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How to change Font Size Depending on Width of Container?
Crafting a website that provides an optimal viewing experience across different devices can be a daunting and daring task. With a multitude of screen sizes and resolutions to take into notice, ensuring that your website is easily graspable and still be visually appealing on every device can be an uphill battle. Nevertheless, one important aspect of responsive web design that can aid in this is ammending the font size based on the width of the container. You can achieve this by using CSS units like "viewport width" (vw), "media queries" or jQuery plugins like FitText to produce text elements that automatically adapt their font size to fit the available space.In this article, we shall explore the nuances of adapting font size in accordance with container width, and how implementing this methodology can elevate the user experience and enhance accessibility across a diverse range of devices.
Container
In the modern world of web design, a container is just what its name might suggest i.e. an HTML element that wraps and contains other elements, offering both a structural and stylistic framework for them. Containers play a noteworthy role in characterising the general layout of a web page, as they permit you to have full control while grouping and positioning elements relative to one another. They can be applied in various ways, such as a <div> element that houses the primary sections of a page, like the header, main content, and footer, and grants them a shared background color and padding. Additionally, containers can be nested within one another, allowing for more intricate and dynamic designs. Through the manipulation of the size, position, and functionality of containers, a diverse range of web layouts can be achieved.
Approach
We are going to take a look at a diverse range of ways to change the font size, extending from CSS viewport and media queries to jQuery plugins. The methods we are going to take a look at in this article are as follows −
Using Viewport Width
Using Media Queries
Using FitText jQuery Plugin
Method 1: Using Viewport Width
The CSS "viewport width" property, additionally also referred to as "vw", is a percentage-based unit of measurement that amount to the width of the visible area of a webpage. It enables designers to specify the width of an element as a percentage of the viewport width by using the "vw" unit of measurement in CSS. This approach is on the whole is extremely beneficial for creating responsive designs that can accommodate various screen sizes and devices. Utilizing vw units enables designers to maintain the element's proportions relative to the viewport width, ensuring that the design looks visually appealing on all devices.
The HTML code provided below contains a simple example of how to change the font size of text inside a container based on the width of that container. This code contains two parts −
<body>Element
CSS Stylesheet
The body contains a container div tag. This container has a class named "container," and it contains the text enclosed in a paragraph tag. The CSS code inside the head element targets this container's paragraph element and sets its font size to be 5% of the viewport width, or vw. In this manner, the font size will calibrate to the width of the container as the container's size switches.
Example
The following is the complete code that we are going to use in this example −
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>How to change font size depending on width of container?</title>
<style>
.container p {
font-size: 5vw;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>How to change font size depending on width of container?</h4>
<div class="container">
<p>
This is some text.
<br />
This is some more text.
<br />
This is some more more text.
</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Method 2: Using Media Queries
To achieve responsive designs that function well on various devices, Media Queries is a valuable tool used by designers and developers in CSS. This technique makes it possible to apply different styles to a web page based on the characteristics of the device or display it is being viewed on. Media queries evaluate conditions like screen size, resolution, and orientation, and subsequently apply CSS styles based on those conditions. This capability allows the creation of dynamic and flexible designs that can adapt to the unique properties of each device, from small smartphones to large desktop screens. A media query is implemented using the @media rule and includes a media type and one or more expressions that check for particular conditions. When those conditions are satisfied, the styles defined within the media query are applied. As a result, Media Queries offers an influential solution for crafting responsive designs that cater to the abilities and limitations of different devices.
The body element contains the dummy elements whose font sizes we are going to affect while the CSS stylesheet lays the rules for changing the sizes.
Delving deep into the nitty-gritty of the code you will realise that the initial font size is set to 24 pixels. However, there are three media queries defined for three different screen sizes. The first one is concerned with screens that have a maximum width of 767 pixels. In this media query, we set the font size to be 18 pixels. The next media query is for displays with a minimum width of 768 pixels and a maximum width of 1023 pixels. In this media query, we update the font size to be 20 pixels. The final media query is concerned with displays with a minimum width of 1024 pixels. In this media query we reset the font size to the initial size of 24 pixels. The paragraph to which the font size is applied is wrapped in a div with a class of "container". When the page is loaded, the default font size of 24 pixels will be applied to the paragraph which will by the use of media queries will get updates as and when the display size changes.
Example
The following is the complete code which we are going to use in this example −
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>How to change font size depending on width of container?</title>
<style>
.container p {
font-size: 24px;
}
@media (max-width: 767px) {
.container p {
font-size: 18px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px) {
.container p {
font-size: 20px;
}
}
@media (min-width: 1024px) {
.container p {
font-size: 24px;
}
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h4>How to change font size depending on width of container?</h4>
<div class="container">
<p>
This is some text.
<br />
This is some more text.
<br />
This is some more more text.
</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Method 3: Using FitText jQuery Plugin
FitText is a jQuery plugin or library that provides functionalities that automatically resizes and balances the font size of an element to fit the width of its container. This plugin works by handling and fine tuning the font-size property of an element, based on the current width of the parent container element. This allows web developers with the opportunity for creating dynamic and responsive typography that adjusts to different screen sizes and devices.
This HTML code loads a JavaScript library called FitText that allows for responsive font scaling based on the width of the container element. We have used CDN as you can see in the head element to load the FitText library. The code also includes a container element with some text paragraphs inside, and a script that uses jQuery to initialize the FitText plugin on the paragraph elements within the container. The FitText plugin axiomatically balances the font size of the text to fit the available width of the container, ensuring that the text is always readable and visually appealing on different devices with varying screen sizes.
Example
The following is the complete code which we are going to make use of in this example −
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>How to change font size depending on width of container?</title>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/FitText.js/1.2.0/jquery.fittext.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<h4>How to change font size depending on width of container?</h4>
<div class="container">
<p>
This is some text.
<br/>
This is some more text.
<br/>
This is some more more text.
</p>
</div>
<script>
$(document).ready(function () {
$(".container p").fitText();
});
</script>
</body>
</html>
Conclusion
In summary, modifying the size of the font based on the size of the container is a valuable method for building designs that can adapt to diverse screen sizes and devices. The CSS "viewport width" (vw) unit offers a versatile and natural way to specify the font size by depending on the viewport width. By combining media queries and either vw units or FitText plugin, you can specify distinct font sizes for different breakpoints and make sure that the text elements appear appealing and readable on any gadget. No matter if you're working on a primitive landing page or an aggregated web application, employing this approach will help you put up a better user experience and enhance the overall appearance and impression of your designs.
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