Documentation

Grid & Layout

A consistent grid keeps components aligned and spacing predictable across every screen size. Kalki Design uses a column-based grid with configurable gutters and margins — desktop gets 12 columns, tablet 9, and mobile 4.

Responsive Grid

Use the interactive preview below to explore how columns, gutters, and margins behave across viewports.

Columns
Gutter
Margin
Desktop1440 × 900
12 cols24px gutterfluid margin
kalki.design
Navigation
Content
Sidebar
Footer

Grid Patterns

These are the recommended column span patterns for common UI structures. All examples assume a 12-column desktop grid.

Full Width — 12 col

Page headers, data tables, full-width banners.

Content

Main + Sidebar — 8 + 4 col

Dashboard pages, detail views with contextual info panels.

Main Content
Sidebar

Two Equal Columns — 6 + 6 col

Comparison views, split forms, two-up card layouts.

Column A
Column B

Three Equal Columns — 4 + 4 + 4 col

Metric cards, feature grids, KPI rows.

Metric A
Metric B
Metric C

Mixed — 8 + 4 top, 4 + 4 + 4 bottom

Dashboard overview pages combining a chart with a stats row.

Chart
Summary
Stat A
Stat B
Stat C

Do's & Don'ts

Do

  • Align components to column boundaries — never place content between columns.
  • Use consistent gutters across the same page — don't mix 16px and 24px in one layout.
  • Let content collapse to fewer columns on smaller screens — 8+4 on desktop becomes 12 on mobile.
  • Use fluid margins on desktop. Switch to fixed margins on tablet and mobile.
  • Span Card and Table to even column counts (4, 6, 8, 12).

Don't

  • Use arbitrary widths like w-[340px] — always express width as column spans.
  • Nest grids more than two levels deep — it creates misalignment that's hard to debug.
  • Use a sidebar pattern on mobile — collapse to a single full-width column instead.
  • Override gutter spacing inside a component — gutters are a layout concern, not a component concern.
  • Mix gap-* values and manual margins to fake gutters — use the grid's columnGap only.