Spectre CSS vs. Milligram CSS
By SW Habitation
Spectre CSS
Milligram CSS
You know how building a website can feel like a lot, especially when you’re trying to style every little thing yourself? Buttons, forms, layouts… it adds up fast. That’s where UI frameworks really save the day. They give you a bunch of premade design elements that you can just drop in and go. It’s like having a design starter pack that helps your site look clean and professional, without spending forever tweaking the details.
What is Spectre CSS ?
Spectre.css is a lightweight (~10 KB gzipped), responsive, and modern CSS framework crafted by Yan Zhu. It offers a solid foundation for building clean UIs with minimal overhead, utilizing Flexbox-based layouts, pure CSS components, and utility classes—all designed with elegance and efficiency in mind.
Key Features of Spectre CSS
- Lightweight Starter Kit: Only about 10 KB gzipped, keeping your project snappy.
- Responsive Flexbox Layout: Mobile-friendly, modern layout system using Flexbox.
- Clean Design Language: Comes with thoughtfully designed elements and a consistent UI approach.
- Pure CSS Components & Utilities: Includes buttons, forms, typography, icons, cards, toasts, modals, navbars, and more.
- Experimentals for Advanced Features: CSS-only components like carousels, parallax scrolling, comparison sliders, calendars, and off-canvas menus.
- Minimal Dependency on JavaScript: Leverages CSS pseudo-classes (:checked, :target, :hover) for interactivity, JavaScript can be added for enhanced behavior.
Advantages of Spectre CSS
- Free and Open Source (MIT License): No cost, great for personal and commercial use.
- Lightweight & Fast: Excellent for performance-focused applications.
- Responsive and Mobile-Ready: Built with modern Flexbox grid system.
- Rich Collection of Pure CSS Components: Modals, tooltips, badges, cards, and more without JS.
- Easily Customizable: Clean, modular CSS ready for styling tweaks.
Disadvantages of Spectre CSS
- Limited Documentation for Experimentals: Advanced CSS-only components may require extra exploration and understanding.
- CSS-Only Interactivity Has Limitations: Some interactive components may need JavaScript for full functionality.
- IE10+ Support Only (and Partial): Some older browser features may not be fully supported.
- Still Relatively Lightweight Ecosystem: Not as popular or widely used as Bootstrap, Tailwind, etc.
What is Milligram CSS?
Milligram CSS is a minimalist CSS framework that weighs in at just 2KB gzipped, making it one of the lightest options available for developers who value speed and efficiency. It follows a clean, modern design approach with sensible defaults, so you can get started quickly without having to overwrite a ton of styles. Milligram uses the flexible grid system powered by Flexbox, making layouts intuitive and responsive right out of the box.
What makes Milligram stand out is its balance between simplicity and usability. Unlike heavier frameworks, it doesn’t come bundled with unnecessary UI components, which keeps your project lean and fast.
Key Features of Milligram CSS
- Easy to Use: Available via npm, Yarn, Bower, CDN, or CLI starter projects for quick setup.
- Roboto Typography: Uses Google’s Roboto font for clean text styling; easy to override if needed.
- Minimal Reset + Base Styles: Comes with normalization and essential styles for clean coding.
- Super Lightweight: Just ~2 KB when gzipped, making it lightning-fast.
- Essential UI Elements: Includes styles for typography, buttons, lists, forms, tables, blockquotes, grids, and utilities.
- Flexbox Grid System: Responsive, flexible layout using modern Flexbox, with customizable max width.
Advantages of Milligram CSS
- Ultra Lightweight: Minimal file size ensures speedy load times.
- Quick Setup: Plug-and-play means just include the CSS and you're good to go.
- Clean Base Style: Neutral, design-agnostic foundation for custom styling.
- Modern Layouts: Flexbox grid offers flexibility and responsiveness.
- Ideal for Prototypes: Great when you need a fast, clean UI baseline.
- No Build Required: Works without any preprocessing or configuration.
Disadvantages of Milligram CSS
- Not for Complex UIs: Best suited for simple layouts, not rich interactive interfaces.
- Limited Components: Does not include advanced UI like modals, dropdowns, or navbars.
- Smaller Ecosystem: Fewer templates, plugins, or community resources available.
- No JavaScript Support: Pure CSS, interactivity must be built separately.
- Typography Dependency: Defaults to Roboto, adds an external request unless changed.
Comparison Between Spectre CSS vs Milligram CSS
Use Cases of Spectre CSS
- Prototyping & Wireframing: Perfect for quickly creating functional UI mockups without heavy dependencies.
- Lightweight Websites: Ideal for landing pages, documentation sites, or blogs where performance is critical.
- Dashboards & Admin Panels: Comes with grids, forms, and utilities that fit well for minimal dashboards.
- Static Sites & JAMstack Projects: Works great with static site generators like Jekyll, Hugo, or Next.js (SSG).
- Fallback for Custom Designs: Can be used as a solid base layer if you’re planning to add custom CSS on top.
Use Cases of Milligram CSS
- Landing Pages: Fast, mobile-friendly, and performance-focused.
- Educational Projects: Beginner-friendly for learning CSS.
- Minimalist Web Apps: For simple, fast, and lightweight projects.
- Quick Prototyping: Build clean UI prototypes quickly.
- Performance-First Sites: Perfect for JAMstack/static sites.
Other Resources
Conclusion
UI frameworks make building a polished website way easier. Whether you're working on something simple or a big project, they help you get things looking just right without having to stress over every little design decision. With ready-to-use components, responsive layouts, and modern styles, you can build faster and smarter.
So, pick one that works for you, and start creating a site that looks amazing from the get-go.
Frequently asked questions
Is Spectre.css free to use?
Yes, it’s completely free and open-source under the MIT license.
How do I include Spectre.css in my project?
You can install via npm, Yarn, Bower, CDN, or download the minified CSS directly from the docs.
Can Spectre handle interactivity without JavaScript?
Yes, Many components like modals, accordions, and carousels are built with pure CSS using pseudo-classes. JavaScript is optional and used only for enhanced behavior.
Which browsers does Spectre support?
Optimized for modern browsers; supports IE10+ with partial compatibility. Uses Normalize.css and Autoprefixer for broader coverage.
Is Milligram completely free?
Yes, Milligram is open-source and distributed under the MIT license.
How do I include Milligram in my project?
Install via npm/yarn/bower, use the CDN link, or leverage the Milligram CLI to generate a simple boilerplate.
Do I need any build tools to use Milligram?
Nope, just include the CSS file in your project’s <head> and you're set.
What is Milligram best suited for?
It’s ideal for quick prototypes, clean documentation pages, landing pages, and any performance-sensitive project looking for a minimal styling foundation.