I would like to use media queries to resize elements based on the size of a div element they are in. I cannot use the screen size as the div is just used like a widget within the webpage, and its size can vary.
Yes, CSS Container Queries are what you're looking for. The CSS Containment Module is the specification that details this feature.
You can read more about the decade of work, including proposals, proofs-of-concept, discussions and other contributions by the broader web developer community here! For more details on how such a feature might work and be used, check out Miriam Suzanne's extensive explainer.
Currently only Chromium 105+ supports Container queries out of the box, though Safari 16 will include support as well. Hopefully it won't be much longer before we see a robust cross-browser implementation of such a system. It's been a grueling wait, but I'm glad that it's no longer something we simply have to accept as an insurmountable limitation of CSS due to cyclic dependencies or infinite loops or what have you (these are still a potential issue in some aspects of the proposed design, but I have faith that the CSSWG will find a way).
Media queries aren't designed to work based on elements in a page. They are designed to work based on devices or media types (hence why they are called media queries). width, height, and other dimension-based media features all refer to the dimensions of either the viewport or the device's screen in screen-based media. They cannot be used to refer to a certain element on a page.
If you need to apply styles depending on the size of a certain div element on your page, you'll have to use JavaScript to observe changes in the size of that div element instead of media queries.
Alternatively, with more modern layout techniques introduced since the original publication of this answer such as flexbox and standards such as custom properties, you may not need media or element queries after all. Djave provides an example.
I've just created a javascript shim to achieve this goal. Take a look if you want, it's a proof-of-concept, but take care: it's a early version and still needs some work.
https://github.com/marcj/css-element-queries
From a layout perspective, it is possible using modern techniques.
Its made up (I believe) by Heydon Pickering. He details the process here: http://www.heydonworks.com/article/the-flexbox-holy-albatross
Chris Coyier picks it up and works through a demo of it here: https://css-tricks.com/putting-the-flexbox-albatross-to-real-use/
To restate the issue, below we see 3 of the same component, each made up of three orange divs labelled a, b and c.
The second two's blocks display vertically, because they are limited on horizontal room, while the top components 3 blocks are laid out horizontally.
It uses the flex-basis CSS property and CSS Variables to create this effect.
.panel{
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
border: 1px solid #f00;
$breakpoint: 600px;
--multiplier: calc( #{$breakpoint} - 100%);
.element{
min-width: 33%;
max-width: 100%;
flex-grow: 1;
flex-basis: calc( var(--multiplier) * 999 );
}
}
Demo
Heydon's article is 1000 words explaining it in detail, and I'd highly recommend reading it.
Update 2021/22
As mentioned in other answers, container queries are coming. There is a full spec for it, and its usage is detailed on MDN:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Container_Queries
and there is a polyfill to get browsers that don't yet support it up to speed:
https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/container-query-polyfill
There is a nice little overview video of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNMyYr7F6w
This has now shipped to Chrome (05 September 2022)
https://caniuse.com/css-container-queries
A Media Query inside of an iframe can function as an element query. I've successfully implement this. The idea came from a recent post about Responsive Ads by Zurb. No Javascript!
This is currently not possible with CSS alone as #BoltClock wrote in the accepted answer, but you can work around that by using JavaScript.
I created a container query (aka element query) polyfill to solve this kind of issue. It works a bit different than other scripts, so you don’t have to edit the HTML code of your elements. All you have to do is include the script and use it in your CSS like so:
.element:container(width > 99px) {
/* If its container is at least 100px wide */
}
https://github.com/ausi/cq-prolyfill
I ran into the same problem a couple of years ago and funded the development of a plugin to help me in my work. I've released the plugin as open-source so others can benefit from it as well, and you can grab it on Github: https://github.com/eqcss/eqcss
There are a few ways we could apply different responsive styles based on what we can know about an element on the page. Here are a few element queries that the EQCSS plugin will let you write in CSS:
#element 'div' and (condition) {
$this {
/* Do something to the 'div' that meets the condition */
}
.other {
/* Also apply this CSS to .other when 'div' meets this condition */
}
}
So what conditions are supported for responsive styles with EQCSS?
Weight Queries
min-width in px
min-width in %
max-width in px
max-width in %
Height Queries
min-height in px
min-height in %
max-height in px
max-height in %
Count Queries
min-characters
max-characters
min-lines
max-lines
min-children
max-children
Special Selectors
Inside EQCSS element queries you can also use three special selectors that allow you to more specifically apply your styles:
$this (the element(s) matching the query)
$parent (the parent element(s) of the element(s) matching the query)
$root (the root element of the document, <html>)
Element queries allow you to compose your layout out of individually responsive design modules, each with a bit of 'self-awareness' of how they are being displayed on the page.
With EQCSS you can design one widget to look good from 150px wide all the way up to 1000px wide, then you can confidently drop that widget into any sidebar in any page using any template (on any site) and
The question is very vague. As BoltClock says, media queries only know the dimensions of the device. However, you can use media queries in combination with descender selectors to perform adjustments.
.wide_container { width: 50em }
.narrow_container { width: 20em }
.my_element { border: 1px solid }
#media (max-width: 30em) {
.wide_container .my_element {
color: blue;
}
.narrow_container .my_element {
color: red;
}
}
#media (max-width: 50em) {
.wide_container .my_element {
color: orange;
}
.narrow_container .my_element {
color: green;
}
}
The only other solution requires JS.
