Visibility Classes

Show by Screen Size

In this example, we use the .show visibility classes to show certain strings of text based on the device on which users view a page. If their browser meets the class's conditions, the element will be shown. If not, it will be hidden.

<p>You are on a small screen or larger.</p>
<p class="show-for-medium">You are on a medium screen or larger.</p>
<p class="show-for-large">You are on a large screen or larger.</p>

These classes automatically hide the element on screen sizes below what's specified in the class. So .show-for-medium will hide the element on small, and show it on medium and larger.

A separate set of classes allow you to show content only on a certain screen size. Just add -only to the end of the class.

<p class="show-for-small-only">You are <em>definitely</em> on a small screen.</p>
<p class="show-for-medium-only">You are <em>definitely</em> on a medium screen.</p>
<p class="show-for-large-only">You are <em>definitely</em> on a large screen.</p>

Hide by Screen Size

This example shows the opposite: It uses the .hide visibility classes to state which elements should disappear based on the device's screen size.

<p class="hide-for-medium">You are <em>not</em> on a medium screen or larger.</p>
<p class="hide-for-large">You are <em>not</em> on a large screen or larger.</p>

If you're reading this, you're on a large screen, and can't see either of the above examples.

Like with .show, these classes also have -only versions.

<p class="hide-for-small-only">You are <em>definitely not</em> on a small screen.</p>
<p class="hide-for-medium-only">You are <em>definitely not</em> on a medium screen.</p>
<p class="hide-for-large-only">You are <em>definitely not</em> on a large screen.</p>

Generic Hide Classes

And if you really just need something hidden no matter what, there are classes for that as well. The .hide and .invisible classes respectively set display: none and visibility: hidden on an element. Note that both of these classes hide content from screen readers.

<p class="hide">Can't touch this.</p>
<p class="invisible">Can sort of touch this.</p>
<p class="visible">You can see this.</p>

Orientation Detection

This straightforward example shows how two strings of text determine whether or not an element is visible in different orientations. This will change on mobile devices when you rotate the device. On desktop, the orientation is almost always reported as landscape.

<p class="show-for-landscape">You are in landscape orientation.</p>
<p class="show-for-portrait">You are in portrait orientation.</p>

Accessibility

Adding display: none to an element will prevent screen readers from reading it. However, there are techniques to hide content while still making it readable by screen readers.

Show for Screen Readers Only

To visually hide content, while still allowing assistive technology to read it, add the class show-for-sr.

<p class="show-for-sr">This text can only be read by a screen reader.</p>
<p>There's a line of text above this one, you just can't see it.</p>

Hide for Screen Readers Only

To hide text from assistive technology, while still keeping it visible, add the attribute aria-hidden="true". This doesn't affect how the element looks, but screen readers will skip over it.

<p aria-hidden="true">This text can be seen, but won't be read by a screen reader.</p>

Creating Skip Links

If your site has a lot of navigation, a screen reader will have to read through the entire navigation to get to your site's content. To remedy this, you can add a skip link at the very top of your page, which will send the user farther down the page, past the navigation when clicked on.

Use the class .show-on-focus to hide an element, except when it has focus. Adding tabindex="-1" to the target element makes it focusable. (Or set it to 0 if the user should be able to tab to that element as well. See also the MDN docs on tabindex.)

<p><a class="show-on-focus" href="#mainContent">Skip to Content</a></p>

<header id="header" role="banner">
</header>

<main id="mainContent" role="main" tabindex="0">
</main>

IE10+ Detection

The demise of Internet Explorer cannot come soon enough. These classes will help you target all IE10+ browsers with the show-for-ie and hide-for-ie classes.

<p class="show-for-ie">Please get a new browser.</p>
<p class="hide-for-ie">Thanks for not using Interner Explorer.</p>

Dark Mode Detection

Dark mode has become popular over the past couple of years. The show-for-dark-mode and hide-for-dark-mode classes will allow you to easily show and hide content when desinging for dark mode.

<p class="show-for-dark-mode">It's scary in the dark.</p>
<p class="hide-for-dark-mode">You can see the light.</p>

Sticky Mode Detection

If you are using the Sticky plugin these classes could help you with showing and hiding elements when the Sticky component is stuck. The show-for-sticky and hide-for-sticky classes will allow you easily target these items inside of a sticky container.

<div data-sticky-container>
  <div class="sticky" data-sticky>
    <p class="hide-for-sticky">We be scrolling...</p>
    <p class="show-for-sticky">I'm going to rest here for a sec. You keep scrolling.</p>
  </div>
</div>

@include show-for($size);

@include show-for-only($size);

@include hide-for($size);

@include hide-for-only($size);