Less

GitHub repository ↗ synced 2026/8/9

Awesome Less

Curated list of awesome Less frameworks, libraries, style guides, articles, and resources. The main idea is that everyone can contribute here, so we can center all the informations about Less and keep up-to-date.

About

Less is a open source dynamic style sheet language that can be compiled into Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and run on the client side or server side. Designed by Alexis Sellier, Less is influenced by Sass and has influenced the newer "SCSS" syntax of Sass, which adapted its CSS-like block formatting syntax. Less provides the following mechanisms: variables, nesting, mixins, operators and functions; the main difference between Less and other CSS precompilers being that Less allows real-time compilation via Less by the browser. Font: Wikipedia

Getting Started

Beginner's Guide

Getting Started with Less

Learn in 10 Minutes

Official Guide

Official Repository

UI/Theme Frameworks and Components

1pxdeep

Brings designing by relative visual weight, or designing with color schemes, to Bootstrap.

Ant Design

An enterprise-class UI design language and React-based implementation.

Bootstrap a11y theme

Makes web accessibility easier for Bootstrap developers.

Bootstrap 3

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

Bootswatch

Collection of free themes for Bootstrap.

Cardinal

Small "mobile first" CSS framework for front-end developers who build responsive web applications.

CSSHórus

Library for development of responsive and mobile websites.

Flat UI Free

Theme and framework for Bootstrap.

JBST

Theme framework that can be used as a standalone website builder or to create WordPress themes.

Less Rails

Less for Rails.

Material Design for Bootstrap

Material Design for Bootstrap is a Bootstrap V3 compatible theme; it is an easy way to use the new Material Design guidelines by Google in your Bootstrap 3 based application.

Metro UI CSS

Set of styles to create a site with an interface similar to Windows 8.

Schema

Light, responsive, and lean frontend UI framework.

Semantic UI

UI component framework based around useful principles from natural language.

UIkit

Lightweight and modular front-end framework for developing web interfaces.

Wee

Lightweight front-end framework for logically building complex, responsive web projects.

Libraries and Mixins

Grid

Bootstrap Grid Only

Bootstrap's responsive grid and responsive utility classes only, without any extras. Lightweight yet still powerful. Style to taste.

Framework

Less Framework is a CSS grid system for designing adaptive web sites. It contains 4 layouts and 3 sets of typography presets, all based on a single grid.

Flexible Grid System

This framework will let you create your web applications in a flexible way that you've never experienced before.

Fluidable

Fluidable is a mobile first, responsive grid system. It is standalone, lightweight & built using Less.

Grid System

Super-easy to use, markup-independent grid system.

Less Zen Grid

Implementation of [Zen Grids](https://github.com/JohnAlbin/zen-grids) in Less.

Order.Less

Baseline alignment, column grids and modular scales.

Media Queries

CSS and Media Query Strategies

Using Less CSS to develop a media query driven solution for modern and legacy browsers.

Media Queries Library

Really simple media queries in Less.

Media Query to Type

A method for creating an IE specific stylesheet that allows the content of media queries to become accessible to Internet Explorer 8 and below.

Color

Brand Colors

1100+ collection of popular brand colors available in Sass, Less, Stylus and CSS.

More-Colors

Variables for easier color manipulation while you design in the browser.

Open Color

Open color is a color scheme for UI design. Available in CSS, SCSS, Less, Stylus, Adobe library, Photoshop/Illustrator swatches and Sketch palette.

Animation

Animate

A library of CSS3 keyframe animations authored using Less.

Animate Less

Port of Dan Eden's [Animate.css](https://daneden.github.io/animate.css/) to Less.

Cube Less

3D (animated) cube using only CSS (Less), originally used by LeanCloud (aka. AVOS Cloud).

Hover

Collection of CSS3 powered hover animated effects to be applied to links, buttons, logos, SVG, featured images and so on.

Less Burguer

Port of [Sass Burger](http://joren.co/sass-burger/) to Less.

Miscellaneous

Mixins library.

Bidi

Set of mixins for creating bi-directional styling.

Clearless

Collection of mixins.

Css3LessPlease

Conversion of css3please.com to Less mixins.

CssEffects

Collection of CSS style effects.

Cssowl

Mixin library.

Dynamic Stylesheet

Set of useful mixins.

Est

Mixin library.

Hexagon

Generate CSS hexagons with custom size and color.

Homeless

Helpful functions.

Less Elements

Set of basic mixins.

Lesshat

Smart mixins library.

Lessley

A jasmine like testing suite written in pure Less.

Lessmore

Mixins library. Cross-browser support for the CSS3 features and more.

