## Fluid Sizing Instead Of Multiple Media Queries?

Media queries are a great concept. Building a complex structure in an HTML document and adapting it for various devices is not often possible without them (for the moment at least). Here we will talk about the fact that one of the drawbacks of fluid typography, namely the appearance of a large number of media queries, can be avoided. Or, at least, the number of records in @media rule can be reduced.

The advent of vw and vh relative units, the calc function, and later the min, max, clamp functions in CSS gave us a lot of power. An exhaustive review of Modern Fluid Typography Using CSS Clamp has been recently published by Adrian Bece. I advise everyone to get acquainted with it.

The advantages of the clamp function are obvious. We can define a change, for example, of a font size in a certain range of viewport (screen size) and, at the same time, limit it by maximum and minimum values. In such a simple case, we automatically (thanks to clamp) do not need to use media queries for changing sizes on breakpoints.

So, the following block in the CSS:

.block{ font-size: 2rem;
}
@media (max-width: 1200px) { .block{ font-size: calc(-1rem + 4vw); }
}
@media (max-width: 800px) { .block{ font-size: 1rem; }
}

…can be easily replaced using clamp with a single line:

.block{ font-size: clamp(1rem, -1rem + 4vw, 2rem);
}

But what if we need to set a more complex behavior which is determined by variety of unique behavior on different ranges of the screen width? Look at the following modified code:

.block{ font-size: calc(-4rem + 8vw);
}
@media (max-width: 1200px) { .block{ font-size: calc(-1rem + 4vw); }
}
@media (max-width: 800px) { .block{ font-size: calc(0.5rem + 0.8vw); }
}

Can the clamp help us again?

Let’s take a closer look: from simple to complex.

Brief Digression Into Mathematics

As we all know, there is only one way to draw a straight line through two points. There are several ways to write equations to define the straight line. Below, it will be convenient for us to write the equation in the form:

$$(1)\;\;\; y=y_0 + k*x$$

where y0 is a point of intersection of the line with the Y-axis (fig.1), k parameter defines the slope of the straight line to the X-axis and represents the growth/fall rate. Using the following canonical representation of the equation of a straight line:

$$\frac{y – y_1}{y_1 – y_2}=\frac{x – x_1}{x_1 – x_2}$$

It is easy to connect the y0 and k parameters with the coordinates of the two points that belong to this line:

$$(1a)\;\;\; k=\frac{y_2 – y_1}{x_2 – x_1} ,\;\;\; y_0=y_1 – k*x_1$$

It should be noted that in such problems it is convenient to define the input parameters (point coordinates) in pixels. But at the output the relative unit rem is preferable. We should also remember the fact that viewport width is equal to 100vw (this follows from the definition of vw unit). So, in equation (1) we must replace x variable by just 100vw. Hence, we’ll have:

$$(1b)\;\;\; y=y_0 + k*100vw$$

Now it becomes clear the origin of expressions like 1rem + 2.5vw as one of the arguments of clamp or calc function. The first term (1rem) is the y0 parameter expressed in relative units (rem), and the second one (2.5vw) is the parameter k multiplied by 100vw since x=100vw. The choice of such units — relative unit (rem) for values of output variable and viewport unit (vw) for screen size — has been made due to accessibility and responsiveness, respectively.

So, now we know how to determine the parameters in the equation of the form (1) or (1b) of a straight line drawn through two points. This will be used in the next section.

Main Formula Derivation For General Case

Now we’ll try to obtain an equation for F(x) function that will follow the behavior of property in general case (fig.2). Some information below may be omitted for readers who do not like pure math. You can look at the final equation (3) and the simple example for explanation how to use it.

Let’s look at fig. 2a (below). As you can see from the figure, the behavior of the property is determined (tabulated) by N points with coordinates (xi, yi). Let fi(x) be a function that defines the straight line drawn through (xi, yi) and (xi+1, yi+1) points. We have (N-1) such functions (fig2b). So, how to get a general F(x) function that will be exactly equal to fi(x) function on the corresponding [xi, xi+1] range, notably completely repeat the behavior of property from fig.2?

Let’s define the collection of functions gi(x) as:

g i ( x ) = c l a m p y i , f i ( x ) , y i + 1 .

According to clamp function definition:

g i ( x ) = y i , x < x i ; f i ( x ) , x i ≤ x < x i + 1 ; y i + 1 , x ≥ x i + 1 .

