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Optimum size for web pages
rebel
Posts: 2
Joined: 04 Mar 07
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17 Apr 07 2:57 pm

Optimum size for web pages

What is the optimum size (not bytes but dimensions) for a web page? I see competitors' sites which vary greatly in dimensions and I don't see much of a pattern. Does anyone know, for instance, what percentage of computers are set at say, 800 x 600?

Some of the bigger pages look good but do they get read? It's not much use having Adwords ads with great CTR if the visitors get frustrated and leave because it's too much hassle to read the lines.
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PremiumMember
chatyak86
Posts: 1085
Joined: 17 Jun 06
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17 Apr 07 7:23 pm

 You have two options.

Either design your webpage so that it stretches out to fix X% of the viewer's monitor size....

OR

Set your table to a fixed pixel width.... if you choose this option I would say something under 800..... because if you make it 800 exactly the person will have to scroll sideways.
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PremiumMember
eddie53
Posts: 37
Joined: 24 Aug 06
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17 Apr 07 11:02 pm

 This is a helpful post for members and it would be better if it could be moved to another section eg web site stuff
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Site Admin
markling
Posts: 2071
Joined: 13 Jun 06
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17 Apr 07 11:25 pm

 I've moved this post to the "web site stuff" branch.

Most web designers still design for 800x600 resolutions, although the number of people using this setting has dramatically decreased in the past few years. Now most people are using 1024x768.

Like Adrian said, it is possible to design "fluid" layouts that are based on percentages rather than fixed sizes. These will expand and contract depending on the resolution of your visitor's screen. If you're going to go for this method, I recommend learning how to set maximum widths with CSS, otherwise someone viewing your site with a really huge resolution will experience everything very, very spread out, and it might be hard to read.

If you want to design a fixed-width site for 800x600, make your content no wider than 780 pixels. You have to account for scrollbars on the side.

Hope that helps,
Mark
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