The devicePixelRatio
of Window
interface returns the ratio of the resolution in physical pixels to the resolution in CSS pixels for the current display device. This value could also be interpreted as the ratio of pixel sizes: the size of one CSS pixel to the size of one physical pixel. In simpler terms, this tells the browser how many of the screen's actual pixels should be used to draw a single CSS pixel.
This is useful when dealing with the difference between rendering on a standard display versus a HiDPI or Retina display, which use more screen pixels to draw the same objects, resulting in a sharper image.
You can use window.matchMedia()
to check if the value of devicePixelRatio
changes (which can happen, for example, if the user drags the window to a display with a different pixel density). See the example below.
Syntax
value = window.devicePixelRatio;
Value
A double-precision floating-point value indicating the ratio of the display's resolution in physical pixels to the resolution in CSS pixels. A value of 1 indicates a classic 96 DPI (76 DPI on some platforms) display, while a value of 2 is expected for HiDPI/Retina displays. Other values may be returned as well in the case of unusually low resolution displays or, more often, when a screen has a higher pixel depth than simply double the standard resolution of 96 or 76 DPI.
Examples
Correcting resolution in a <canvas>
A <canvas>
can appear too blurry on retina screens. Use window.devicePixelRatio
to determine how much extra pixel density should be added to allow for a sharper image.
HTML
<canvas id="canvas"></canvas>
JavaScript
var canvas = document.getElementById('canvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
// Set display size (css pixels).
var size = 200;
canvas.style.width = size + "px";
canvas.style.height = size + "px";
// Set actual size in memory (scaled to account for extra pixel density).
var scale = window.devicePixelRatio; // Change to 1 on retina screens to see blurry canvas.
canvas.width = Math.floor(size * scale);
canvas.height = Math.floor(size * scale);
// Normalize coordinate system to use css pixels.
ctx.scale(scale, scale);
ctx.fillStyle = "#bada55";
ctx.fillRect(10, 10, 300, 300);
ctx.fillStyle = "#ffffff";
ctx.font = '18px Arial';
ctx.textAlign = 'center';
ctx.textBaseline = 'middle';
var x = size / 2;
var y = size / 2;
var textString = "I love MDN";
ctx.fillText(textString, x, y);
[[../../../../../../media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2017/05/11/15023/4e7a7b52797becfedc2eefe8f5e4cb1d/devicePixelRation%20Diff..png|[[File:../../../../../../media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2017/05/11/15023/4e7a7b52797becfedc2eefe8f5e4cb1d/devicePixelRation%20Diff..png|This image describe the impact of different value on retina display. ]]]]
Monitoring screen resolution or zoom level changes
In this example, we'll set up a media query and watch it to see when the device resolution changes, so that we can check the value of devicePixelRatio
to handle any updates we need to.
JavaScript
The JavaScript code creates the media query that monitors the device resolution and checks the value of devicePixelRatio
any time it changes.
let pixelRatioBox = document.querySelector(".pixel-ratio");
let mqString = `(resolution: ${window.devicePixelRatio}dppx)`;
const updatePixelRatio = () => {
let pr = window.devicePixelRatio;
let prString = (pr * 100).toFixed(0);
pixelRatioBox.innerText = `${prString}% (${pr.toFixed(2)})`;
}
updatePixelRatio();
matchMedia(mqString).addListener(updatePixelRatio);
The string mqString
is set up to be the media query itself. The media query, which begins as (resolution: 1dppx)
(for standard displays) or (resolution: 2dppx)
(for Retina/HiDPI displays), checks to see if the current display resolution matches a specific number of device dots per px
.
The updatePixelRatio()
function fetches the current value of devicePixelRatio
, then sets the innerText
of the element pixelRatioBox
to a string which displays the ratio both as a percentage and as a raw decimal value with up to two decimal places.
Then the updatePixelRatio()
function is called once to display the starting value, after which the media query is created using matchMedia()
and addEventListener()
is called to set up updatePixelRatio()
as a handler for the change
event.
HTML
The HTML creates the boxes containing the instructions and the pixel-ratio
box that will display the current pixel ratio information.
<div class="container">
<div class="inner-container">
<p>This example demonstrates the effect of zooming the page in
and out (or moving it to a screen with a different scaling
factor) on the value of the property <code>Window.devicePixelRatio</code>.
Try it and watch what happens!</p>
</div>
<div class="pixel-ratio"></div>
</div>
CSS
body {
font: 22px arial, sans-serif;
}
.container {
top: 2em;
width: 22em;
height: 14em;
border: 2px solid #22d;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 0;
background-color: #a9f;
}
.inner-container {
padding: 1em 2em;
text-align: justify;
text-justify: auto;
}
.pixel-ratio {
position: relative;
margin: auto;
height: 1.2em;
text-align: right;
bottom: 0;
right: 1em;
font-weight: bold;
}
Result
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
CSS Object Model (CSSOM) View ModuleThe definition of 'Window.devicePixelRatio' in that specification. | Working Draft | Initial definition |
Browser compatibility
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
Update compatibility data on GitHub
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
devicePixelRatio
|
Chrome
Full support 1 |
Edge
Full support 12 |
Firefox
Full support 18 |
IE
Full support 11 |
Opera
Full support 11.1 |
Safari
Full support 3 |
WebView Android
Full support 1 |
Chrome Android
Full support 18 |
Firefox Android
Full support 18 |
Opera Android
Full support 11.1 |
Safari iOS
Full support 1 |
Samsung Internet Android
Full support 1.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
See also
Window.devicePixelRatio by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.