I am acquainting myself with Blueprint CSS this week, using it to build out the Stepmother Stories site.

I’m still figuring it out, but so far I really like what I see. Coming to this as a print designer, the idea of having grids for web design is, um, huge. The grid is 950px/24 columns wide, as-is. Or you can adjust it — either manually or using a Ruby on Rails compiler.

Below is the grid on, grid off [mouseover to see] which you control via the CSS class “showgrid.” This example uses SlipFire’s WordPress/Blueprint theme.

The grid is fab, but the aspect of Blueprint I’m most keen on its emphasis on typography, as evidenced by a “typography.css” file, as well as a mysterious subfolder labeled “fancy-type.”

I knew this was going to be good when one of the selling points at blueprintcss.org read: Typography based on expert principles that predate the web.

For a print-turned-web designer who’s studied typography and set metal type, reading that sentence is a little like sinking into a nice hot bath. *aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!*

Update 10/30/09: I found a nifty bookmarklet that toggles the grid on and off for you. Nice!