Is it possible to make a responsive div with a background-image that maintains the ratio of the background-image like with an <img>?

Question

Not a a native english speaker so there's probably a better way to shape the question...anyway:

What I want to create is similar to the header here: http://thegreatdiscontent.com/adam-lisagor The header image is shown fully in all screensizes, and the aspect-ratio of the image is of course always correct. This is made using an and getting the text to appear on the using position: absolute.

But if you use css for the background-image instead of an , you'll get something like this header: http://elegantthemes.com/preview/Harmony/ Resize browser to see parts of the background being left out.

Is it possible to make a a div look and behave like the first link, using the background-image css property like on the second link? Or do I have to change how my entire header works and use the for the background for it to show fully in all screensizes?

I would like to have a header background that doesn't leavy anything out, but is fixed like this http://getflywheel.com/ Only idea so far is to make a transparent png that has the correct ratio of the image, and then use background-image that has background-attachment:fixed. But this doesn't seem very smart.

Hopefully I was clear enough that I'll get understood. Thank you all very much in advance!

Answer 1

Here is a nice and simple tip with only css/html:

Ingredients

• Transparent PNG image with the desired ratio (transparent-ratio-conserver.png)

• tag

• Different images for different view-ports (retina.jpg, desktop.jpg, tablet.jpg...)

The idea is to open an tag and to assign to it a transparent image (with our desired ratio). We also add class="responsive-image" that's all in HTML.

<img src="img/transparent-ratio-conserver.png" class="responsive-image">

In the CSS, we set background-size to fit the and we choose the width of our image.

.responsive-image{
    width: 100%;
    background-size: 100% 100%;
} 

and finally, we serve for every view-port the right image:

/* Retina display */
@media screen and (min-width: 1024px){
    .responsive-image{
        background-image: url('../img/retina.jpg');
    }
}
/* Desktop */
@media screen and (min-width: 980px) and (max-width: 1024px){
    .responsive-image{
        background-image: url('../img/desktop.jpg');
    }
}
/* Tablet */
@media screen and (min-width: 760px) and (max-width: 980px){
    .responsive-image{
        background-image: url('../img/tablet.jpg');
    }
}
/* Mobile HD */
@media screen and (min-width: 350px) and (max-width: 760px){
    .responsive-image{
        background-image: url('../img/mobile-hd.jpg');
    }
}
/* Mobile LD */
@media screen and (max-width: 350px){
    .responsive-image{
        background-image: url('../img/mobile-ld.jpg');
    }
} 

You can download the demo from here.

Answer 2

This is done with the background-size property:

background-size: cover;

Cover will make the image as small as it can be, whilst still covering the entirety of its parent, and maintaining its aspect ratio.

You may also want to try contain, which makes the image as big as it can be whilst still fitting inside the parent.

Source(s)

MDN - background-size CSS property