the width and height properties. If you use only one argument width and height will get the same value.

@use "valenski/mixins";

header {
    @include mixins.wh(100vw, 20vh);
}

header h1 {
    @include mixins.wh(20rem);
}

pos

pos is a shortcut for the top, right, bottom and left properties.

@use "valenski/mixins";

.footer {
    @include mixins.pos(50vh, 25%, 25%, 10rem);
}

This is the same as writing

.footer {
    top: 50vh;
    right: 25%;
    bottom: 25%;
    left: 10rem;
}

If only two arguments are given these will be used for the left and top properties (think of them as x and y)

.circle {
    @include mixins.pos(300px, 200px);
}

.circle {
    left: 300px;
    top: 200px;
}

If only one argument is given, pos will set the same value to all properties.

.overlay {
    @include mixins.pos(0);
}

This is the same as:

.overlay {
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
}

clearfix

A mixin for the famous clearfix hack.

@use "valenski/mixins";

.clearfix {
    @include mixins.clearfix;
}

transform-center-*

Centers an element using the transform hack. Either horizontal (transform-center-horizontal), vertical (transform-center-vertical) or both (transform-center).

@use "valenski/mixins";

body {
    position: relative;
    @include mixins.wh(100vw, 100vh);
}

h1 {
    @include mixins.transform-center; // center both horizontally and vertically
}

h2 {
    @include mixins.transform-center-horizontal; // only center horizontally
}

h3 {
    @include mixins.transform-center-vertically; // only center vertically
}

flex-center

Center child elements using flexbox. Compare this to the transform-center mixins that centers the element you apply it to. If you have more than one child elements they will be aligned on the vertical axis. To align horizontally try @include flex-center(row);

@use "valenski/mixins";

body {
    @include mixins.flex-center;
}

h1 {
    // this element will be centered
}

ul {
    // centers child elements on horizontal axis
    @include mixins.flex-center(row);
}

child-margins

Set margin-top on all child elements using the lobotomized owl selector. By default uses the $valenski-base-unit variable.

@use "valenski/mixins";

main {
    @include mixins.child-margins(3rem);
}

background-center

Center the background-image, by default sizing with the cover option. If you want to size with the contain option you can give that as an option.

@use "valenski/mixins";

figure {
    @include mixins.background-center;
    background-image: url('img/figure.jpg');
}

body {
    @include mixins.background-center(contain);
    background-image: url('img/background.jpg');
}

sr-only

Only display content to screen readers. This is the same mixin as used in Bootstrap 4. Note that you can also use the sr-only class.

@use "valenski/mixins";

.sr-notice {
    @include mixins.sr-only;
}

Values

valenski contains a couple of breakpoints variables for mediaqueries and some variables that set defaults for mixins, resets and classes.

Screen breakpoints

These are lifted from Bootstrap.

• $screen-xs: 480px
• $screen-sm: 768px
• $screen-md: 992px
• $screen-lg: 1200px

Valenski variables

• $valenski-screen-small-height: 650px
  • This is used to set a smaller size for the rem unit under this screen height
• $valenski-base-unit: 10px
  • Used for spacing and the buffer-* classes
• $valenski-font-size-base: 10px
  • What 1rem should be
• $valenski-font-size-small: 8px
  • What 1rem should be on small devices (<768px)
• $valenski-use-small-font-size: true
  • Enable the small font sizes for small devices and screens that are not so high.

All of these variables are also available as CSS variables.

@use "valenski/values";

.element {
    width: var(--screen-xs);
}

Reset

valenski contains a barebones reset. It only sets margins and paddings to zero, defaults to using border-box for box-sizing and does some common sense styling for elements like removing the border for the img element on Internet Explorer 9. It also sets up the rem element so 1rem = 10px, except for mobile devices (under 768px) and small screens (in height) where it is 8px. Both values can be overwritten using the $valenski-font-size-base and $valenski-font-size-small values. Using this technique you can do this:

@use "valenski/reset";

p {
    font-size: 2rem; // Translates to 20px and 16px for mobile
}

Classes

valenski contains buffer-* classes that can be used for vertical spacing between elements. The spacing is based on the $valenski-base-unit variable (by default this is 10px). For example:

<header class="buffer-3"> <!-- Add 15px margin add the top and bottom -->
    <h1 class="buffer-bottom-1">Header with 10px margin at the bottom</h1>
    <h2 class="buffer-top-0">Subheader with no margin at top</h2>
</header>

There is also a sr-only class you can use to only display content to screen readers.

<img src="logo.png" alt="Website logo" />
<h1 class="sr-only">My briliant website</h1>

Version history

• 2.0.0 switched from the old @import to @use syntax. It also set the $valenski-use-small-font-size variable to false by default.
• Version 1.5.0 was released on February 21 2022. Note that was the last version that used the @import syntax. See the docs here if you still want to use that version.
• The first version of Valenski (0.2.0) was released on January 16th 2015.