I'm trying to make my site fully responsive, but it doesn't display at all how I expect it to. I'm using media queries in css and the <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"/> tag, but it doesn't help much. Without the <meta> tag it does display correctly I suppose, but of course the pixels are quite small on modern smartphones.
While searching for this issue I found a page about mobile displays, which makes me understand it a little better. If I get it right, this page mentions that phones pass 'false' information about their resolution as to not show websites too small.
This doesn't make it that much easier, however. My Samsung Galaxy S5, for example, has a resolution 1080 × 1920 pixels, and loads the css that is within #media screen and (max-width:720px) {} in both portrait and landscape mode. For my site, it's good that it does that in portrait mode, but in landscape mode I really need it to display the regular css.
Long story short, how would I solve this? How do I know what 'false' resolutions phones pass and make sure that whatever I do works correctly for all mobile devices?
EDIT: the site does NOT respond at all to #media screen and (min-width:720px) and (max-width:1920px) in landscape mode.
Related
I've seen other questions, but no answer has helped me yet.
I have set a media query to:
#media only screen and (max-device-width: 767px) {
/* css here */
}
which I want to make the page on phones render the same in both landscape and portrait.
on my 2 available iphone 5's - a 5 and a 5c, portrait works great, landscape totally ignores it.
i've tried the specific landscape orientation tags, and that also fails.
i've also tried setting the max width to 1500px just in case of some retina thing - and that also fails in landscape.
i've run the css through lint - and that didn't find anything all that bad, even. so i think the css is ok (if not lint-perfect).
the site is locked for now till i hear back from my client - so posting a link won't help. But has anyone else seen this issue, and is there any fix out there? When i get back home tomorrow i can try an old Android phone and see what that does. But for now it's driving me crazy!
Do you have to use max-device-width? because if you change it to use max-width you will keep all the styles up to that size.
The difference between them two is max-device-width if you view the site on a browser and shrink it down it doesn't become responsive but if you use max-width it gives the site a responsive feel when shrinking the browser.
#media all and (max-width: 767px) {
css in here
}
I prefer using max-width.
The only case I can think of we should use max-device-width rather than max-width is when we need to keep something consistent even when browser window has been re-sized.
I am currently on an website which needs to be fully responsive in screen width and pixel density. My major problem is how do i get the responsiveness for HiDPI devices such as the galaxy s4.
I have read about the min-device-pixel-ratio but I do not fully get it and my attempts do not work. All my less/css is using rems as units, so basically I should be able to just manipulate the font-size ond the html tag, to get what I want, right? But maybe this is bullshit?
However, I wanted to ask for best practises and tips and tricks.
Whats important to me is, that I don't have multiple versions or subdomains for desktop and mobile devices. I want to do it all with media queries.
Thank you very much in advance. I really appreciate your help!
Cheers
Hidpi only means that 1 css pixel is rendered with 3x3 actual pixels (this varies for devices, iPhone pixel density is 2- so on iPhone 1 css pixel is made from 4 actual LCD pixels.). Websites on galaxy s4 are still rendered as 360x640px with pixel density 3, so you don't need any additional css for HiDPI devices.
you only need to add this meta tag in year head section
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no">
and apply css as for regular non HiDPI device.
To addition what pankijs wrote, notice, that different browsers (chrome, android native browser, firefox etc.) handle media queries in different way. For example if you use:
#media only screen and (max-width : 480px)
it would work on Desktop Chrome browser and on android smartphone browser, but not on Safari on iPhone. To make it work on Safari you have to use:
#media only screen and (max-device-width : 480px)
The conclusion is that you need test your media queries on physical devices :) For more information, check this page: http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-mediaqueries/
I have a question that I have searched for hours and can't find any solution to my issue.
I am trying to make it so when you resize the browser the mobile versions and break points don't show when on a desktop.
So when you're on a desktop you should be able to resize the browser to a point where you will have to scroll horizontally, rather than showing a mixture of desktop and mobile version. apple.com does it where when you resize the browser it only goes so small and you never see the mobile version. Which you shouldn't because you're on a desktop.
Here is the site:
http://www.avrs.com/
To recreate the issue you can resize your browser and at about 1000px it breaks and is ugly. You may also say that I am doing the display: none; wrong which you are welcome to inform me of how to fix.
Also I am familiar with the http://getbootstrap.com/css/#responsive-utilities. But they didn't seem to fix this issue either.
There are several techniques to achieve what you want. The easiest is to use CSS media-queries with specific properties.
Usually min-width or max-width are used for the CSS breakpoints to make your website mobile-friendly (Responsive Web Design). If you want to avoid this on desktop browsers you can use different properties with values specific to mobile devices:
min-device-pixel-ratio
min-device-width
orientation
This source will provide more relevant information: article on css-tricks.
