Question

How can I determine using jQuery that a given element is above the top of the viewable window area or below the bottom of it? This would allow me to determine whether the item was offscreen and in which direction.

Ideally:

var topPos = $(this).relativeToTop();
var bottomPos = $(this).relativeToBottom();
var isOnScreen = topPos >= 0 && bottomPos >= 0;

Is there a plugin or example online somewhere?

Answer 1

var off = $(this).offset();
var t = off.top;
var l = off.left;
var h = $(this).height();
var w = $(this).width();
var docH = $(window).height();
var docW = $(window).width();

var isEntirelyVisible = (t > 0 && l > 0 && t + h < docH && l+ w < docW);

EDIT
somewhere in there, it might be an idea to check $(document).scrollTop() as well, depending on how you want the script to deal with scroll state…