Breakpoints

A breakpoint is the range of predetermined screen sizes that have specific layout requirements.

For optimal user experience, material design interfaces need to be able to adapt their layout at various breakpoints. Material-UI uses a simplified implementation of the original specification.

Each breakpoint matches with a fixed screen width:

xs, extra-small: 0px or larger
sm, small: 600px or larger
md, medium: 960px or larger
lg, large: 1280px or larger
xl, extra-large: 1920px or larger

These values can always be customized. You will find them in the theme, in the breakpoints.values object.

The breakpoints are used internally in various components to make them responsive, but you can also take advantage of them for controlling the layout of your application through the Grid and Hidden components.

CSS Media Queries

CSS media queries is the idiomatic approach to make your UI responsive. We provide four CSS-in-JS helpers to do so:

theme.breakpoints.up(key)
theme.breakpoints.down(key)
theme.breakpoints.only(key)
theme.breakpoints.between(start, end)

In the following demo, we change the background color (red, blue & green) based on the screen width.

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    padding: theme.spacing.unit,
    [theme.breakpoints.down('sm')]: {
      backgroundColor: theme.palette.secondary.main,
    },
    [theme.breakpoints.up('md')]: {
      backgroundColor: theme.palette.primary.main,
    },
    [theme.breakpoints.up('lg')]: {
      backgroundColor: green[500],
    },
  },
});

down(sm): red

up(md): blue

up(lg): green

JavaScript Media Queries

Sometimes, using CSS isn't enough. You might want to change the React rendering tree based on the breakpoint value, in JavaScript.

useMediaQuery hook

You can learn more on the useMediaQuery page.

withWidth()

⚠️ This higher-order component will be deprecated for the useMediaQuery hook when the React's hooks are released as stable.

import withWidth from '@material-ui/core/withWidth';

function MyComponent(props) {
  return <div>{`Current width: ${props.width}`}</div>;
}

export default withWidth()(MyComponent);

In the following demo, we change the rendered DOM element (em, u, ~~del~~ & span) based on the screen width.

Render Props

In some cases, you can experience property name collisions using higher-order components. To avoid this, you can use the render props pattern shown in the following demo.

import Typography from '@material-ui/core/Typography';
import toRenderProps from 'recompose/toRenderProps';

const WithWidth = toRenderProps(withWidth());

export default function MyComponent() {
  return (
    <WithWidth>
      {({ width }) => <div>{`Current width: ${width}`}</div>}
    </WithWidth>
  );
}

API

`theme.breakpoints.up(key) => media query`

Arguments

key (String | Number): A breakpoint key (xs, sm, etc.) or a screen width number in pixels.

Returns

media query: A media query string ready to be used with JSS.

Examples

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    backgroundColor: 'blue',
    // Match [md, ∞[
    //       [960px, ∞[
    [theme.breakpoints.up('md')]: {
      backgroundColor: 'red',
    },
  },
});

`theme.breakpoints.down(key) => media query`

Arguments

key (String | Number): A breakpoint key (xs, sm, etc.) or a screen width number in pixels.

Returns

media query: A media query string ready to be used with JSS.

Examples

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    backgroundColor: 'blue',
    // Match [0, md + 1[
    //       [0, lg[
    //       [0, 1280px[
    [theme.breakpoints.down('md')]: {
      backgroundColor: 'red',
    },
  },
});

`theme.breakpoints.only(key) => media query`

Arguments

key (String): A breakpoint key (xs, sm, etc.).

Returns

media query: A media query string ready to be used with JSS.

Examples

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    backgroundColor: 'blue',
    // Match [md, md + 1[
    //       [md, lg[
    //       [960px, 1280px[
    [theme.breakpoints.only('md')]: {
      backgroundColor: 'red',
    },
  },
});

`theme.breakpoints.between(start, end) => media query`

Arguments

start (String): A breakpoint key (xs, sm, etc.).
end (String): A breakpoint key (xs, sm, etc.).

Returns

media query: A media query string ready to be used with JSS.

Examples

const styles = theme => ({
  root: {
    backgroundColor: 'blue',
    // Match [sm, md + 1[
    //       [sm, lg[
    //       [600px, 1280px[
    [theme.breakpoints.between('sm', 'md')]: {
      backgroundColor: 'red',
    },
  },
});

`withWidth([options]) => higher-order component`

Inject a width property. It does not modify the component passed to it; instead, it returns a new component. This width breakpoint property match the current screen width. It can be one of the following breakpoints:

type Breakpoint = 'xs' | 'sm' | 'md' | 'lg' | 'xl';

Some implementation details that might be interesting to being aware of:

It forwards non React static properties so this HOC is more "transparent". For instance, it can be used to defined a getInitialProps() static method (next.js).

Arguments

options (Object [optional]):
- options.withTheme (Boolean [optional]): Defaults to false. Provide the theme object to the component as a property.
- options.noSSR (Boolean [optional]): Defaults to false. In order to perform the server-side rendering reconciliation, it needs to render twice. A first time with nothing and a second time with the children. This double pass rendering cycle comes with a drawback. The UI might blink. You can set this flag to true if you are not doing server-side rendering.
- options.initialWidth (Breakpoint [optional]): As window.innerWidth is unavailable on the server, we default to rendering an empty component during the first mount. You might want to use an heuristic to approximate the screen width of the client browser screen width. For instance, you could be using the user-agent or the client-hints. https://caniuse.com/#search=client%20hint, we also can set the initial width globally using custom properties on the theme. In order to set the initialWidth we need to pass a custom property with this shape:

const theme = createMuiTheme({
  props: {
    // withWidth component ⚛️
    MuiWithWidth: {
      // Initial width property
      initialWidth: 'lg', // Breakpoint being globally set 🌎!
    },
  },
});

options.resizeInterval (Number [optional]): Defaults to 166, corresponds to 10 frames at 60 Hz. Number of milliseconds to wait before responding to a screen resize event.

Returns

higher-order component: Should be used to wrap a component.

Examples

import withWidth, { isWidthUp } from '@material-ui/core/withWidth';

class MyComponent extends React.Component {
  render () {
    if (isWidthUp('sm', this.props.width)) {
      return <span />
    }

    return <div />;
  }
}

export default withWidth()(MyComponent);