IE6 and CSS media types
When trying to reduce the number of HTTP requests on a web project I was working on, I tried to combine my screen and print stylesheets into a single file. Using the @media declaration, one should be able to specify media-specific styles. Other browsers were ok, but as usual IE6 was playing up. My @media print block was completely ignored.
The setup
First, I had only generic rules and a single print block, like so:
body { font-size: 12px }
@media print {
body { font-size: 14pt }
}
Then, I included the stylesheet on my page with a media type:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" media="screen, projection">
As I understood the specs all generic styles (outside the @media print block) should apply to the media specified in the link, while the print-specific styles should apply only to the print media type.
The solution
It seems the media type from the link overrides the @media print block in IE6, so removing that un-ignored those styles:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css">
Then, in order to keep my generic styles (which are actually screen-only styles) from influencing my print styles, I used another @media block:
@media screen {
body { font-size: 12px }
}
@media print {
body { font-size: 14pt }
}
All was well and both my screen and print styles were picked up nicely. Now I could use one single stylesheet and remove one additional HTTP request, speeding up the site loading time.
