So I always seem to do two identical media queries for smartphones, one being the min- or max-width, and the other being the min- or max-DEVICE-width (to target the iPhone and stuff)...
#media only screen
and (min-device-width : 320px)
and (max-device-width : 480px){
// Some awesome phone-specific CSS
}
#media only screen
and (min-width : 320px)
and (max-width : 480px){
// THE SAME awesome phone-specific CSS as above
}
Now I can't help but feel as though this is not the most efficient way to do things... Especially if I'm moving a lot of stuff around/restyling my site/application to be phone specific. Also especially when I have to do two more for the tablet sizes.
Now do I really need both? Does it matter and what exactly is the difference?
The difference between width and device-width can be a bit unclear. I'll try to explain.
device-width refers to the width of the device itself, in other words, the screen resolution of the device. Lets say your screen's resolution is 1280x800. This means the screen is 1280 pixels across, so it has a device-width of 1280 pixels.
In contrast, width refers to the width of your browser's viewport size.
In most cases width is more versatile when it comes to creating responsive webpages (and it is the method I would recommend you'd use), though device-width could be useful when you wish to specifically target mobile devices (and not desktops with a very small browser window).
DEVICE width will target only DEVICES and not desktops, u wouldnt hv any desktop/laptop of width 320x480, so u can use DEVICE width.
You could probably just use max-width: 767px this way you would target everything below an iPad.
I would also just specify dynamic widths so you don't have to differentiate between single devices.
Related
Will standard media queries such as:
#media only screen and (min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 820px) {}
work on a device that is retina display?
I have read many articles on this, but most are about specifying the retina display css rather than how standard media queries developed for 96 dpi (the original size) will look on devices that have 300 dpi (retina display).
The main assurance I am looking for is: besides not taking full advantage of the quality being offered by the device, will the layout look the same if it was a 96dpi screen or 300dpi for example?
Much obliged for any help!
CSS pixel is not hardware pixel. This ARTICLE explains the difference.
#media only screen and (min-device-width: 768px) and (max-device-width: 1024px)
Absent references to pixel density, it will target CSS styles to any iPad, with or without a Retina display, because it’s referring to CSS pixels, and in those terms the two are the same.
I need to do a respponsive website project and Im with some doubts.
Im studying media queries but there are a lot of media queries, there are something like "default media queries" or "common media queries" that we can follow?
After some research Im thinking something about this:
#media only screen and (min-width: 480px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 600px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 768px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 992px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 1382px) { ... }
Do you think that are a good approach using this media queries?
And do for responsiv design do you think its better use percentages in css or its better using pixels? Im asking this, because the media queries use pixels, so maybe its better dont use percentages?
And for last, I have a computer with full hd resolution and other with 1024 resolution. I have a image that have 300 pixels, in my full hd monitor the image is more smaller than my 1024 computer. I dont understand this, because 300pixels should be 300 pixels always no?
Sorry if I ask many things, but Im with some doubts and its not easy find good and reliable information about this!
I thnk using the media query settings you note will complicate your life because they will make it difficult to target different viewports or window widths.
#media only screen and (min-width: 480px) { ... } will target all widths 480px and above,
#media only screen and (min-width: 600px) { ... } will target all widths 600px and above.
So they will both be fighting for control whenever the viewport is 600px or higher. You could consider something like the following:
/* your default, site-wide settings followed by */
#media only screen and (max-width: 480px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 600px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 601px) and (max-width: 768px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) { ... }
#media only screen and (min-width: 993px) { ... }
I'm not saying that these are perfect break points, that's often specific to your design. The important bit is the technique you use to target the different viewports.
There are different schools of thought for pixels vs percentages, and both have advantages. If you are getting up-to-speed with responsive design, personally I think it's worth spending time with some of the well established frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation or Skeleton or one of the many others.
They are all fantastic, they will save you heaps of learning time, give you good cross-browser results, and the more you know, the easier it will be to break away from them when needed.
Good luck!
What's pixel density and how it can help me to understand why the same image can be smaller on my mobile phone than it is on my computer monitor (and vice-versa)?
Let's say that I have a monitor with a 500 x 500 pixels resolution, the screen size of this monitor is 15" diagonally and I have a mobile phone that has the same resolution but it's screen size is 4" diagonally (just an example).
How is it possible to fit the same number of pixels in different screen sizes?
The answer is simple: The pixel is smaller on my phone than it is on my monitor (that's the big difference between Apple's retina display and other displays).
Media Queries...
Take a look in a very simple blog that I've developed last year. Try resizing your browser width to see what happens to the content, images and slideshow.
When the browser/screen width is smaller than 800 pixels, the entire site changes to adapt itself better to smaller screens. This is how I think you should use media queries, instead of creating rules for each device screen size (but not necessarily using 800px nor limiting the content max-width when it's on a big screen).
Note that this is just an example on how you should think about media queries.
here is some reference for you:
about media queries you can read http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/7-habits-of-highly-effective-media-queries/ - i love this quote
Start with the small screen first, then expand until it looks like
shit. Time for a breakpoint! -Stephen Hay
basically you should use a fluid layout (you can choose from a variety of css fluid grids you find online) and test your design enlarging and shrinking your browser: when your design "cracks", it's time to add a mediaquery. you don't have readapt the whole website at a certain breakpoint: everything may work ok and you need only to resize the text at that certain width. do so.
about pixel density and resolutionyou can read this useful article: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/04/a_pixel_is_not.html
hope this helps
You should probably stop thinking about the web in pixels and screen sizes.
I can see why it's tempting to use actual device widths as breakpoints for a design, but do keep in mind that those breakpoints will be invalid the very second a new device is released. Or when the user interacts with the site in an unexpected way, such as resizing the text size to their preference.
