So the ideal scenario would be responsive images of varying sizes that fit the UI space without cropping. If these details are important (for example, when working with a flat lay of beauty products), cropping important content is not acceptable. Object-fit: cover tends to work in most situations to ensure a nice uniform interface when dealing with images of varying dimensions, however, you lose information this way (the image is cropped at its longest edges). The object-fit: none case shows the image cropped in its center (default object position) at its natural size.

object-fit: contain ensures that the entire image is always visible, and so the opposite of cover, where it takes the size of the largest boundary (in our example above this is width), and resizes the image to maintain its intrinsic aspect ratio while fitting into the space. object-fit: cover uses the image's smallest dimension to fill the space and crops the image to fit into it based on this dimension. In our example, this causes the image to be squished and blurry, as it re-adjusts pixels. The initial and fill values re-adjust the image to fill the space. Another tool in this bucket is the object-fit property, which enables users to describe how an object (such an as image) within a block should fill that block: Showcasing various object-fit values.

Creating uniform, responsive space for multiple images of varying dimension (can be used alongside object-fit) Object-fit #ĭefining an aspect ratio helps us with sizing media in a responsive context.

Creating uniform, responsive space for multi-element components such as cards or calendar dates.

Creating uniform, responsive space for interactive data visualizations or SVG animations.

Creating intrinsic placeholder containers for images, videos, and embeds to prevent re-layout when the items load and take up space.

Creating responsive iframes, where they are 100% of a parent's width, and the height should remain a specific viewport ratio.

Some examples of where maintaining aspect ratio become important are: With the advent of responsive design, maintaining aspect ratio has been increasingly important for web developers, especially as image dimensions differ and element sizes shift based on available space. One is 634 x 951px while the other is 200 x 300px. The most common aspect ratios for photography are 4:3 and 3:2, while video, and more recent consumer cameras, tend to have a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio #Īspect ratio is most commonly expressed as two integers and a colon in the dimensions of: width:height, or x:y. Now, there's a more straightforward way to do this with the new aspect-ratio property launching in Chromium 88, Firefox 87, and Safari Technology Preview 118. Summary: Maintaining a consistent width-to-height ratio, called an aspect ratio, is critical in responsive web design and for preventing cumulative layout shift.

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