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HTML Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design is about creating web pages that look good on all devices!

A responsive web design will automatically adjust for different screen sizes and viewports.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive Web Design is about using HTML and CSS to automatically resize, hide, shrink, or enlarge, a website, to make it look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones):

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Setting The Viewport

To create a responsive website, add the following <meta> tag to all your web pages:

Example

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

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This will set the viewport of your page, which will give the browser instructions on how to control the page's dimensions and scaling.

Here is an example of a web page without the viewport meta tag, and the same web page with the viewport meta tag:

Without the viewport meta tag
With the viewport meta tag

 Tip: If you are browsing this page on a phone or a tablet, you can click on the two links above to see the difference.

 

Responsive Images

Responsive images are images that scale nicely to fit any browser size.

Using the width Property

If the CSS width property is set to 100%, the image will be responsive and scale up and down:

Example

<img src="img_girl.jpg" style="width:100%;">

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Show Different Images Depending on Browser Width

The HTML <picture> element allows you to define different images for different browser window sizes.

Resize the browser window to see how the image below change depending on the width:

Example

<picture>
  <source srcset="img_smallflower.jpg" media="(max-width: 600px)">
  <source srcset="img_flowers.jpg" media="(max-width: 1500px)">
  <source srcset="flowers.jpg">
  <img src="img_smallflower.jpg" alt="Flowers">
</picture>

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Responsive Text Size

The text size can be set with a "vw" unit, which means the "viewport width".

That way the text size will follow the size of the browser window:

Hello World

Resize the browser window to see how the text size scales.

Example

<h1 style="font-size:10vw">Hello World</h1>

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Viewport is the browser window size. 1vw = 1% of viewport width. If the viewport is 50cm wide, 1vw is 0.5cm. 

 

Media Queries

In addition to resize text and images, it is also common to use media queries in responsive web pages.

With media queries you can define completely different styles for different browser sizes.

Example: resize the browser window to see that the three div elements below will display horizontally on large screens and stacked vertically on small screens:

Example

<style>
.left, .right {
  float: left;
  width: 20%; /* The width is 20%, by default */
}

.main {
  float: left;
  width: 60%; /* The width is 60%, by default */
}

/* Use a media query to add a breakpoint at 800px: */
@media screen and (max-width: 800px) {
  .left, .main, .right {
    width: 100%; /* The width is 100%, when the viewport is 800px or smaller */
  }
}
</style>

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Responsive Web Page - Full Example

A responsive web page should look good on large desktop screens and on small mobile phones.

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Bootstrap

Another popular CSS framework is Bootstrap. Bootstrap uses HTML, CSS and jQuery to make responsive web pages.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Bootstrap Example</title>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.5.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.4.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<div class="container">
  <div class="jumbotron">
    <h1>My First Bootstrap Page</h1>
  </div>
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-sm-4">
      ...
    </div>
    <div class="col-sm-4">
      ...
    </div>
    <div class="col-sm-4">
    ...
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

</body>
</html>

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