Base CSS

The core typography, form, and table styles of Bootstrap

Headings & body copy

Typographic scale

The entire typographic grid is based on two Less variables in our preboot.less file: @baseFontSize and @baseLineHeight. The first is the base font-size used throughout and the second is the base line-height.

We use those variables, and some math, to create the margins, paddings, and line-heights of all our type and more.

Example body text

Nullam quis risus eget urna mollis ornare vel eu leo. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit.

Vivamus sagittis lacus vel augue laoreet rutrum faucibus dolor auctor. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Donec sed odio dui.

h1. Heading 1

h2. Heading 2

h3. Heading 3

h4. Heading 4

h5. Heading 5
h6. Heading 6

Emphasis, address, and abbreviation

Element Usage Optional
<strong> For emphasizing a snippet of text with important None
<em> For emphasizing a snippet of text with stress None
<abbr> Wraps abbreviations and acronyms to show the expanded version on hover Include optional title for expanded text
<address> For contact information for its nearest ancestor or the entire body of work Preserve formatting by ending all lines with <br>

Using emphasis

Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue.

Note: Feel free to use <b> and <i> in HTML5, but their usage has changed a bit. <b> is meant to highlight words or phrases without conveying additional importance while <i> is mostly for voice, technical terms, etc.

Example addresses

Here are two examples of how the <address> tag can be used:

Twitter, Inc.
795 Folsom Ave, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94107
P: (123) 456-7890
Full Name
first.last@gmail.com

Example abbreviations

Abbreviations are styled with uppercase text and a light dotted bottom border. They also have a help cursor on hover so users have extra indication something will be shown on hover.

HTML is the best thing since sliced bread.

An abbreviation of the word attribute is attr.

Blockquotes

Element Usage Optional
<blockquote> Block-level element for quoting content from another source

Add cite attribute for source URL

Use .pull-left and .pull-right classes for floated options
<small> Optional element for adding a user-facing citation, typically an author with title of work Place the <cite> around the title or name of source

To include a blockquote, wrap <blockquote> around any HTML as the quote. For straight quotes we recommend a <p>.

Include an optional <small> element to cite your source and you'll get an em dash &mdash; before it for styling purposes.

<blockquote>
  <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis.</p>
  <small>Someone famous</small>
</blockquote>

Example blockquotes

Default blockquotes are styled as such:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis.

Someone famous in Body of work

To float your blockquote to the right, add class="pull-right":

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante venenatis.

Someone famous in Body of work

Lists

Unordered

<ul>

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem

Unstyled

<ul class="unstyled">

  • Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  • Consectetur adipiscing elit
  • Integer molestie lorem at massa
  • Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  • Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
    • Phasellus iaculis neque
    • Purus sodales ultricies
    • Vestibulum laoreet porttitor sem
    • Ac tristique libero volutpat at
  • Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  • Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  • Eget porttitor lorem

Ordered

<ol>

  1. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
  2. Consectetur adipiscing elit
  3. Integer molestie lorem at massa
  4. Facilisis in pretium nisl aliquet
  5. Nulla volutpat aliquam velit
  6. Faucibus porta lacus fringilla vel
  7. Aenean sit amet erat nunc
  8. Eget porttitor lorem

Description

<dl>

Description lists
A description list is perfect for defining terms.
Euismod
Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper eget lacinia odio sem nec elit.
Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Malesuada porta
Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod.

Code Inline and block

Element Result
<code> In a line of text like this, your wrapped code will look like this <html> element.
<pre>
<div>
  <h1>Heading</h1>
  <p>Something right here...</p>
</div>

Note: Be sure to keep code within <pre> tags as close to the left as possible; it will render all tabs.

<pre class="prettyprint">

Using the google-code-prettify library, you're blocks of code get a slightly different visual style and automatic syntax highlighting. You can also add an additional class to add line numbers.

<div>
  <h1>Heading</h1>
  <p>Something right here...</p>
</div>
<div>
  <h1>Heading</h1>
  <p>Something right here...</p>
</div>

Download google-code-prettify and view the readme for how to use.