Let’s sum the gi(x) functions, and denote the result as G(x) function, G x = ∑ i = 1 N – 1 g i x .

Now we can calculate the values of this function for different ranges of x variable:

G ( x ) = f 1 ( x ) + y 2 + y 3 + … + y N – 2 + y N – 1 , x 1 ≤ x < x 2 ; y 2 + f 2 ( x ) + y 3 + … + y N – 2 + y N – 1 , x 2 ≤ x < x 3 ; y 2 + y 3 + f 3 ( x ) + … + y N – 2 + y N – 1 , x 3 ≤ x < x 4 ; ⋮ y 2 + y 3 + y 4 + … + y N – 1 + f N – 1 ( x ) , x N – 1 ≤ x < x N ;

or

G ( x ) = f i ( x ) + C o n s t ,

for

x i ≤ x < x i + 1 , i = 1, … , N – 1 , C o n s t = ∑ j = 2 N – 1 y j

It follows that G(x) function is equal to corresponding fi(x) function for each [xi, xi+1] ranges, after deduction of Const constant term, or…

F x = G x – C o n s t = ∑ i = 1 N – 1 c l a m p y i , f i ( x ) , y i + 1 – ∑ i = 2 N – 1 y i

Equation (3) represents the final result and is the solution to the problem.

Several remarks should be made here:

• If we have the range with yi= yi+1 then fi(x)= yi, and clamp(yi, yi, yi) = yi properly. This fact will give us some simplification in the final expression for F(x) function.
• If we have the range where the yi>yi+1 inequality is satisfied, then we should write the corresponding gi(x) function in the following form:

… because of clamp function definition.

• Let’s consider the ranges where х<х1 and х>хN. From equation (3) it follows that the values of property inside these ranges will be constant and equal to y1 and yN, correspondingly. We can do nothing and leave it like that. But in these intervals, I prefer that the values continue to change according to the same laws as in the [x1, x2] and [xN-1, xN] ranges. Therefore, g1(x) and gN-1(x) functions should be written not by clamp function but through min or max functions depending on the increasing or decreasing of the values in the given ranges. If we take the behavior of the property from fig.2 as an example, then we will have the following two redefinitions:

• It is possible to set an abrupt change in the property. In this case, the maximum difference between хi and хi+1 is set to 1px (fig.3) or, which is even more convenient in practice, even less than 1px.
• Obviously, the more complex (more ranges) the behavior of the property is, the longer the resulting function will be and vice versa.
• Because of the possible complex structure of the function by equation (3), it must be used as an argument of the CSS calc function in the CSS stylesheet.

### Simple Example

Let’s simulate the following simple case. We have a header with a logo and menu items on some page. For mobile devices we need to create a hamburger menu. In this case, the font size of menu items, for example, is equal to 18px at 1920px of screen size and decreases to 12px at the viewport width of 768px. In the range from 320px to 767.98px of viewport width, the font-size is fixed at 20px (fig 4a.). This behavior of font size can be described by equation (3). Let’s start.

1. We need to calculate the parameters for f1, f2 and f3 lines according to equation (1a) for its representation in the (1b) form. For f1 function we have (using the coordination of 1 and 2 points):

So, using equation (1b):

The same procedure for another two lines gives us:

and

and

2. Now we can construct the gi functions using equation (2):

3. The last term (constant) in equation (3) can be determined:

4. Desired form of equation (3) is…

or, in the final form:

5. Final record in CSS file will be (by remark 6):

.block{ font-size: calc(clamp(0.75rem, 19200.75rem – 40000vw, 1.25rem) + max(0.75rem, 0.5rem + 0.5208333vw) – 0.75rem); }

… and is fully equivalent to:

.block{ font-size: calc(0.5rem + 0.5208333333vw);
}
@media (max-width: 767px) { .block { font-size: 1.25rem; }
}

Evaluations for modeling right margin behavior (see fig. 4b) give the following equation (everyone can verify this):

You can check this example here:

See the Pen Quick CSS example [forked] by Ruslan.

Everyone can write their own mixin or function based on the equation (3) or use my implementation as CSS functions that take into account the above remarks and primitive cases.

You can also find a simple example with the flex structure here. In this example, the width of flex elements is calculated using the equation (3). This is an attempt to avoid media queries with such a commonly used transformation — initially the width of each of the four flex items is set to 25% (convert to px units, of course), and then, as the viewport width decreases, it changes to 50%, and then to 100%. It even seems possible to take into account the value of gap, and make it also responsive.

