Gap under footer - sticky footer?

HTML & CSS
1

Gap under footer - sticky footer?

Hi all

I have a demo here to illustrate my question.

http://www.ttmt.org.uk/forum/

It’s a header, content and a footer.
The content is pushing the footer below the window but the footer still has a gap below.

Why is there a gap below the footer?

Do I need a sticky footer?

What’s the best sticky footer for a responsive layout?

Thanks in advance for any help.


  <!DOCTYPE html>
  <html>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <meta name="description" content="">
    <meta name="keywords" content="">
    <meta name="robots" content="">


    <style type="text/css">

      /* http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/
         v2.0b1 | 201101
         NOTE: WORK IN PROGRESS
         USE WITH CAUTION AND TEST WITH ABANDON */

      html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
      h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
      a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
      del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
      small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
      b, u, i, center,
      dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
      fieldset, form, label, legend,
      table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td,
      article, aside, canvas, details, figcaption, figure,
      footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, section, summary,
      time, mark, audio, video {
      	margin: 0;
      	padding: 0;
      	border: 0;
      	outline: 0;
      	font-size: 100%;
      	font: inherit;
      	vertical-align: baseline;
      }
      /* HTML5 display-role reset for older browsers */
      article, aside, details, figcaption, figure,
      footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, section {
      	display: block;
      }
      body {
      	line-height: 1;
      }
      ol, ul {
      	list-style: none;
      }
      blockquote, q {
      	quotes: none;
      }
      blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
      q:before, q:after {
      	content: '';
      	content: none;
      }

      /* remember to define visible focus styles!
      :focus {
      	outline: ?????;
      } */

      /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */
      ins {
      	text-decoration: none;
      }
      del {
      	text-decoration: line-through;
      }

      table {
      	border-collapse: collapse;
      	border-spacing: 0;
      }

      /* CLEAR FIX */

      .clear {
      	clear: both;
      }

      .group:after {
      	content: ".";
      	  display: block;
      	  height: 0;
      	  clear: both;
      	visibility: hidden;
      }

      *html .group {
      	height:1%;
      }

      *:first-child+html .group {
      	min-height: 1px;
      }

      .clear {
      	clear:both;
      }

      /* END CLEAR FIX */


      body{
      	font:1em Helvetica, sans-serif;
      }
      #page{
      	max-width:1000px;
      	margin:0 auto;
      }	

      header{
      	background:blue;
      	height:100px;
      }

      .pageContent{
      	padding:50px 0;
      	background:#eee;
      }

      footer{
      	background:#b5b6b9;
      	width:1000px;
      	margin:0 auto;
      }

      footer ul{
      	float:left;
      	margin:0 20px 0 0;
      }
      footer ul li:first-of-type a{
      	text-transform:uppercase;
      	font-weight:bold;
      }
      footer a{
      	display:inline-block;
      	color:white;
      	font-size:.8em;
      	padding:1px;
      }


    </style>

    </head>

  <body>

      <div id="page">

        <header class="group">
          <h2>Header</h2>
        </header>

          <section class="pageContent">
              <h2>Content</h2>
                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>
                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

                <p>
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p>

          </section>


    <footer class="group">
      <h2>Footer</h2>

          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">One</a></li>
          </ul>

          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Two</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">2-1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">2-2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">2-3</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">2-4</a></li>
          </ul>

          <ul>
            <li><a href="#">Three</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-1</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-2</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-3</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-4</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-5</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">3-6</a></li>
          </ul>

    </footer>


  </body>

  </html>
2 

      .group:after {
[B]      	content: "";/* note that I removed the period*/  [/B]
      	  display: block;
      	  height: 0;
      	  clear: both;
      	visibility: hidden;
      }

BTW, if your actual site is anything like the sample code, you should use overflow:hidden; to clear floats it’s simpler, far more graceful, and cross browser friendly.

hope that helps

3

Only you can answer that?

It all depends on the design and how much content you have. Most sites go below the fold on nearly all pages so a sticky footer would be of no use. If you have very little content then it may look odd with the footer sitting right at the top of the page but them conversely on my 27" imac a footer sitting miles down the page also looks a little odd.

What’s the best sticky footer for a responsive layout?

The one I just invented here. It is the only one in the world (that I know about) that allows for variable height in the footer which is ideal for responsive or fluid sites where the height of the footer will change when content is squashed. It only supports IE8+ but is still usable in other browsers albeit without the sticky action of the footer.

/* note that I removed the period*/

The period is often useful for stopping margin collapse so instead you could just add overflow:hidden to the rule.