Normalize

Modularized famous [normalize.css](https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css/) using Less.

Oban

Collection of mixins.

Preboot

Collection of mixins and variables for writing better CSS.

Retina.js

JavaScript, SCSS, Sass, Less, and Stylus helpers for rendering high-resolution image variants.

Shape

Collection of mixins for various shapes.

TRRtoolbelt

Mixins and functions for common actions.

Style Guides

Handshake Style Guide

This guide presents a collection of best-practices and coding conventions.

WebMD Health Services Style Guide

This document outlines CSS/Less best practices at WebMD Health Services.

Ports of Less

Java

JLessC

Less compiler written completely in Java.

Less Engine

Runs Less in the Rhino JVM-based JavaScript interpreter.

Less CSS Compiler for Java

Runs Less in the Rhino JVM-based JavaScript interprete.

Less4j

Native Java implementation.

Lesscss

Runs Less using Rhino, Nasshorn or node.js engine; 1.7.0 compliant.

Lesscss Gradle Plugin

Gradle plugin based on Less.

.Net

BundleTransformer.Less

Compiler written in .Net.

Less CSS for .Net

Compiler written in .Net.

PHP

ILess

PHP port written in Javascript.

Lessphp

Compiler written in PHP.

Less.php

PHP port.

Python

Pyhton Compiler

Compiler written in Python.

Ruby

Ruby Compiler

Less in Ruby's V8 Engine.

Go

Go Compiler

Runs Less inside embedded Javascript engine.

GUIs, Editors and Plugins

Atom Linter

Linter plugin in the Atom text editor.

CSS 2 Convert

Quick way to automatically convert CSS to Less, easy as copy and paste.

CSS Less(ish)

Sublime Text 2 & 3 plugin that implements a stripped down version of the functionality in css preprocessors (such as Less).

Crunch 2!

Crunch 2 is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) editor with integrated compiling. If you work with large Less projects, you should definitely try it out, as you only need the free version for Less files.

Diamond

Dependency management built for Sass, Less, and CSS.

Eclipse Less Plugin

This plugin extends the Eclipse IDE by providing handy features to edit and compile Less stylesheets.

Eclipse Transpiler Plugin

Eclipse plugin to automatically transpile your files (Less, SASS, CoffeeScript, etc.).

Emacs

Emacs mode with support for compile-on-save.

Grunt Contrib

Compile Less files to CSS using Grunt.

Grunt Lint

Lint your Less files using CSS Lint from Grunt.

Gulp Less

Plugin for Gulp.

Hayaky

Hayaku is a bundle of useful scripts aiming for rapid front-end web development.

Hyra Helper

CakePHP plugin that converts your Less files to CSS using only PHP.

Koala

Koala is a cross-platform GUI application for compiling Less, sass and coffeescript.

Less for Notepad++

Syntax Highlighting for Notepad++.

Less Sublime

Syntax highlighting for Sublime Text.

Lesshint

Tool to aid you in writing clean and consistent Less.

LiveReload

CSS edits and image changes apply live. CoffeeScript, SASS, Less and others just work.

SimpleLess

SimpleLess is a minimalistic Less compiler. Just drag, drop and compile.

Sublime Less2CSS

Sublime Text 2 Plugin to compile Less files to css on save.

SublimeOnSaveBuild

Trigger a build the moment you save a file in Sublime Text 2. Works best with web projects that make use of Less, Compass and any other pre-processor or a makefile.

Vim Less

This vim bundle adds syntax highlighting, indenting and autocompletion.

Visual Studio Web Essentials

If you ever write CSS, HTML, JavaScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript or Less, then you will find many useful features that make your life as a developer easier.

Winless

WinLess started out as a clone of Less.app, it takes a more feature-complete approach and has several settings. It also supports starting with command line arguments.

Online Less Compilers

BeautifyTools Less Compiler

Online Less compiler with optional formatting and minification at [BeautifyTools](http://beautifytools.com/).

EstFiddle

Online Less compiler providing live demo for Less and est. Allowing users to switch among all versions of Less after 1.4.0 with optional est/Autoprefixer functionalities.

ILess

Live demo of [ILess](https://github.com/mishal/iless) PHP compiler.

Leafo

[Lessphp](http://leafo.net/lessphp/) live demo.

Less2CSS

Online Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is hosted in a browser allowing users to edit and compile Less to CSS in real-time.

LessPHP

[Less.php](http://lessphp.gpeasy.com/) live demo.

Lesstester

Online compiler for Less CSS.

Precess

A real time preprocesser compiler.