But the example will break as soon as there is a vertical scroll. To avoid example breaking and to compensate for scrollbar, we can replace vw units by % in expressions for width of flex elements. But while CSS restrictions do not allow us to use the equation (3) directly for values given in percentages, it is better to abandon such idea.

Summary

I’d like to mention that the idea was just to proving the possibility of such an approach, and the suitability of its application is your own choice. Of the obvious disadvantage of this approach, I have to highlight that the resulting code becomes less readable. The advantage is that media queries remain solely for describing the logic of changes while adaptive, structural changes and are not clogged with technical lines of changing font sizes, paddings, margins etc.

Editor’s note: It would be fantastic to build up a little tool that would allow developers to define changes and construct these complex queries in no time. Still, the maintainance would become quite a hassle — unless we use a Sass-mixing for it, maybe? We kindly thank Ruslan for taking the time to work on this, and oh my, what a journey it was!

### Acknowledgements

Thanks to Evgeniy Andrikanich and his YouTube channel “FreelancerStyle” for creation of free high-quality educational content (HTML, CSS, JS).

## The Details of Shopify’s Massive Q2 2022 Loss

Having posted a massive \$1.2 billion loss in Q2 2022, Shopify has effectively reset its financial outlook. Longtime contributor and analyst Marcia Kaplan looks at the details.

The post The Details of Shopify’s Massive Q2 2022 Loss appeared first on Practical Ecommerce.

## Memories Of August (2022 Desktop Wallpapers Edition)

Everybody loves a beautiful wallpaper to freshen up their desktops and home screens, right? To cater for new and unique artworks on a regular basis, we started our monthly wallpapers challenge more than eleven years ago, and from the very beginning to today, artists and designers from across the globe have accepted the challenge and submitted their designs to it. Just like this month.

In this post, you’ll find their wallpapers for August 2022. All of them come in versions with and without a calendar, so no matter if you need to count down the days to a big deadline (or a few days off, maybe?) or plan to use your favorite wallpaper even after the month has ended, we’ve got you covered. A big thank-you to everyone who shared their designs with us — we sincerely appreciate it!

As a little bonus goodie, we also added some “oldies but goodies” at the end of this post, timeless wallpaper treasures that we rediscovered way down in our archives and that are just too good to be forgotten. Now there’s only one question left to be answered: Which one to choose? Happy August!

• You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
• We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
• Submit a wallpaper!
Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.

Swimming In The Summer

“It’s the perfect evening and the water is so warm! Can you feel it? You move your legs just a little bit and you feel the water bubbles dancing around you! It’s just you in there, floating in the clean lake and small sparkly lights shining above you! It’s a wonderful feeling, isn’t it?” — Designed by Creative Pinky from the Netherlands.

Vacation Vibes

“Is the time crawling by you’re eagerly awaiting your vacation? Or you’re back in the office, reminiscing the sweet feeling of freedom? Never mind, because our desktop calendar is here to bring a vacation vibe to your life throughout the entire August.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Subtle August Chamomiles

“Our designers wanted to create something summery, but not very colorful, something more subtle. The first thing that came to mind was chamomile because there are a lot of them in Ukraine and their smell is associated with a summer field. If you look for something colorful and juicy, you will find suitable options in our listicle.” — Designed by MasterBundles from Ukraine.

It’s Vacation O’Clock!

“It’s vacation o’clock! Or is it? While we bend our backs in front of a screen, it’s hard not to think about sandy beaches, flipping the pages of a corny book under the umbrella while waves splash continuously. Summer days! So hard to bear them in the city, so pleasant when you’re living the dolce far niente.” — Designed by ActiveCollab from the United States.

Freak Show Vol. 1

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Freak Show Vol. 2

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Ice Cream, All day, Everyday

“We like our ice cream at Mad Fish Digital so why not create a wallpaper for it?” — Designed by Suu Ng from Portland, OR.

Climbing The Beanstalk

“In August, we accompany Jack through the Beanstalk on surprising adventures. You sign up?” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.

Oldies But Goodies

Childhood memories, camping under the stars, or a simple pencil and a piece of paper — a lot of things have inspired the design community to create an August wallpaper in the past few years. Here are some favorites from our archives. (Please note that these designs don’t come with a calendar.)

