This article is also available in French, courtesy of KolossalDrupal.org.

When it comes to starter themes in Drupal, there are two names that seem to always rise to the top: Zen and Blueprint. This article is about the latter, and how to get started with it.

So, why is Blueprint a good starter theme? First and foremost, it's incorporates the Blueprint CSS Framework, an open-source project all on its own. The framework was designed to speed up CSS development time - specifically "layout" CSS where various HTML elements are positioned on the page. It also provides "sensible typography", a stylesheet for printed pages, and other features. The "layout" aspect of Blueprint is based on a grid-based system that breaks up the page into any number of columns that are very accessible from CSS. This is where the true power of Blueprint appears.

What advantage does this give you as a Drupal theme developer? First and foremost, it cuts down on your development time by virtually guaranteeing that (providing you use the Blueprint CSS as designed) cross-browser CSS "float" issues are a thing of the past. Need a page layout that breaks up an entire page into any number of blocks? No need to get the Panels module involved, it's easy to do with Blueprint. You can Panel-fy pages without all the overhead (or learning curve).