I am trying to develop a mobile version of my web application and I am having trouble getting it to look good on multiple browsers. I figure if I use some device capability detection I can dynamically generate widths and font-sizes based on a particular devices screen size. The problem is that it seems like a mobile browser doesn't treat 1px of CSS width equal to 1px of screen width. On an iPhone with a screen width of 320px, a body tag that is 320px wide takes up only about a 1/4th of the page. With no real frame of reference, it makes it hard for me to say "On a screen of 320px wide, make the font 16px" or something along those lines. Is there some general rule of thumb I can use to calculate the real browser width in CSS, or some calculation using multiple device capabilities that will help me generate dynamic CSS more effectively?
Thanks,
Mike
Try defining sizes and font weights in relative units. I would give % and em a go. Many mobile browsers try to scale everything down so that they render normal websites nicely. You may find you need specialy meta tags or the like to controll these browsers.
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Client want the subject.
I have psd for a different screen sizes (mobile, tablet and desktop), but I not allowed simply use media queries, because in between those sizes content should be the same as in the psd.
I tried using script that would change root font-size, based on window.innerWidth and innerHeight, so I could just use em to scale everything, but had consistent results on all browsers and platforms.
So what is a best way to do responsive pixel perfect markup?
I am constructing a responsive website, and have designed it to look correct for desktop view.
I am currently tweaking it now for responsive breakpoints/media queries.
Here's the problem that I would like guidance on:
From my understanding, I've seen people only use width for their break points. In which case I did the same thing and make it look good on all the width break points.
However, I happened to be testing using the google chrome developer tool and started selecting specific devices (iphone 5, iphone 6, iphone 6 plus, ipad, etc.)
And noticed something alarming, which was that the elements was getting pushed off the screen vertically at the top and bottom because each of these devices not only have different widths, but HEIGHTS as well.
So the perfectionist in my is thinking about setting a media query for both height and width for every major device, but I realize that this work, although can be done, might not be the most efficient, and I have not seen other tutorials do this.
My specific question is: if there is a more efficient way to developing a responsive site without having elements go off the screen vertically.
Added information: I have a div that contains an img, then a h1 below it, then a bootstrap row with col-sm-6
The img width is in px (I experimented with vh/vw and %, but that seemed to make it more difficult to control when it scaled)
You can not set media query for device height, You can set height only,
And do not depend only in google chrome developer tool because sometimes it will not response in proper way, so you have to test in actual device for batter view.
Normally when I am creating a responsive site, I do the normal thing of setting a viewport to the device width, and creating different layouts for different screen resolutions.
But I'm doing a few tweaks to an old site that has big chunky buttons, default font sizes and a simple layout, and actually it looks quite usable when viewed as a desktop-style fixed-width layout, even on small mobile devices.
Rather than specifying a viewport and completely rewriting all the css to make a series of mobile-friendly versions, I'd really like to just increase the main body element font size a little more for viewing on a screen that is physically small: for this particular layout, this would be very usable - if I could work out how to do it!
Is this what -webkit-text-size-adjust: is for? It seems like it should be an easy thing to tweak, but all my googling turns up full responsive design approaches, which are overkill for this particular small task.
A way to make it is to detect the screen width with javascript using the window.screen.width property, and then apply the styles that you want from there.
Here's an example using jquery, however the same can be achieved with native javascript if you don't want to use a library http://jsfiddle.net/UXV7Z/
You can apply as many filters in resolution as you need, just like you would using media queries
DONT use javascript for such a simple task to accomplish with modern CSS, just use:
font-size: calc(80px - 3vw);
and adjust the values accordingly. That will icrease the size on smaller devices and decrease it on wider devices, which makes sense for buttons and footers and what not, but if you want to decrease the size on smaller width screens for text like large titles that overflow just use:
font-size: calc(25px + 0.35vw);
Once again adjust the values to fit your needs. And see here to view the browser support for the CSS calc() function. All modern updated browsers support it
I'm redesigning my site because looks awful on different resolutions (apart devices), most guides and tutorials rely on % and em than fixed values. I'm still learning this so I'm reading everything around.
