There was a question related to this one a long time ago, but which was never responded to or resolved.
I am developing a web site that has distinct screen layouts, which depend upon the width of the viewport/window.
#media (min-width: 1120px) { }
/* behaviour as expected */
#media (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119px) { }
/* inconsistent behaviour in Firefox and Edge, mixing elements of above and below */
#media (max-width: 719px) { }
In my browser of preference, Chrome, the layouts transition perfectly from the largest screen width to the smallest. The same is true of Opera. However, both Firefox and Edge demonstrate a strange behaviour whereby a single transitional width (of one pixel) causes the browser not to know how to interpret the content.
For example, as the window transitions to the narrowest media width, the title bar becomes narrower, no longer being required to accommodate the main menu, and the menu is hidden (display: none;) and replaced by a small menu icon at the side, which leads to a drop down on hover. But in Firefox and Edge, the main menu is not hidden, but instead crammed beside the logo until the window is collapsed one pixel further, after which the behaviour is as expected. These CSS changes are all under the same #media declaration!
Interestingly, the behaviour is not consistent. That is, the transition from the largest to the middle width is flawless, but the transition from the middle to the smallest is problematic.
Assuming that it was an issue with fractional size calculations, I added high precision to my #media query like this:
#media (max-width: 719.999px)
And again, the behaviour was inconsistent. If I adjusted the lower value up (i.e. 719px to 719.999px) there was no change. However, if I instead adjusted the higher value down (i.e. 720px to 719.001px) the problem was partially solved. Certain elements displayed expected behaviour, but again, other anomalies persisted. Similarly, the higher precision worked on Firefox but not Edge.
It seems probable, given the behaviour that I am seeing, that certain boundaries might cause problems, whilst others would not.
Is this just a known bug that web site developers have learnt to accept, or might there be an easy solution (other than simply selecting a different set of boundaries)?
It's difficult to give a specific answer without seeing what you are seeing, but it's possible that the browsers are handling the transition from one media query to the next in different ways discussed below.
Most Likely Cause: Windows Display Settings
I assume you are using Windows when you mention Edge, I suspect this might be because you have changed the scale of your display in Windows - Display Settings. If this is set to 125% for example, this can have an affect on all aspects of your display.
So really this isn't a bug with the media queries, so much as a discrepancy caused by the browsers not effectively handling the scaling by Windows Display settings.
UPDATE - Now that you have confirmed that you can stop on a particular point where this happens, then I'm pretty confident this is the cause. In my testing yesterday when looking into this, I was able to reproduce that behaviour when the display was scaled.
Using the following test case with original styling of an empty block with a red border, and different CSS applied at (max-width: 1119px) and (min-width: 1120px), the issue happens only when the display is scaled.
body{ margin:50px 0 0 0;}
.test {
border: 10px solid #f00;
height: 10px;
}
#media (min-width: 1120px) {
.test {
background: #ff0;
height: 500px
}
}
#media (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119px) {
.test {
margin-left: 300px;
background: #0FF;
height: 200px
}
}
#media (min-width: 460px) and (max-width: 719px) {
.test {
margin-left: 300px;
background: #00f;
height: 200px
}
}
#media (max-width: 460px) {
.test {
background: #ff0;
height: 100px
}
}
<div class="test"></div>
Firefox, using Dev Console ruler to show window size:
Display Scale: 100% (i.e. no scaling) at 1119px width - CSS works as expected*
#media (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119px) {
.test { margin-left: 300px; background: #0FF; height: 200px }
}
Display Scale 125% at 1119px width - no CSS media query applied, so CSS reverts to original
.test { border: 10px solid #f00; height: 10px; }
Possible Reason for the "glitch"
If the above is the case (or even if it isn't), I suspect your next question is why is it happening. Only the developers can answer that, but thinking logically we can come up with the reasoning below.
What are media queries meant to do?
First, we need to look at the purpose of media queries. According to the W3C CSS3 Media Queries recommendation:
The ‘width’ media feature describes the width of the targeted display area of the output device.
From this, we can assume they were intended for selecting the CSS to use depending on the media query that matches the screen/window size. Screen size can't have fractional pixels (e.g. 719.5px) and points between the whole pixels can only "exist" while the screen is being resized, and media queries are not intended to cover such temporary transitions.
