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Matthew James Taylor Matthew James Taylor

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6 Column Responsive Website Layouts

14 Feb 2022 — Updated 20 Mar 2023

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These layouts all use the Responsive Columns layout system.

Download All Demos
(responsive-columns.zip 155k)

In this article, I will cover the various types of six-column layouts and show how easy they are to create with the Responsive Columns layout system. You can download all of these demos with the handy link above.

Let's get started.

6 Fixed Columns With Equal-Width & Equal-Height

In this six-column layout, the columns stay side-by-side even on small mobile screens.

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The HTML

<r-c join>
    <c1-6 class="red">
        <!-- 1 -->
    </c1-6>
    <c1-6 class="orange">
        <!-- 2 -->
    </c1-6>
    <c1-6 class="yellow">
        <!-- 3 -->
    </c1-6>
    <c1-6 class="green">
        <!-- 4 -->
    </c1-6>
    <c1-6 class="aqua">
        <!-- 5 -->
    </c1-6>
    <c1-6 class="blue">
        <!-- 6 -->
    </c1-6>
</r-c>

We add the 'join' attribute to remove all gutters, join the columns together, and add padding. Learn more about gutter mode and join mode in the documentation.

The CSS

.red {
    background:#f97171;
}
.orange {
    background:#f99e50;
}
.yellow {
    background:#f5d55f;
}
.green {
    background:#c5ed77;
}
.aqua {
    background:#72f1d4;
}
.blue {
    background:#72c2f1;
}

We only need CSS for the background colors, all the structural CSS is handled by the Responsive Columns system.

6 Responsive Columns With Equal-Width & Equal-Height

In this six-column layout, the columns are stacked on mobile, two columns wide on tablet portrait, three columns wide on tablet landscape, and six columns wide on desktop.

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The HTML

<r-c join sm1-2 md1-3 lg1-6>
    <c1-1 class="red">
        <!-- 1 -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1 class="orange">
        <!-- 2 -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1 class="yellow">
        <!-- 3 -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1 class="green">
        <!-- 4 -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1 class="aqua">
        <!-- 5 -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1 class="blue">
        <!-- 6 -->
    </c1-1>
</r-c>

Add as many columns as you like and they will follow the same number of columns per breakpoint.

The CSS

.red {
    background:#f97171;
}
.orange {
    background:#f99e50;
}
.yellow {
    background:#f5d55f;
}
.green {
    background:#c5ed77;
}
.blue {
    background:#72c2f1;
}

6 Column Responsive Layout With Gutters

In this six-column layout, the columns are separated by gutters. The columns stack vertically on mobile, are two columns wide on tablet portrait, three columns wide on tablet landscape, and six columns wide on desktop.

First column. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque iaculis lectus vel metus pellentesque, eu venenatis est euismod.

Second column. Nulla eget ligula quis purus molestie malesuada non at nibh. Proin a magna ac velit iaculis pretium. Fusce vitae sollicitudin sapien.

Third column. Quisque iaculis lectus vel metus pellentesque, eu venenatis est euismod. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Fourth column. Proin a magna ac velit iaculis pretium. Nulla eget ligula quis purus molestie malesuada non at nibh. Fusce vitae sollicitudin sapien.

Fifth column. Nulla eget ligula quis purus molestie malesuada non at nibh. Proin a magna ac velit iaculis pretium. Fusce vitae sollicitudin sapien.

Sixth column. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque iaculis lectus vel metus pellentesque, eu venenatis est euismod.

The HTML

<r-c sm1-2 md1-3 lg1-6>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- first column -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- second column -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- third column -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- fourth column -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- fifth column -->
    </c1-1>
    <c1-1>
        <!-- sixth column -->
    </c1-1>
</r-c>

The Responsive Columns layout system uses tiny custom HTML tags that make coding responsive layouts a breeze. You don't need to know any complicated CSS. See the documentation for more details on the custom HTML tags.

The CSS

No CSS is required for this layout because all the work is done by the Responsive Columns system.

6 Column Layout With Semantic HTML5 Tags

This six-column layout uses semantic HTML5 tags. The columns stack on mobile, are two wide on tablet portrait, three columns wide on tablet landscape, and six columns wide on desktop.

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The HTML

<article data-r-c data-join data-sm1-2 data-md1-3 data-lg1-6>
    <section class="red">
        <!-- 1 -->
    </section>
    <section class="orange">
        <!-- 2 -->
    </section>
    <section class="yellow">
        <!-- 3 -->
    </section>
    <section class="green">
        <!-- 4 -->
    </section>
    <section class="aqua">
        <!-- 5 -->
    </section>
    <section class="blue">
        <!-- 6 -->
    </section>
</article>

The Responsive Columns system is compatible with semantic tags. Full details here: How to use semantic HTML tags with responsive columns.

The CSS

.red {
    background:#f97171;
}
.orange {
    background:#f99e50;
}
.yellow {
    background:#f5d55f;
}
.green {
    background:#c5ed77;
}
.aqua {
    background:#72f1d4;
}
.blue {
    background:#72c2f1;
}

Full Browser Support

Responsive Columns works in all modern browsers, plus all old browsers that support Flexbox:

Need to support old browsers?

If you need to achieve 6 equal-height columns in old browsers that don't support flexbox CSS (back to IE 5.5), you can use my nested equal-height columns method.

The Responsive Columns Layout System Is Simple And Powerful

You can easily change the widths of your columns and change how they respond to different screen sizes.

Refer to the Responsive Columns Documentation to see how easy it is to create responsive layouts to your exact requirements.

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