How can I reduce font size based on length?

Question

Currently I have some large text on a page, and layout works fine for short text (~12-14 chars in length), but any more than that will overflow or wrap. This is undesirable,

Answer 1

FitText does work with a fluid width.

From the github page :

Make sure your container has a width! display: inline elements don't have a width. Use display: block OR display: inline-block+ a > specified width (i.e. width: 100%).

Bold is mine for emphasis.

Looking on the homepage for FitText also reveals that there are no fixed width units in sight.

I should also mention that there is not a native CSS technique to achieve this. The closest thing would possibly be viewport relative lengths but that doesnt solve your problem.

My additional opinion (danger beware) : In my experience when you are confronted with a problem like this, its because you may be looking at things a little wrong from the design side, And if you require Javascript for your layout to stay intact, I do think that needs to be reconsidered. Nursing a design along is usually better than banging it into place with a crowbar. End Opinion

Answer 2

You could try an iterative approach using javascript.

Put the contents into a span with white-space: nowrap. If span is the span within, you can do something like this:

var maxWidth = span.parentNode.clientWidth;
var currentFont = parseInt(window.getComputedStyle(span).fontSize); // or max font size
while(span.offsetWidth > maxWidth) {
    currentFont--;
    span.style.fontSize = currentFont + "px";
}

This will continually decrement the font until the span fits within its parent.

If the allocated width changes as you resize the window, you may need to run this on window resize.