[WEB4LIB] Pixel sizes for web pages

[Paul Taylor]

On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Barbara Brattin wrote:

> We are developing a new and improved web site as a 
> team. Some team members believe very strongly that the pages should be 
> created to be viewed within the 800x600 pixel setting. Their argument is, 
> the higher resolution is becoming a standard for commercial sites. 

You might be interested in the figures offered on 

  http://www.statmarket.com/

which suggest that 800x600 is *way* out in front as the resolution being
used on people's displays. Even if you allow for the figures maybe not
being completely representative, the commercial site designers, and your
team members, don't seem too far off beam.

BUT if your monitors are sufficiently small that 800x600 makes for
uncomfortable viewing, then I'd say that that is also important for how you
configure your computers for viewing Web pages!

With regard to designing pages, for pages for use in my own library, I take
account of the machines that will be used to view the pages. If I know that
they have a certain screen resolution, or are using a certain version of a
certain browser, I design for that, rather than worrying about external
trends. So if your pages are used exclusively (or mostly) just within your
library, and viewing comfort is an issue, maybe 640x480 is what you should
be targetting, and who is to say that that is wrong?

The external trends do become more important for world-accessible pages,
where you are catering for an unknown range of resolutions and browsers.
For what it's worth, in that case, my policy is 'work to the lowest
reasonable common denominator'. In other words, if I can be compatible with
the oldest browser and the lowest resolution, I will. After all, a user
with a screen set to 800x600 isn't going to be much inconvenienced by a
page designed to work well at 640x480.  But if I think have a strong enough
need to do something that would slightly disadvantage the very lowest
specification, *and* I believe that only a very small proportion of
visitors would be affected, then I won't force myself into a straitjacket
of 'compatibility at all costs'.


Paul Taylor
Cambridge, UK

pnt at eng.cam.ac.uk