2 Min Read
Tailwind CSS Responsive Design Without Breakpoints
CHRISTIAN PENROD
Front-End Web Developer
Let’s begin by looking at a common responsive design pattern in Tailwind CSS:
Tailwind Breakpoints can be a double-edged sword. It’s convenient to handle all our breakpoints inline; however, this results in bloated HTML…
Considering responsive design is required, how to do we solve this problem while still leveraging Tailwind CSS? Fluid Responsive Design!
Fluid Responsive Design
Fluid Responsive Design is a responsive design pattern that leverages CSS Clamp instead of the traditional breakpoint media queries.
In short, CSS Clamp is a CSS function that allows us to define a range of values (minimum, preferred, maximum). Based on the viewport size, the preferred value will then scale automatically within the minimum and maximum.
Configure Fluid Typography
Let’s now bring CSS Clamp into our Tailwind CSS configuration. To begin, we’ll add clamps for our font sizes:
When using these new fluid font size classes, the clamp will grow/shrink the font size in relation to the viewport. No
need to worry about multiple breakpoints anymore! text-base md:text-xl xl:text-2xl
→ text-fluid-2
Configure Fluid Spacing
Now that we have fluid font sizes, let’s add clamps for our fluid spacing. By setting Tailwind
Spacing , we gain fluid spacing for padding, margin, width, height, maxWidth, maxHeight, gap, inset,
space, and translate. p-2 m-3 md:p-4 md:m-4 xl:p-6 xl:m-6
→ p-fluid-1 m-fluid-2
Remove Breakpoints
With our fluid responsive design configured, lets jump back to our original HTML to remove those breakpoints:
As you can see, the HTML becomes far less bloated. The font sizes, paddings, and margins only need to be defined once without having multiple breakpoints. All while keeping the conveniences of Tailwind CSS!
Bonus! If your using Utopia, there’s a tailwindcss plugin for it. Check it out here: tailwindcss-utopia
tailwindcss-fluid-responsive-design
This project is a showcase of Fluid Responsive Design within Tailwind CSS.
JavaScript
1
0
CONTINUE READING
Check out some other software-related blog posts I've written.
Next.js
Developing Browser Extensions with Next.js
Learn how to bundle a Next.js application within a browser extension. Compatible with Chromium-based browsers and Firefox.
4 Min Read
Astro
CSS
Astro Shiki Syntax Highlighting with CSS Variables
Customize an Astro project's Shiki syntax highlighting using a list of available CSS Variables.
1 Min Read