Another question is: Why would you want to make your website unresponsive and not user-friendly like that? In year 2014 I (and pretty much most of the users) expect websites to adapt to the browser's window size.
Scenario: I really like browsing websites with my browser on one half of the screen and eg. chatting with someone or watching a movie on the other half.
Consider this point. I think it's better to improve your website so it works nice in all different resolutions because you can never assume anything about your users and their devices (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, desktops…). Nowadays I can easily get a smartphone with higher resolution than my desktop computer, or a laptop with a touch screen.
The devs at Apple are using max-device-width (plus other media query rules, like dpi, min/max width, etc.) to determine if the mobile version will be shown. Because desktops typically have a larger physical screen, the max-device-width rules will rarely be shown on desktops (but it isn't full proof, as shown below - You'd want to look at adaptive design for a separation between desktops and mobile devices...)
You can test this by setting your resolution to something much smaller. Here's an example on my Macbook Pro at 720px x 450px (via Display Menu) running Chrome.
I'm having an issue with how my site is being displayed on my ipad. I've tried to set the viewport to:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
Which can be seen at http://erichschubert.com/viewport.html.
But it always results in my site appearing zoomed in and even when zooming out, the whole site is not visible.
As of now I have it running with:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=1024">
Which can be seen at http://erichschubert.com.
It appears fine, however, when the ipad is turned to landscape it zooms in and leaves a huge black sidebar on the right side.
The header on the site has a fixed position and is also not displaying properly when zoomed in. Is the issue simply that it is fixed? I would love to able to display the whole site in both portrait and landscape and also be able to zoom in uniformly.
Thank you so much for any help in advance.
The initial-scale=1 is only practical if you use it alongside media queries, so it accurately scales the page to fit the custom styles for that media query.
Changing it to width=1024 only forces a fixed page width, which is no use in your case.
The smoothest way to have a page scale without zooming issues is to use media queries, to allow it to resize depending on the screen size.
Most devices will re-assess the screen width when they detect a change in orientation, while others will simply zoom in to fit the portrait layout to the landscape view.
If you want to be sure, you could use:
#media only screen and (orientation:portrait) {
/* portrait stuff here */
}
and for landscape:
#media only screen and (orientation:landscape) {
/* landscape stuff here */
}
I wouldn't recommend being so specific as to target individual devices, it's a never-ending workload. 'iPad' used to mean 768px x 1024px, but now covers 2048px x 1536px too. There will always be new devices, but they will all be targetable via simple media queries.
I'm having a problem with my media queries where I want to target phones, tablets or computers. the problem is that today some phones and tablets have a high screen resolution.
I can´t seem to find a proper combination to achieve this. Could you help me and post the queries that you guys use for your websites? I've been working on these for days, to no avail.
Should I use some JavaScript library for this?
UPDATE:
I found a very good jquery library that seems to be very reliable with today's devices. And even though it is not being developed anymore, I found that it successfully detected all the devices tested, regular phones and tablets, high ppi phones and tablets, and desktop or laptop computers.
Try it out, and see if it works for you too
Categorizr
There is no way to make everyone happy. For our upcoming responsive website we used a few breakpoints
768px
1024px
1280px
1920px - is our biggest, we cut off at this point
We have our server output classes on the body to detect classes (can be done with modernizr I think, never used it), for example, .iphone, android, .mobile, .phone, .tablet
So if you are using an iphone we would get
.iphone and .phone on the body tag
For some pages we also defined breakpoints at 320px and 480px
We use jquery for everything, just a warning, jquery runs fairly slow on Samsung tablets, man do we hate that device
Example of media query (we use LESS)
// normal styles
#media only screen and (max-width: #maxTabletWidth) {
// less than 1024px styles, yes I know 1280px is also tablet
}
#media only screen and (max-width: #maxPhoneWidth) {
// less than 768px styles
}
Good luck
Having built quite a few responsive websites, I find that instead of specifying 'x' width for a desktop monitor, 'y' width for a tablet, and 'z' width for a mobile; it's better to use breakpoints to ensure your site works across all browser sizes.
That said, a good site to look at if you're interested in various screen sizes is screensiz.es, where you can see popularity stats as well as their physical pixel widths.
Being device agnostic means that you won't have to readapt designs, and builds when Apple, or Samsung release their super thin, or super chunky devices.
A final suggestion to aid the functionality on the variety of devices would be to employ something like Modernizr to detect touch events.
Hope that helps.
I wonder if you are using the right tool for the job. Responsive design lets you stop trying to target specific devices or guess what the specifics of the next iPad / smartphone will be.
Set the break points to manage the layout of your design at different viewports and you are 90% done ;)