--- title: How Websites Were Built Before Flexbox and Grid | daily.dev description: A historical overview of CSS layout techniques used before Flexbox and Grid existed. Covers floats and the clearfix hack, inline-block whitespace issues,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/how-websites-were-built-before-flexbox-and-grid-fiqa1myfq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: How Websites Were Built Before Flexbox and Grid | daily.dev og:description: A historical overview of CSS layout techniques used before Flexbox and Grid existed. Covers floats and the clearfix hack, inline-block whitespace issues,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-websites-were-built-before-flexbox-and-grid-fiqa1myfq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Fiqa1MyfQ.png og:image:alt: How Websites Were Built Before Flexbox and Grid og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # How Websites Were Built Before Flexbox and Grid **[JS Development](https://daily.dev/sources/jsdevelopment)** · [@anliberant](https://daily.dev/anliberant) · 225 upvotes · 42 comments ## Summary A historical overview of CSS layout techniques used before Flexbox and Grid existed. Covers floats and the clearfix hack, inline-block whitespace issues, table-based layouts, spacer GIFs, image-based gradients and rounded corners, negative-margin centering, the box-sizing problem, and Internet Explorer compatibility hacks. Contrasts these painful workarounds with how modern CSS Grid and Flexbox solve the same problems in a fraction of the code. Notes that some legacy techniques (especially table layouts for HTML email) remain relevant today. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@joriswouters** · 20 upvotes >  **@springtofigh** · 10 upvotes > Something as frustrating as float came to mind. Thanks to flexBox and grid❤️👌 **@sevensolutions** · 8 upvotes > I can remember my early days when i downloaded the entire html and css of a good looking website and then removed everything step by step just to understand how the layout was working 🙈 **@palalet** · 5 upvotes > Tables, baby, tables 🤣 **@anthonynikolov** · 4 upvotes > Tables, floating and deisgn made on Photoshop. Let us don't forget the IE optimizations 🙃 ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#css](https://daily.dev/tags/css) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-websites-were-built-before-flexbox-and-grid-fiqa1myfq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-websites-were-built-before-flexbox-and-grid-fiqa1myfq","headline":"How Websites Were Built Before Flexbox and Grid","text":"Shared: CSS Layout Before Flexbox and Grid","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/how-websites-were-built-before-flexbox-and-grid-fiqa1myfq","datePublished":"2026-08-02T13:10:29.951Z","dateModified":"2026-08-03T02:17:43.739Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Anton Liberant","url":"https://daily.dev/anliberant","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AAcHTteX1jAsV7NIevHJk0k9z0vTRktfJmWn9I79VKpJ7Ypm1jqG=s96-c","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":3770}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZrL_HSsR--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2006","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":225},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":42}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/T6FQfJEwh"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"","datePublished":"2026-08-02T17:53:05.669Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/Fiqa1MyfQ#c-yPHKgC2wG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Joris Wouters","url":"https://daily.dev/joriswouters","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKq1-3ATui91TME7lcwL-rWPvaKDHgsEhBQIXzeyd3-=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":20}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Something as frustrating as float came to mind. 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