The only way I can think that you can accomplish what you want purely with css, is to use a fluid container for your widget. If your container's width is a percentage of the screen then you can use media queries to style depending on your container's width, as you will now know for each screen's dimensions what is your container's dimensions. For example, let's say you decide to make your container's 50% of the screen width. Then for a screen width of 1200px you know that your container is 600px
.myContainer {
width: 50%;
}
/* you know know that your container is 600px
* so you style accordingly
*/
#media (max-width: 1200px) {
/* your css for 600px container */
}
You can use the ResizeObserver API. It's still in it's early days so it's not supported by all browsers yet (but there's several polyfills that can help you with that).
This API allows you to attach an event listener when resizing a DOM element.
Demo 1 - Demo 2
I was also thinking of media queries, but then I found this:
http://www.mademyday.de/css-height-equals-width-with-pure-css.html
Maintain the aspect ratio of a div with CSS
Just create a wrapper <div> with a percentage value for padding-bottom, like this:
div {
width: 100%;
padding-bottom: 75%;
background:gold; /** <-- For the demo **/
}
<div></div>
It will result in a <div> with height equal to 75% of the width of its container (a 4:3 aspect ratio).
This technique can also be coupled with media queries and a bit of ad hoc knowledge about page layout for even more finer-grained control.
It's enough for my needs. Which might be enough for your needs too.
For mine I did it by setting the div's max width, hence for small widget won't get affected and the large widget is resized due to the max-width style.
// assuming your widget class is "widget"
.widget {
max-width: 100%;
height: auto;
}
I need to improve my webpage design, when shown on smartphone.I am working in wordpress and making alterations through the childtheme. I am using a media query. Right now the #media is set to min-width 600px.
However NOTHING is happening. No matter how i tweek the code or what setting/classes/div's I am using, nothing changes when I go to see the page on a smartphone. The closest I got was modifying a .h3 tag, but then alterations appeared in screen mode - not in smartphone mode.
Even weider this code was working fine a couple of days ago, and .Profilbillede was repositioned using this media query.
Is there any way that the media query cannot be "linked" correctly, in the child theme? I've tried to look for syntax errors, but I cannot find any.
Specifically I need to add padding to h2#lfb_mainFormTitle. Right after this ... needs to be positioned lower and then follows
which need to be positioned below the .... Am i making any sense?
This is the first time I am doing this
--------------------------CSS here--------------------------
#media only screen and (min-width: 375px) {
/*billede nederst til højre*/
.Profilbillede {transform: translateY(-46px;)
}
h2#lfb_mainFormTitle {
font-size:32px!important;
background-color: blue;
}
}
Does anyone know why my media queries code doesn't work?Thanks!
#media only screen and (min-width:450px){
.dark-blue{
width: 25%;
}
.blue{
width: 75%;
}
}
More details in my github https://github.com/kmfb/udacityProjects/tree/master/column%20drop
Just move the #media to the bottom of the css page.
Check working example.
Cheers,
https://jsfiddle.net/frc7r123/
It mostly depends on your project because at the end of the day it is all about maintenance and adding more stuff to it easily.
So, if you are working on a project which only has a few media queries I would suggest leaving them all at the bottom of your stylesheet but putting comments on top of it to make it explicit and also easier for you to find it later.
However, if you know you are going to have a lot of properties meticulously defined in your media queries and also have various devices defined then I would suggest separating them out just for readability/maintenance reasons.
It works, but you need to place your media query below your other CSS. Otherwise it won't overwrite anything.
I'm trying to figure out a way to make this work using CSS. I use wordpress and a theme so I can't really change much of the markup so I'm trying to solve this problem with CSS first.
I'm building a site with 3 columns article. It's working fine on desktop but when you start resizing. It goes like this.
What I want is that 'First post from Salon87 Brooklyn' should be next to 'Second Post' like this.
And this is what I want it to look like on desktop
Here's the code. http://www.salon87.nyc/news/
The problem with the HTML is that, there is an element fix added to the blocks. You need to hide it for mobile devices. Try changing 991px to your requirement.
CSS
#media (max-width: 991px) {
.fix {
display: none;
}
}
A lot of people's HTML markup looks like this:
<html>
<body>
<div id="wrapper">
<p>Stuff in here</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
And most of the time in examples here, or on the web, people suggest that you should apply width settings to the #wrapper, instead of the <body>.
Is there an underlying reason for that?
For example, in an article on techniques for gracefully degrading media queries, and to give you some context on Technique 1: Do Nothing:
The elephant in the room is Internet Explorer for the desktop.
With a mobile-first solution, large screens will display the content
in one column, resulting in a painful reading experience for the user,
way past the established maximum for comfort: 50 to 75 characters.
It might be worth setting a max-width property in your main container and then upping that max-width in a media query.
And their CSS:
#wrapper {
_width: 460px; /* Take that, IE6! */
max-width: 460px;
}
#media only screen and (width) {
#wrapper {
max-width: 1200px;
}
}
Here's how it'd come together for IE (media query is commented out).
Would there be any difference whereby instead of applying that to #wrapper, we would apply it to <body> — with the standard website in mind?
Any potential bugs? I tried it here, and it seems to be OK. Just what if the layout gets more advanced...
Well, you want to use as few elements as possible I guess. However there are many instances where #page-wrapper and body are not interchangeable. In many situations you need to use the body as the background color instead of the html tag. In these cases (weighted footers for example) you need the body to stretch out the html and you need a wrapper to contain the content, maybe center the content, and force the body to stretch out and contain it.
So - I guess I would say, that most people use a wrapper because they saw it in their first class or online tutorial. I think that for the most part, it is a habit for many. I would leave the body as is and margin the wrapper to 0 auto and use a max width like you have. It's just EI 8 and before - can I use media queries ? - maybe you should detect EI 8 and make a unique style sheet. I find that after defining everything for mobil, my media queries are only a few lines of iteration after that -