OK, that's the why it isn't necessarily a "bug" and why it isn't always handled well in browsers, now...
What is causing this issue to happen during transitions?
If you have changed the scale, the browser has to recalculate the all the sizes to scale them up/down also. This "glitch" in the transition is most likely being caused by these calculations resulting in fractions of pixels. (If you haven't changed the scale, the same logic actually still applies)
It appears the browsers such as Chrome have been build to handle the recalculations/ size change in whole pixels, so the display will jump from the CSS applied by (e.g.) max-width:719px media query to the CSS for min-width:720px.
However other browsers such as Firefox don't seem to work like this and try to calculate the display based on the fractional pixels. This means there can be instances where the recalculated/changing size fall between e.g. max-width:719px nor min-width:720px.
In this case it seems to change the display to whatever CSS applies at that point - if there is another media query overlapping those sizes that would be applied, but more likely the original CSS is getting applied. So what you are seeing in that transition you describe is your CSS that exists outside of the media queries, e.g. if your CSS is written for mobile-first then you are seeing the CSS for mobile version of the site.
What can we do to "fix" it?
Aside from changing back the scale to 100% (which isn't a feasible option because you can't ask all your visitors to do that!) I don't know if there is a reliable solution.
One option is to use decimal values in your media queries like you mentioned, e.g.
#media (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119.999px) { /* CSS....*/ }
#media (max-width: 719.999px) { /* CSS....*/ }
Another is to try is to make sure that you have suitable styling in your original CSS that will be applied at the "in-between" points, e.g. 719px - 720px.
Firefox and Edge appear to calculate and store their view port widths as floating point numbers, and media queries are applied to those values rather than the whole-pixel widths that they represent. There is consequently a difference in the way in which the parameters of our media queries are interpreted.
So whilst Chrome and Opera transition between 720 pixels and 719 pixels seamlessly, the same transition on Firefox or Edge can result in the browsers' simply skipping over the query and applying whatever default styling is otherwise relevant.
My original solution was to apply a browser-specific #media query to account for values between the whole pixels.
#-moz-document url-prefix() /* Firefox */
{
#media only screen and (min-width: 719.000001px) and (max-width: 719.999999px)
{
However, the real problem was the way in which I was specifying the parameters of the media queries. Unlike in programming languages, in which we can (and should) define mathematical parameters with equality and inequality (e.g. -1 ≤ x ≤ 1), CSS employs a hierarchy. For example, if #media (max-width: 600px) is followed by #media (max-width: 400px), whilst the two are not logically exclusive, the latter query will take precedence over the former.
So my solution was to change the way in which the #media queries were structured, such that there were max-width declarations only. If we try to define upper and lower limits of each interval, we run into the aforementioned problems with the way that the distinct browsers interpret the limits.
You could avoid any requirement to set up specific decimals by having no gaps between your queries at all.
For example:
(min-width 1px) // Instead of (max-width: 719px)
(min-width 720px) // Instead of (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119px)
(min-width 1120px ) // Instead of (min-width: 1120px)
Currently, you have a middle band with one 'max-width' band and one 'min-width' band either side of it.
The above alternative solution just uses 1 direction (min-width), so there are no gaps to contend with.
Or:
That solution assumes you don't want to develop your whole front-end style for sub-720px and then media-query every larger size.
If you did want to do that, you could always just use the following: (sure Google search SEO may love you, but you may hate it!)
(min-width 720px) // Instead of (min-width: 720px) and (max-width: 1119px)
(min-width 1120px ) // Instead of (min-width: 1120px)
You would then need to incorporate your code that you wanted to put in your max-width: 719px media query into your base ("non- media query") code.
Which one?
I'd use the first solution.
Based on the OP, that one would be more applicable in that situation too.
Actually, I wouldn't use the first solution. I'd code for, say, >1230px, and then use media queries that use max-width for the responsive steps below that.
Related
im trying to style the page based on different phone sizes. I know that I can use media queries, but what if the width of the phone is the same, but height is different. For instance, both Iphone X and 6,7,8 has the same width, but different length
Pretty much what Carl said in his comment.
