isotope/_posts/docs/2010-12-01-introduction.mdown

---

title: Introduction
category: docs
layout: doc
related: a-intro
toc:
  - { title: Features, anchor: features }
  - { title: Licensing, anchor: licensing }
  - { title: Getting started, anchor: getting_started }
  - { title: Code repsository, anchor: code_repository }
  - { title: A word about moderation, anchor: moderation }
  - { title: Acknowledgments, anchor: acknowledgments }
  

---

<p class="tagline">Isotope: An exquisite jQuery plugin for magical layouts</p>

## Features

+ [**Layout modes**](layout-modes.html): Intelligent, dynamic layouts that can't be achieved with CSS alone.
+ [**Filtering**](filtering.html): Hide and reveal item elements easily with jQuery selectors.
+ [**Sorting**](sorting.html): Re-order item elements with sorting. Sorting data can be extracted from just about anything.
+ **Interoperability**: features can be utilized together for a cohesive experience.
+ **Progressive enhancement**: Isotope's [animation engine](animating.html) takes advantage of CSS transitions and transforms when available, but will also fall back to Javascript animation for lesser browsers.

## Licensing

<p id="commercial">
  <strong>Commercial use of Isotope requires purchase of one-time license fee per developer seat.</strong> Commercial use includes any application that makes you money &mdash; portfolio sites, premium templates, etc. Commercial licenses may be purchased at <a href="http://metafizzy.co">metafizzy.co</a>.
</p>

Use in non-commercial and personal applications is free.

## Getting started

Isotope requires jQuery 1.4.3 and greater.

### Markup

Isotope works on a container element with a group of similar child items.

{% highlight html %}

<div id="container">
  <div class="item">...</div>
  <div class="item">...</div>
  <div class="item">...</div>
  ...
</div>

{% endhighlight %}

### Script

{% highlight javascript %}

$('#container').isotope({
  // options
  itemSelector : '.item',
  layoutMode : 'fitRows'
});

{% endhighlight %}

[**See Demo: Basic**](../demos/basic.html)

There are a number of [options](options.html) you can specify.  Within the options is where you can [set the layout mode](layout-modes.html), [filter items](filtering.html),  and [sort items](sorting.html).

## Code repository

This project lives on GitHub at [github.com/desandro/isotope](http://github.com/desandro/isotope). There you can grab the latest code and download this entire project.

## A word about moderation {: #moderation}

Isotope enables a wealth of functionality. But just because you can take advantage of its numerous features together, doesn't mean you necessarily should. For each each feature you implement with Isotope, consider the benefit gained by users, at the cost of another level of complexity to your interface.

## Acknowledgments

+ [**Faruk Ateş**](http://farukat.es) for [Modernizr](http://www.modernizr.com/)
+ [**Louis-Rémi Babé**](http://twitter.com/#!/Louis_Remi) for [jQuery smartresize](https://github.com/lrbabe/jquery-smartresize) which is used within Isotope and for [jQuery transform](https://github.com/lrbabe/jquery.transform.js) which clued me in to using jQuery 1.4.3's CSS   hooks
+ [**Jacek Galanciak**](http://razorjack.net/) for [jQuery Quicksand](http://razorjack.net/quicksand/), an early kernel of inspiration
+ [**Ralph Holzmann**](http://twitter.com/#!/ralphholzmann) for re-writing the [jQuery Plugins/Authoring tutorial](http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Authoring) and opened my eyes to [Plugin Methods](http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Authoring#Plugin_Methods) pattern
+ [**Eric Hynds**](http://www.erichynds.com/) for his article [Using $.widget.bridge Outside of the Widget Factory](http://www.erichynds.com/jquery/using-jquery-ui-widget-factory-bridge/) which provided the architecture for the plugin
+ [**Paul Irish**](http://paul-irish.com) for [Infinite Scroll](http://infinite-scroll.com) (included with docs), the [imagesLoaded plugin](https://gist.github.com/268257) (included with Isotope), [Debounced resize() plugin](http://paulirish.com/demo/resize) (provided base for smartresize), and of course [Modernizr](http://www.modernizr.com/) 
+ The [*jQuery UI Team*](http://jqueryui.com/about) for the widget bridge used within Isotope
+ [**Juriy Zaytsev aka "kangax"**](http://perfectionkills.com) for [getStyleProperty](http://perfectionkills.com/feature-testing-css-properties/) which is used within Isotope