Use the em unit for your breakpoints. This way, your media queries will trigger correctly even when a user resizes the text size.
Adjust your breakpoints to when your content/layout needs it, not for for specific screen sizes (that said, you should probably not include compact (mobile) navigation above 980-ish pixels, since people with old monitors probably won't understand how to navigate through it).
Write mobile first CSS, as in use min-width for your media queries. This helps you keep your CSS DRY. However that does not mean that you never should use max-width for media queries - there are always scenarios when you want to add styles to smaller screens only. Always avoid repetition.
For your own sanity, use a CSS preprocessor such as SASS, LESS or Stylus. I recently wrote an answer on how to use SASS to get a really comfortable workflow with media queries, click here here to read it.
Pixel density is a complicated topic, but rendered pixels (such as an image, or anything with CSS) aren't the same as actual pixels on a screen - they're normalized to a standard. For that reason, you shouldn't use pixel density to increase the quality of images, you should just increase the width of the image since those additional pixels then will be crammed into place on higher resolution screens.
Pleas Try Following media queries:-
/* Large desktop */
#media (min-width: 1200px) { ... }
/* Portrait tablet to landscape and desktop */
#media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 979px) { ... }
/* Landscape phone to portrait tablet */
#media (max-width: 767px) { ... }
/* Landscape phones and down */
#media (max-width: 480px) { ... }
I have a set of rules I'd like to apply to all screens smaller than 960px wide.
The obvious was:
#media only screen and (max-width : 959px)
However this fails with iPad in portrait mode. I've read that iPad reports its width and height the same regardless of orientation.
Is there a standard way of making sure the iPad (or other devices that use the same logic as the iPad) respect actual width being viewed?
Obviously I'd prefer to avoid "iPad-specific" rules, or orientation queries - the query should apply to any screen less than 960 pixels wide.
Thanks.
Try using #media only screen and (max-device-width : 1024px) instead. That should cover an iPad in landscape or portrait.
I've read that iPad reports its width and height the same regardless of orientation.
This is tricky. The iPad reports the same max-device-width regardless of orientation. However, it correctly respects different max-width at different orientations/widths. The device is the part that doesn't change.
Hope this helps.
I wrote some CSS code to make an HTML page fit better in mobile browsers. To be sure that my CSS apply only on mobiles, I use to following media query :
#media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)
As an iPhone developer, I tested on this device and it works really well. But I want my CSS to be use on all kind of devices (Android, Windows Phone, etc).
What would be a good resolution that would fit most of smartphone of these days? Or do I need a more complex media query?
Recently I started to work with Responsive Web Design and Media Queries, I didn't find a unique "magic" query, but after reading a lot of articles and a couple of books, I've adopted the Mobile First way to develop web pages, and I'm using some common Media Queries, here the breakpoints:
320 px Mobile portrait
480 px Mobile landscape
600 px Small tablet
768 px Tablet portrait
1024 px Tablet landscape/Netbook
1280 px & greater — Desktop
(Taken from http://fluidbaselinegrid.com/)
Hope it helps
Updated: Mars 2016
Projects are all different, so it's hard to set a global rule that will fit them all. If you're looking for one, here's an example that someone smarter than me came up with and that I've used before:
xsmall: (max-width: 479px),
small: (max-width: 599px),
medium: (max-width: 767px),
large: (max-width: 1024px),
largeOnly: (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px),
xxl: (min-width: 1200px),
tall: (min-height: 780px),
Note the lack of references to devices, screen sizes or orientation on their names. The size of a 'tablet portrait' shouldn't really matter to us as we should try to make things responsive and look good on any screen size, not simply adaptive to a few screen sizes.
Yes, it's important to know the most common screen sizes and avoid crazy media queries, but in the end, your design may start to beg for adjustments at 530px instead of 480px or something like that. So why not?
Now, on my personal preferences: I keep media queries in mind all the time, but at first I tend to ignore device sizes almost completely. I also prefer the desktop-first approach cause I find it easier to adjust layouts to smaller sizes (ie.: removing not so important things from the page, reducing sizes, etc.).
Original Answer
Some people tend to ignore device sizes completely. They say you should check where your layout starts to break and create media queries only when necessary. Others will check for different device sizes, as you're doing now. But then you'll have a media query for 320px, another for 480px, and so on... You may go crazy with that, and maybe it's not even necessary depending on your layout!
So, for now I'm trying to do both. I tend to ignore device sizes at first and will create some media queries only when necessary (when layout breaks), until it looks good for sizes like 960px and bigger, and also for smaller screen sizes, like 320px (the smallest device size I care about).
I've built a nice template that has four different layouts using #media queries:
850+px width
<850px width
iphone landscape
iphone portrait
It works awesome, until you size your monitor window down to below 480px (iphone landscape) and then it starts picking up the smaller size #media queries.
Is there any way to avoid this?
I personally feel like it's desirable to display the "iPhone" layout at smaller browser window sizes, as your content has likely been optimized for that layout, HOWEVER, if you really want to prevent this you can play around with the device-width property in your #media declaration. Something like #media only screen and (max-device-width: 720px) { ... } will target device width rather than viewport width. Compare the behavior of this (viewport width) vs this (device width). Play around with the values (change min to max, change the pixel sizes, etc.) and observe the behavior. Also, don't forget that you can combine #media rules, e.g. #media (min-width: 400px) and (max-width: 600px) { ... }. See what works for you.
The problem with this method is that mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes, so you might be serving undesirable styles on a different mobile device (let's just say an Android phone...) that you hadn't planned on. However, depending on your needs, this might not matter to you.
Here is a list of example media queries and sizes to guide you, if you do decide to go this route: http://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/media-queries-for-standard-devices/ (sorry for the lack of a working link; apparently I'm not cool enough on StackOverflow to post multiple links yet)...