[WEB4LIB] RE: monitor resolution

[Nettie Lagace]

Another thing to note is that printing is difficult, if not impossible, for widths over about 700 pixels.  Last week I visited http://www.financialweb.com/ , which was a really content-rich site, but tables throughout are set at 778 pixels. I had to set my Netscape print margins to **zero** in order to get the stuff to my clients.  I complained via email to the site editor, and he replied that the table width was the result of a recent redesign overhaul; he'd personally opposed going over 600 pixels but had lost out to other members of the team.

So if you've got stuff that people will want to print out (and who doesn't? :-), watch it, I say.

Nettie

Nettie Lagace
Business Information Librarian
Baker Library, Harvard Business School
http://www.library.hbs.edu/
--------------------------------------
alagace at hbs.edu * 617-495-5917

At 03:06 PM 10/12/98 -0700, Thomas Dowling wrote:
>This question pops up on the HTML authoring newsgroups on a fairly regular
>basis.  The consensuses (consensi?) are:
>
>1.  Being a display-independent language, HTML is strangely resistant to
>assumptions about the user's screen layout.  A page that is too dependent
>on any particular screen layout will eventually screw someone up.
>
>2.  No one has reliable data.  People suspect that a lot of novice users
>stick to the out-of-the-box setting of 640x480, but no one knows for sure.
>(Is this even the OOB setting any more?)
>
>3.  People using higher resolutions are less likely to run any program
>full screen (I'm a case in point: running at 1280x1024 resolution, my
>browser windows are seldom even 600 pixels wide).
>
>4.  There is apparently a JavaScript hack for determining screen size.
>This is a shortcut to overlooking item 3.
>
>5.  Users who have the choice of horizontal scrolling or not viewing your
>page won't view your page.
>
>6.  Absolute page widths are an imposition on the user and seldom
>necessary.
>
>7.  Someone will eventually try to view your page with their brand new
>Palm Pilot or WinCE handheld.  That person will be your boss.
>
>
>Probably not the answer you were looking for, but points all web authors
>should be aware of.
>
>
>Thomas Dowling
>OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
>tdowling at ohiolink.edu
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: web4lib at webjunction.org
>> [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]On Behalf Of Kevin Justie
>> Sent: Monday, October 12, 1998 5:35 PM
>> To: Multiple recipients of list
>> Subject: [WEB4LIB] monitor resolution
>>
>>
>> In the context of designing web pages (to answer the question
>> of how much
>> content will be seen on the first screen?), has anyone ever seen any
>> studies on what monitor resolutions people use?  Monitor sales figures
>> don't answer the question since most (all?) monitors support multiple
>> resolutions.  What I'm looking for is number of people using 640x480,
>> 800x600, 1024x768, etc.
>>
>> Thanks!
>