Hairline stat strip Updated
From AntJanus, the personal encyclopedia · UI pattern · Layout
A row of stat tiles joined by hairlines that are grid gap, not borders — the container paints the border color and the tiles paint the surface, so separators never double up or break when the row wraps — in a reporting form and in a second form where each tile is the filter for the list beneath it.From the prompt“Real borders double where two tiles meet and leave a stray edge when auto-fit wraps the row, and a gap physically cannot do either.”
Reach for it when building
- summary strip at the top of a detail page
- dashboard KPI row
- account usage overview
- report header figures
- profile stats band
Related: Uniform slot shell for cards that render many sources, and Filtered to zero for what the list shows when a tile filters it empty.Fixed hereOn the current site the five-tile filter row overflows (“QUEUED 2 downloa…”). This version steps 1 → 2 → 3 → 5 columns by container width, so a label never clips.
Reporting only — the figures are the whole job.
Same strip, working as the filter. Press a tile to narrow the list; press it again to clear.
- Bicycle drivetrain teardownDone
- Kiln firing, part threeDownloading
- Field recording — marsh at dawnQueued
- Lathe restoration, episode 12Done
- Sourdough hydration testsFailed
- Bookbinding: the long stitchQueued
Showing all 6 downloads.
<div class="hss-wrap">
<div class="hss-strip four" role="list" aria-label="Reporting figures">
<div class="hss-tile" role="listitem">
<span class="hss-label">Documents</span>
<span class="hss-fig">1,482</span>
<span class="hss-sub">this period</span>
</div>
<div class="hss-tile" role="listitem">
<span class="hss-label">Median time</span>
<span class="hss-fig">3.2s</span>
<span class="hss-sub">last 24h</span>
</div>
<div class="hss-tile" role="listitem">
<span class="hss-label">Clean runs</span>
<span class="hss-fig">98.4%</span>
<span class="hss-sub">no retries</span>
</div>
<div class="hss-tile" role="listitem">
<span class="hss-label">Quality score</span>
<span class="hss-fig missing" aria-label="No value">—</span>
<span class="hss-sub">not rated yet</span>
</div>
</div>
</div>Colors come from shared theme tokens — --surface, --ink, --border, --accent and friends — so this CSS carries no palette of its own. Use Runnable file to copy the tokens along with it.
/* The hairline is the container showing through a 1px gap. */
.hss-wrap { container-type: inline-size; }
.hss-strip {
display: grid;
gap: 1px;
background: var(--border);
border: 1px solid var(--border);
border-radius: var(--radius);
overflow: hidden;
grid-template-columns: 1fr;
}
@container (min-width: 21rem) { .hss-strip { grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr); } }
@container (min-width: 42rem) { .hss-strip.four { grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr); } }
.hss-tile {
background: var(--surface);
padding: .8rem 1rem;
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
min-width: 0;
}
.hss-label {
font: 500 .8125rem ui-monospace, monospace;
letter-spacing: .06em;
text-transform: uppercase;
color: var(--dim);
}
.hss-fig {
font-size: 1.6rem;
font-weight: 700;
font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
color: var(--ink);
}
.hss-fig.missing { color: var(--dim); }
.hss-tile[aria-pressed="true"] {
background: color-mix(in srgb, var(--accent) 14%, var(--surface));
}Build a strip of statistic tiles that reads as one joined instrument panel rather than a row of floating cards.
The separators between tiles must not be borders. Make the container a CSS grid with gap: 1px and give the container itself the border color as its background; each tile then paints the surface color on top. The 1px of container showing through the gap is the hairline. This is the entire pattern: real borders double where two tiles meet and leave a stray edge when auto-fit wraps the row, and a gap physically cannot do either.
The full prompt continues with sections on pinning column counts, tile anatomy, two rules of honesty (render a missing value as a dimmed em dash; keep units with the number), the filter form, computing counts from the unfiltered set, and using aria-pressed rather than tab roles.
What links here
- Category: UI Patterns — Layout “Hairline stat strip. Stat tiles joined by hairlines that are grid gap, not borders.”
- I Built an AI-Friendly UI Pattern Library The announcement for the library this pattern belongs to.
Categories:Layout patternsCSS-only patternsUI Patterns