Why Does My Lower Min-Width Media Query Override My Higher One?

CSS Specificity, Media Queries, and Min-Width: Understanding Precedence

When redesigning websites with a responsive approach, maintaining specificity and understanding the behavior of media queries with min-width is crucial. However, a common pitfall arises when attempting to overwrite CSS values, as the lower min-width setting can take precedence.

Consider the following example:

@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) {
    h2 { font-size: 2.2em; }
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 320px) {
    h2 { font: normal 1.7em/2.1em Helvetica, sans-serif; }
}

At resolutions of 600px and above, it is expected that the font-size of the

element should be 2.2em. However, the output shows 1.7em instead. Despite the 2.2em declaration appearing in the developer tools, it is overridden by the 1.7em setting in the lower min-width query.

Understanding Precedence in Media Queries

This behavior is due to the way media queries are evaluated. When multiple media queries apply to an element, the rule that occurs last in the cascading order takes precedence. In this case, since both media queries evaluate to true for resolutions of 600px and above, the latter query overrides the former.

Resolving the Issue

To resolve this, rearrange the media query blocks so that the rules cascade in the intended order:

@media only screen and (min-width: 320px) {
    h2 { font: normal 1.7em/2.1em Helvetica, sans-serif; }
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) {
    h2 { font-size: 2.2em; }
}

By placing the lower min-width query first, the 2.2em font-size will now take effect at resolutions of 600px and above.

Conclusion

Understanding CSS specificity and the cascading order of media queries is essential for effective responsive design. By carefully considering the order of your media queries, you can ensure that your code behaves as intended and achieves the desired visual output across various screen sizes.

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