Thought this would solve the question with different display sizes but again: we have to craft some more CSS for fix some specific issues.
If I need to add media-queries for extra display sizes, why use % then? Do use % really reduce coding? Is ok need to add some extra css for some sizes or am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for any advice!
The purpose of using em sizes is to allow the base your design off of the user's choice of font size. I may use a larger font size because I have a huge monitor and poor eye sight, while someone else might prefer a smaller font. By using em units, your design will accommodate both of our font preferences and resize accordingly instead of forcing the font size to a given standard (eg. "12 point font").
In a similar manner, percent (%) units allow your design to respond to different browser sizes. Used in conjunction with em units, this will allow text-based elements to respond to arbitrary font size choices, and layout elements to respond to arbitrary browser sizes.
It is perfectly acceptable to design a single responsive design for all media types. Media queries are intended when you want different display styles on different devices, not to "support" different display sizes. An example would be to use serif fonts on print media and sans-serif fonts on display media, since usabilities studies have shown that these font faces are preferred for these sorts of media.
Furthermore, it allows you to do custom styling for some situations like mobile devices, where you may want to consider that the user has a limited amount of bandwidth and maybe cut down on extra images. Or if you want to display your content in a completely different layout for the microscopic screen afforded by certain phones.
% allows your site to be responsive to the user's method of viewing. Let's say you have a div that's at 100%. It'll fill the entire section, regardless if it's on a phone or desktop.
It should be okay to add extra CSS for sizes as well. As far as I know, you can have some elements display in % and some with a fixed px value, although they might conflict depending on how the page is setup or what it is being viewed with.
For example.
Your website header have the width of 950px; But in a mobile device, it may fit at 450px;
So, you use media-query to reposition some elements and handle some size issues and set the header width to 450px;
But, if you use % values, you can set your header div to have 100% of width base in its parent. So you can only change the body or some container div width, the all childs going to adapt.
Diana,
I am glad I came across this question. I literally just uploaded my first responsive design which is 90% based off of percentages when it comes to font-size and widths.
Check out the below:
http://www.noxinnovations.com/portfolio/responsive/
Obviously, it doesn't look amazing, and the image looks way out of place... But do me a favor and resize your browser window, by slowly making it smaller and smaller. I did that by setting a percentage width!
Trust me, I tried doing this responsive design test with pixels, and it didn't turn out too well. The percentage width ensures that regardless of the resolution and or pixel dimensions (per se) the design will always cater to the size of the screen. Also, I did not have to use one CSS3 Media Query, but I would highly suggest using CSS3 Media Queries only when you need them.
In my opinion, I should probably have a Media Query for a larger screen.
I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me!
Thank you,
Aaron
px? em? pt? seems like with varying device sizes and densities it's getting to be time to use something absolute like pts. Can anyone point me to a good, recent write-up of what to use when?
(I'm specifically targeting webkit-based mobile devices as my primary platform, though the site needs to work on large monitors, as well. I'm fine ignoring IE and older browsers for the most part.)
Check out this and that from Luke Wroblewski. Googling his name will find more.
As you say with high density phones you should avoid px but also pt that originally was for printing. As you setup your site to comply with most browsers, mobile or not, set your body font-size using percentage (historically better support I say without source) and then use em through your document. This allow your users to set their preferred font-size in their (mobile phones) browser settings and let you keep your relations between your different font-sizes.
As a web developer, I stick to pixels because this is already a standard for all digital display devices. Most mobile phones now come in screens based on pixels, and phones are able to resize to fit your content.
You simply have to make sure that you minimize the amount of content on each page for fast loading and rendering.
I think that you are best designing multiple CSS style sheets for browser window sizes,
Aside from that the best method in my mind is percentages - that way the content is always relative to the screen it is being viewed on. And then use em for font-sizes which is similar in the way it works to the way percentage works for layout sizes.