Aspect box
Sample HTML
<div class="ds_aspect-box ds_aspect-box--square">
<img alt="Thistle flowers in a field" class="ds_aspect-box__inner">
</img></div>About this component
Aspect box is a component used to constrain an image to a particular aspect ratio, cropping the image if necessary. It supports common aspect ratios of:
- 1:1 (square)
- 4:3 (standard fullscreen)
- 16:9 (standard widescreen)
- 21:9 (anamorphic widescreen)
Why we use this component
While it is preferable to use exactly-sized images for best performance, doing so is not always practical. Using the aspect box component to crop incorrectly-sized images helps with art direction and maintaining a uniform appearance, for example in a grid of image cards where differently-sized images would make the page appear jumbled.
Related components
Accessibility
Aspect box uses a CSS property not supported in old browsers, and we address this using a fallback which restructures the HTML. The fallback clones the alt attribute of the image as an ARIA label on the replacement HTML so that assistive technologies will still announce the text.
The fallback requires JavaScript to be enabled in the user’s browser.
Implementation
Aspect boxes use an aspect ratio of 16:9 (standard widescreen) by default. To specify a different aspect ratio, there are 3 modifier classes you can use.
| Aspect ratio | Modifier class |
|---|---|
| 1:1 | ds_aspect-box--square |
| 4:3 | ds_aspect-box--43 |
| 21:9 | ds_aspect-box--219 |
Feedback, help and support
If you need help or support you can e-mail us at designsystem@gov.scot
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