### Happiness Happens In August

“Many people find August one of the happiest months of the year because of holidays. You can spend days sunbathing, swimming, birdwatching, listening to their joyful chirping, and indulging in sheer summer bliss. August 8th is also known as the Happiness Happens Day, so make it worthwhile.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

### Bee Happy!

“August means that fall is just around the corner, so I designed this wallpaper to remind everyone to ‘bee happy’ even though summer is almost over. Sweeter things are ahead!” — Designed by Emily Haines from the United States.

### Launch

“The warm, clear summer nights make me notice the stars more — that’s what inspired this space-themed design!” — Designed by James Mitchell from the United Kingdom.

### Colorful Summer

“‘Always keep mint on your windowsill in August, to ensure that the buzzing flies will stay outside where they belong. Don’t think summer is over, even when roses droop and turn brown and the stars shift position in the sky. Never presume August is a safe or reliable time of the year.’ (Alice Hoffman)” — Designed by Lívi from Hungary.

### Cowabunga

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

### Hello Again

“In Melbourne it is the last month of quite a cool winter so we are looking forward to some warmer days to come.” — Designed by Tazi from Australia.

### Melon Day

“Melon Day (second Sunday in August) is an annual national holiday in Turkmenistan devoted to festivities to celebrate the country’s muskmelon. Another reason for me to create this wallpaper is that melons are just awesome!” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.

### Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Conference

“Headed towards Smoky Mountain Bigfoot Conference this summer? Oh, they say it’s gonna be a big one! Get yourself out there well-prepared, armed with patience and ready to have loads of fun with fellow Bigfoot researchers. Looking forward to those campsite nights under the starry sky, with electrifying energy of expectations filling up the air? Lucky you!” — Designed by Pop Art Studio from Serbia.

### Childhood Memories

Designed by Francesco Paratici from Australia.

“I know what you’ll do this August. 🙂 Because August is about holiday. It’s about exploring, hiking, biking, swimming, partying, feeling and laughing. August is about making awesome memories and enjoying the summer. August is about everything. An amazing August to all of you!” — Designed by Ioana Bitin from Bucharest, Romania.

### Shrimp Party

“A nice summer shrimp party!” — Designed by Pedro Rolo from Portugal.

### A Bloom Of Jellyfish

“I love going to aquariums — the colours, patterns and array of blue hues attract the nature lover in me while still appeasing my design eye. One of the highlights is always the jellyfish tanks. They usually have some kind of light show in them, which makes the jellyfish fade from an intense magenta to a deep purple — and it literally tickles me pink. On a recent trip to uShaka Marine World, we discovered that the collective noun for jellyfish is a bloom and, well, it was love-at-first-collective-noun all over again. I’ve used some intense colours to warm up your desktop and hopefully transport you into the depths of your own aquarium.” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.

### Handwritten August

“I love typograhy handwritten style.” — Designed by Chalermkiat Oncharoen from Thailand.

### Live In The Moment

“My dog Sami inspired me for this one. He lives in the moment and enjoys every second with a big smile on his face. I wish we could learn to enjoy life like he does! Happy August everyone!” — Designed by Westie Vibes from Portugal.

### Unforgettable Summer Night

Designed by BootstrapDash from India.

### Chill Out

“Summer is in full swing and Chicago is feeling the heat! Take some time to chill out!” — Designed by Denise Johnson from Chicago.

### Treat Yourself

“It’s still winter in my part of Australia so warm coffee and donuts by the open fire is a treat. For warmer climates an outdoor picnic in the park with coffee and donuts sounds fun, too!” — Designed by Glynnis Owen from Australia.

### Psst, It’s Camping Time…

“August is one of my favorite months, when the nights are long and deep and crackling fire makes you think of many things at once and nothing at all at the same time. It’s about heat and cold which allow you to touch the eternity for a few moments.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

### Coffee Break Time

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

### Heatstroke

“Even the sun gets a heatstroke in August!” — Designed by Luc Versleijen from the Netherlands.

### A Midnight Summer Dream

“It’s not Shakespeare, it’s Monk, staring at the stars in a warm summer midnight. Just relax…” — Designed by Monk Software from Italy.

### Falling Stars

“In August the stars are ‘falling’. The more falling stars you see, the more wishes will come true!” — Designed by Olga Bukhalova from Italy.