The following is a valid example:
#media only screen and (max-height: 600px) {
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
}
To do that you should use media queries (as already mentioned).
Not only can you change stylistics according to screen max-width and max-height, but also to orientation: portrait and even aspect-ratio:.
Apart from that I think you could make css rules around the concept of relative units.
You can make whole content scalable
- not just
div { width: 20vw; }
but also
p { font-size: 5vmin; }
That way you won't need to worry about weird aspect ratios or different resolutions.
I have a media query:
#media only screen and (max-width : 729px) {
.playertracklist{
display:none;
}
}
but when i resize my window the css media query gets applied when the width reaches 657px. Im using Chrome and the scale of the window is correct meaning im not zoomed in or out.
If you want it to hide at 729px exactly you could try using width instead of max-width.
If you want it to hide from 729px and above(which would guess you'd want) it might be better to tell the CSS to start hiding above 729px, and not below, as you are doing now.
If you change
#media only screen and (max-width : 729px) {
to
#media only screen and (min-width : 729px) {
it should work.
As Marcel W, said you could leave the only part away. It makes small difference for newer browser, but it makes a big difference in older browsers.
The only part gets ignored by older user agents as they don't reconize the property, thus letting you hide that part of the stylesheet from them. A newer user agent just ignores it and continues with the rest of the media query. Meaning that it is up to you to decide if you will or won't use it. If you want more info over only check this link
I saw this page http://demo.smartaddons.com/templates/joomla3/sj-joomla3/ and was wondering how to do the same footer, when you decrease the size of the screen, the elements remain on top of one another.
I looked at the source, but did not understand me.
I do not want to use Joomla, I do pure CSS and HTML.
tks
The footer you are talking about mixes several css properties. But the most imporant to get the "responsive effect" are floats and media queries
You will find inforamtion about media queries here and float here
This is called a responsive page.
Using CSS3, you can set limits to the page width. And if the page reaches this limit, the style changes to accommodate the new size. In the example that you showed, there is a limit right where the screen reaches 1200px in widht and another one when it's in 979px and below.
you can set this by declaring this in your CSS:
#media (min-width: 1200px) {
/* Your code here */
}
#media (min-width: 979px) {
/* Your code here */
}
I am developing a page using CSS3 media queries using the mobile first approach, meaning I start small and work my way up.
But now I am encountering a problem: How to deal with 'style bleeding' for visibility classes?
Let me explain what I mean – when my first media query looks like this:
#media only screen and (min-width: 20em) {
// Styles here
}
These styles don't get applied to screens smaller than 20em. This actually is no problem because the styles that are not wrapped up in a media query are basically the first media query (I hope you get what I mean).
But now I want to introduce visibility classes to hide elements for certain screen sizes. The problem is, that these styles basically get inherited. See:
#media only screen and (min-width: 20em) {
.hidden-first {
display: none;
}
}
Any element with the class hidden-first gets hidden as soon as the screen is 20em wide or wider. But I only want to hide the element as long as the media query is active.
How do I do that – is there a way around resetting the style inside another media query?
I suggest you create a class like hide-for-mediumand create rule for it display:none !important;
Take a look at the Foundation framework and see how the do it. I guess it's the best way to deal with this situation.
I have a webpage with the following layout: http://jsfiddle.net/h9Nn3/6/ and it looks exactly like I want it to as long as the user's browser is wide enough (over 700px or so) but if it is thinner than that it starts to get all jumbled up and if the browser is only half the screen which somewhat normal then it looks terrible. What would the best way to fix this be?
I think the best thing would be if the items simply moved down as opposed to overlapping.
You can use min-width, as #anjunatl pointed out, or you can use CSS3 media queries.
They let you tweak the CSS for any resolution range you want:
body {
color: red;
}
#media screen and (max-width: 700px) {
body {
color: blue;
}
}
When the user's browser is less than 700px wide, the new CSS is put into effect and overrides the old CSS. You can use this to your advantage and basically fix any bugs you find with the website by adding new rules into the media query block. That way, they only show up and fix the layout at the right resolution.
Add this CSS to the body tag: min-width: 700px;