Here's a neat little trick:
You can use the clamp() CSS function to make font-size responsive and fluid!
It works by "clamping", or restricting, a flexible value between a minimum and a maximum range.
Here's how to use it:
- Choose a minimum value: E.g.
16px - Choose a maximum value: E.g.
34px - Choose a flexible value: E.g.
5vw
h1 {
font-size: clamp(16px, 5vw, 34px);
}
In this example, the h1 font-size value will be 5% of the viewport width. But only if that value is bigger than 16px and smaller than 34px.
For instance, if your viewport width is 300px, your 5vw value will be equal to 15px. However, you clamped that font-size value to a minimum of 16px, so that is what is going to be.
On the other hand, if your viewport width is 1400px, you 5vw will be a whooping 70px! But luckily you clamped that maximum value to 34px, so it won't grow past that.
Oh, and it also works with padding! And margin!
And literally any other property that accepts a length, frequency, angle, time, percentage, number, or integer!
Browser support is also pretty good if you don't need to support IE/older Safari versions, look:
I love modern CSS. What are your thoughts on clamp()?
EDIT: Be sure to check Darshak's suggestion in the comments if you need to add an alternative implementation for older Safari!
Cover photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash
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Oldest comments (23)
Thank you !!!! <3
Happy to help! ๐
Woo, that's cool! Surely going to try this on my next project.
Dang, that's awesome.
It's wild seeing how CSS is evolving.
Yeah! My first experiences with CSS were full of floats and clearfixes so I'm glad to have modern tools like CSS functions, custom properties and Flexbox now ๐
Damn! Some time ago I needed to implement this kind of thing. I only found JS libraries that did not meet my expectations. I wonder how would it have been with this feature :)
I believe you're talking about fittextjs.com, right? I also had to do something similar in the past and got super bummed out with the fact that I had to use JS for such a small thing
Nice article Vitor!
Must really start using this!
Thanks, Chris. You should, yeah! It is so simple and works so well that makes you wonder why we didn't have it before, haha
It's crazy how powerful these functions get when you mix them in with modern modules, too, like grid.
looks nice, but i won't use if because of the low support. Maybe in a few years
Thank you so much for sharing this
This will really improve my responsive designing skills
Hmmm, can this be pollyfilled in anyway?
EDIT: found a good solution to use it in older browsers via sass bronco.co.uk/our-ideas/creating-a-...
The tricky part is that the browser also needs to support the
vw. Which our old friend IE also doesn't and never will. :(I believe the only way to polyfill it would be by using something with JS, like fittextjs.com/
Damn, this is going to forever change the way I style my content.