Inline labels for special attention

Labels Markup
Default <span class="label">Default</span>
New <span class="label success">New</span>
Warning <span class="label warning">Warning</span>
Important <span class="label important">Important</span>
Notice <span class="label notice">Notice</span>

Table markup

Tag Description
<table> Wrapping element for displaying data in a tabular format
<thead> Container element for table header rows (<tr>) to label table columns
<tbody> Container element for table rows (<tr>) in the body of the table
<tr> Container element for a set of table cells (<td> or <th>) that appears on a single row
<td> Default table cell
<th> Special table cell for column (or row, depending on scope and placement) labels
Must be used within a <thead>
<caption> Description or summary of what the table holds, especially useful for screen readers
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>...</th>
      <th>...</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>...</td>
      <td>...</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Table options

Name Class Description
Default None Only horizontal lines between rows
Bordered .bordered-table Rounds corners and adds outter border
Zebra-stripe .striped-table Adds light gray background color to odd rows (1, 3, 5, etc)
Condensed .condensed-table Cuts padding in half, from 10px to 5px, within all td and th elements

Example tables

1. Default table styles

All tables will be automatically styled with only the essential borders to ensure readability and maintain structure. No need to add extra classes or attributes.

# First Name Last Name Language
1 Some One English
2 Joe Sixpack English
3 Stu Dent Code
<table>
  ...
</table>

2. Striped table

Get a little fancy with your tables by adding zebra-striping—just add the .striped-table class.

# First Name Last Name Language
1 Some One English
2 Joe Sixpack English
3 Stu Dent Code

Note: Zebra-striping is a progressive enhancement not available for older browsers like IE8 and below.

<table class="striped-table">
...
</table>

3. Striped table w/ TableSorter.js

Taking the previous example, we improve the usefulness of our tables by providing sorting functionality via jQuery and the Tablesorter plugin. Click any column’s header to change the sort.

# First Name Last Name Language
1 Your One English
2 Joe Sixpack English
3 Stu Dent Code
<script src="js/jquery/jquery.tablesorter.min.js"></script>
<script >
  $(function() {
    $("table#sortTableExample").tablesorter({ sortList: [[1,0]] });
  });
</script>
<table class="striped-table">
  ...
</table>

Four types of forms

Name Class Description
Vertical (default) .vertical-form (not required) Stacked, left-aligned labels over controls
Horiztonal .horizontal-form Float left, right-aligned labels on same line as controls
Inline .inline-form Left-aligned label and inline-block controls for compact style
Search .search-form Extra-rounded text input for a typical search aesthetic

Why four types

With Bootstrap 2, we completely recoded our forms to allow for simple base styles and improved namespacing on labels and controls. To address the many uses of forms, we've included some base styles to help get you started.

Vertical or horizontal

Our default form styles are now vertical, not horizontal. This makes it easier to customize bare-bones forms, as well as forms in tricker situations like sign-up, modals, etc. They share the same exact markup; just swap the class.

Search form

Inline form

Some directional text

And maybe some kind of optional supporting text right here.

Horizontal form

Example form

Help text here. Be sure to fill this out like so, or else!

Example form

Note: Labels surround all the options for much larger click areas and a more usable form.

Note: Labels surround all the options for much larger click areas and a more usable form.

Vertical form

Example form

Be sure to fill this out like so, or else!

Buttons

Name Preview Class Description
Default Button .btn Standard gray button with gradient
Primary Button .primary Makes button blue for more visual weight to indicate the primary action in a set of buttons
Info Button .info Used as an alternate to the default styles
Success Button .success Used to indicate a successful or positive action will be taken
Danger Button .danger Used to indicate a dangerous or potentially negative action will be taken

Buttons for actions

As a convention, buttons should only be used for actions while hyperlinks are to be used for objects. For instance, "Download" should be a button while "recent activity" should be a link.

For anchors and forms

Button styles can be applied to anything with the .btn applied. However, typically you’ll want to apply these to only <a> and <button> elements.

Note: All buttons must include the .btn class. Button styles should be applied to <button> and <a> elements for consistency.

Multiple sizes

Fancy larger or smaller buttons? Have at it!

Primary action Action

Primary action Action

Disabled state

For buttons that are not active or are disabled by the app for one reason or another, use the disabled state. That’s .disabled for links and :disabled for <button> elements.

Primary action Action

 

Button groups

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8
9
10