Polishing Layout

Assets, Metadata, and CSS

So far, we’ve only added minimal React and CSS code just to illustrate concepts such as CSS Modules. Before we move on to our next lesson (data fetching), let’s polish our page styling and code.

Download Your Profile Picture

First, we’ll be using your profile picture for the final design.

Download your profile picture from GitHub, Twitter, LinkedIn or elsewhere (or use this file).
Create an images directory inside of the public directory.
Save the picture as profile.jpg in the public/images directory.
The image size can be around 400px by 400px.
You may remove the unused SVG logo file directly under the public directory.

Update `components/layout.module.css`

Second, we’ll use the following for components/layout.module.css — simply copy and paste it. It adds some more polished styles.

.container {
  max-width: 36rem;
  padding: 0 1rem;
  margin: 3rem auto 6rem;
}

.header {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
}

.headerImage {
  width: 6rem;
  height: 6rem;
}

.headerHomeImage {
  width: 8rem;
  height: 8rem;
}

.backToHome {
  margin: 3rem 0 0;
}

Create `styles/utils.module.css`

Third, let’s create a set of utility CSS classes for typography and others that will be useful across multiple components.

Let’s add it as a CSS Module at styles/utils.module.css.

.heading2Xl {
  font-size: 2.5rem;
  line-height: 1.2;
  font-weight: 800;
  letter-spacing: -0.05rem;
  margin: 1rem 0;
}

.headingXl {
  font-size: 2rem;
  line-height: 1.3;
  font-weight: 800;
  letter-spacing: -0.05rem;
  margin: 1rem 0;
}

.headingLg {
  font-size: 1.5rem;
  line-height: 1.4;
  margin: 1rem 0;
}

.headingMd {
  font-size: 1.2rem;
  line-height: 1.5;
}

.borderCircle {
  border-radius: 9999px;
}

.colorInherit {
  color: inherit;
}

.padding1px {
  padding-top: 1px;
}

.list {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
}

.listItem {
  margin: 0 0 1.25rem;
}

.lightText {
  color: #999;
}

Update `components/layout.js`

Fourth, copy the following code to components/layout.js and change Your Name at the top to your name. Here’s what’s new:

meta tags (like og:image)
Boolean home prop which will adjust the size of the title and the image
“Back to home” link at the bottom if home is false

import Head from 'next/head'
import styles from './layout.module.css'
import utilStyles from '../styles/utils.module.css'
import Link from 'next/link'

const name = 'Your Name'
export const siteTitle = 'Next.js Sample Website'

export default function Layout({ children, home }) {
  return (
    <div className={styles.container}>
      <Head>
        <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />
        <meta
          name="description"
          content="Learn how to build a personal website using Next.js"
        />
        <meta
          property="og:image"
          content={`https://og-image.now.sh/${encodeURI(
            siteTitle
          )}.png?theme=light&md=0&fontSize=75px&images=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.vercel.com%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Ffront%2Fassets%2Fdesign%2Fnextjs-black-logo.svg`}
        />
        <meta name="og:title" content={siteTitle} />
        <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
      </Head>
      <header className={styles.header}>
        {home ? (
          <>
            <img
              src="/images/profile.jpg"
              className={`${styles.headerHomeImage} ${utilStyles.borderCircle}`}
              alt={name}
            />
            <h1 className={utilStyles.heading2Xl}>{name}</h1>
          </>
        ) : (
          <>
            <Link href="/">
              <a>
                <img
                  src="/images/profile.jpg"
                  className={`${styles.headerImage} ${utilStyles.borderCircle}`}
                  alt={name}
                />
              </a>
            </Link>
            <h2 className={utilStyles.headingLg}>
              <Link href="/">
                <a className={utilStyles.colorInherit}>{name}</a>
              </Link>
            </h2>
          </>
        )}
      </header>
      <main>{children}</main>
      {!home && (
        <div className={styles.backToHome}>
          <Link href="/">
            <a>← Back to home</a>
          </Link>
        </div>
      )}
    </div>
  )
}

Update `pages/index.js`

Finally, let's update the homepage.

Change pages/index.js as follows:

import Head from 'next/head'
import Layout, { siteTitle } from '../components/layout'
import utilStyles from '../styles/utils.module.css'

export default function Home() {
  return (
    <Layout home>
      <Head>
        <title>{siteTitle}</title>
      </Head>
      <section className={utilStyles.headingMd}>
        <p>[Your Self Introduction]</p>
        <p>
          (This is a sample website - you’ll be building a site like this on{' '}
          <a href="https://nextjs.org/learn">our Next.js tutorial</a>.)
        </p>
      </section>
    </Layout>
  )
}

Then replace [Your Self Introduction] with your self introduction. Here’s an example with the author’s profile:

That’s it! We now have the polished layout code in place to move onto our data fetching lessons.

Before we wrap up this lesson, let’s talk about some helpful techniques related to Next.js’s CSS support on the next page.

PrevNext

Was this helpful?

You can also ask the community on GitHub Discussions.

Basics

Excel

Assets, Metadata, and CSS