New media queries you need to know

Media queries are some of the best features cascading style sheets have to offer. They let us alter the styles applied to our documents based on the device viewing them, and the context they’re viewed in. And every so often, we get new ones.

The Media Query Level 5 spec is being drafted as we speak, and it includes some really nice ones. Some of them are still being figured out, but several of them are available in some browsers.

This article will take you through some of the most interesting new media queries in this new specification, and show you how to use them.

light-level

This feature isn’t available in any browsers at the time of writing, but it definitely sounds like a future favorite. With the light-level media query, you can tune your styles based on whether your user is viewing your web app outside in daylight, or perhaps checking in before going to bed. This is great news for anyone who has ever tried to read their phone in the park, or check out a website at night!

There are three available values – dim, normal (the default), and washed. Here’s an example where we change some CSS custom properties:

@media (light-level: dim) {
  :root {
    --text-color: white;
    --background-color: black;
  }
}

Read more at MDN.

inverted-colors

Before the time of dark mode, a lot of people turned on the “invert colors” to get that “dark mode” feel. It looked pretty neat, but it also screwed with images, text shadows, and the way fonts were rendered (white on black has more perceived contrast than black on white for some reason).

The inverted-colors media query lets you adapt around those quirks! Although currently supported in Safari (and Safari on iOS), I sure hope this lands as well.

This is a boolean option, with two values none and inverted. But you can just skip the value altogether and write something like this:

@media (inverted-colors) {
  img { filter: invert(1); }
  * { box-shadow: none !important; text-shadow: none !important; }
}

Neat, huh? Sounds like something that could be added to your base CSS sheet at some point right now!

Read more at MDN.

Preferences, preferences, preferences

The fifth level of CSS media queries also has a huge focus on personalization. It introduces no fewer than five distinct media queries that lets you tweak your website to whatever the user prefers!

prefers-color-scheme

You might actually have heard about the prefers-color-scheme media query already. This one lets you react to whether the user has turned on so-called “dark mode” on their device. In other words – adding “dark mode” to your app is now a few lines of code!

This feature is already widely supported in browsers, and has three possible values – light, dark, and no-preference. Here’s an example where we change the background color of the site based on preference:

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  body { background: #1e1e1e; color: white; }
}

Read more at MDN.

prefers-contrast

One of the things I love with these new media queries, is their focus on accessibility features. The prefers-contrast media query lets you cater to users who prefer high contrast content compared to your original design.

There’s two values here – no-preference and high. There’s some discussion in the draft document about splitting high into increased and extremely-high, but nothing is certain yet. That’s probably the reason why there’s no support for this one yet. But when they decide, you’ll know what to write!

@media (prefers-contrast) {
  :root {
    --text-color: black;
  }
}

Read more at MDN.

prefers-reduced-motion

Some users aren’t fans of animations and transitions. To some unlucky few, these kinds of movements can make them physically sick! That’s why most devices now support a way to tune down the transitions you find in most modern UIs.

With the prefers-reduced-motion media query, you can respect that wish as well. Use it to reduce those “bouncy” animations, fading images and “fun” transitions a bit. Note that you don’t necessarily have to remove all movement, but reduce it.

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Browser support for this one is pretty good already, and is a “boolean” value too – no-preference or reduce. Here’s an example:

@media (prefers-reduced-motion) {
  * { transition-duration: 0.05s; }
}

prefers-reduced-transparency

Some operating systems offer an option to reduce the amount of translucent layering effects used by the system. Although not supported by any browsers yet, the prefers-reduced-transparency media query is aiming to help you cater to those users.

This is another boolean value – no-preference and reduce, so when it does get shipped in some browsers, you can write code like this:

@media (prefers-reduced-transparency) {
  .floating-box { opacity: 1; }
}

Read more at MDN.

prefers-reduced-data

Now this one is pretty exciting. If you’re running low on cellular data, or if you’re traveling internationally, it sucks to hit an image-heavy site. Well, not anymore, thanks to the fabulous prefers-reduced-data media query!

There’s no support for this yet, but it’s one of the most practical applications of media queries I’ve seen. With this, you could skip that huge header image or high-res profile images when they’re not needed. I sure hope it gets implemented soon.

The value is boolean as well, so no-preference and reduce are the values. Here’s an example:

@media (prefers-reduced-data) {
  .hero-image { background-image: none; background-color: salmon; }
}

Read more about it in the spec (there’s no MDN page for it yet!).

One more thing — custom media queries

The last media query introduced in the level 5 spec is definitely the most powerful one – scriptable, customizable media queries.

The main purpose seems to be avoiding repetition by creating a custom media query that maps to longer media queries.

They’re specified with the new @custom-media keyword, and it can look like this:

@custom-media --medium-devices (min-width: 50rem);
@custom-media --large-landscape (min-width: 70rem) and (orientation: landscape);

@media (--medium-devices) {
  .container { max-width: 40rem; }
}

The CSS Working Group is also planning on a way to make these values scriptable, which is going to really bring super powers to media queries. Think how you can write styles when you can have @media (–logged-in) or @media(–no-connection) media queries?

There are no browsers out there implementing this yet, but you can use a PostCSS plugin to use at least the @custom-media part of the spec.

Impressive outlook

Media queries have been one of the most useful features CSS ships with, but this fifth level of the specification sure seems to bring incredible strides. Please note that many of these media queries are not implemented yet, and are still considered an editor’s draft. That means you’ll probably end up changing your implementation once or twice in the coming years, or perhaps scrapping it altogether.

On the plus side, media queries gracefully degrade into nothing, which means you can try adding them today, without breaking things for users not running the latest developer preview of your browser of choice.

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