Re: Maximum suggested page width for 800x600 browsers

> But... I have to design for graphics, logos, navigation structures,
> etc.
Everyone has graphics, logos, navigation structures, etc. on their site. And
most sites generally accomodate 640x480 screens.

> I know that I CANNOT accommodate 480 pixel width screens without
> horizontal scrolling.  AND, I know that I don't want the content
> stretched out on a 1600 pixel width screen such as I am using at the
> moment.
480 pixels is the height. The resolution I'm assuming you're thinking of
is 640x480 where the width is 640. After you take into consideration the
browser window borders, scrollbar, and margins, it's generally better to
make sure everything can fit horizontally on about 580 pixels in width.
If you use Photoshop to create your design layouts, create it within
a 580x580 pixels image. Even when I do that, after breaking up the layout
I usually end up making the site be viewable at much smaller resolutions than
that.

And if you do decide to design for a larger resolution, then your site will
still not be particularly friendly for people at 800x600, 1024x768, and
up because it'll be out of proportion to other sites on the web. When I was
using 1024x768 (I'm now at 1600x1200), I was always annoyed by sites
designed for 800x600 because all the graphics were much larger than they
should have been. It was like someone had put a magnifying glass over
the screen because the designer didn't take into consideration the fact
that people use 800x600 and higher resolutions so they could actually
have more space on their screen rather to have everything be crowded
all over again.

And as far as your concerns about a site stretching at 1600x1200, there
are ways to make that much more graceful. You just need to ask the list
when you're having problems making that happen.

- Bart

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