Resolution

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for? I currently work in
1280X1024 and I do appreciate that everyone works in this resolution. I have
heard that the safest option is to design for 800X600 although, some people
use javascript to detect the screen resolution and load approriate.

I can see problems with the javascript method:

(1) Not every system has javascript enable
(2) More than one version of the site has be designed (not much done though)


I was just wondering, as a snapshot, what resolution some you design to?

PhilG wrote:

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for?

http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?AnySizeDesign
Nico

PhilG wrote in message ...

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for?

Just design for all browser sizes, simply by using percentage figures for the width intead of
*fixed* pixel sizes, then whatever size window your viewer has they will see your website filling
their window, rather than squashed up at 800 pixels wide on a huge monitor.

Steve.

"PhilG" <phil (AT) aplusdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for?

None. Or rather, any.

"Resolution", by which I assume you mean screen dimensions in pixels, has
nothing at all to do with the dimensions of the browser canvas.

I currently work in
1280X1024 and I do appreciate that everyone works in this resolution.

No, only some people work at this "resolution". Perhaps you are missing a
'not' :-)

I have
heard that the safest option is to design for 800X600 although,

Why? What is 'safe' about a particular canvas size. My canvas *can* be
3200x1200 (on my development system) or as small as 200x100 (on my
telephone), or any number in between this.

some people
use javascript to detect the screen resolution and load approriate.

A silly thing to do and unreliable at that. Screen "resolution" does not
equal canvas size.

Design for any canvas size.

I can see problems with the javascript method:

(1) Not every system has javascript enable

Yep. My telephone does not.

(2) More than one version of the site has be designed (not much done
though)

Not if you use a liquid design. If you go down the road of a different site
for different 'relolutions' you will rapidly aproach an infinite number of
sites.

I was just wondering, as a snapshot, what resolution some you design to?

None, or rather any.

Cheers
Richard.

PhilG wrote:

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for?

mine - or more specifically: your visitor

...
I was just wondering, as a snapshot, what resolution some you design
to?

any reasonable value

btw: you do of course mean window size. screen resolution is immaterial.

--
William Tasso - http://WilliamTasso.com

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for? I currently work
in
1280X1024 and I do appreciate that everyone works in this resolution. I
have
heard that the safest option is to design for 800X600 although, some
people
use javascript to detect the screen resolution and load approriate.

I can see problems with the javascript method:

(1) Not every system has javascript enable
(2) More than one version of the site has be designed (not much done
though)


I was just wondering, as a snapshot, what resolution some you design to?

Not really replying to myself but let me see if I have got the gist of this
correct.

You do not design to a screen/browser resolution, you let the design do the
work, by that I mean fluid design. If you design to a specific resolution
then you tie yourself to that size and you will most probably have
horizontal scroll bars.

As I read in one of the links, a fluid design is one where the page loads
and fills the screen/browser whatever the resolution.

Is that close?

The reason that I asked the original question is that, so far, all my design
attempts have been of the fixed variety. I now wish to progress to something
that is much more universal and pleasing to the eye!

"PhilG" <phil (AT) aplusdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote in
news:3fc47665$0$12706$fa0fcedb (AT) lovejoy (DOT) zen.co.uk:

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for?

Every possible one.

I currently
work in 1280X1024 and I do appreciate that everyone works in this
resolution.

I'm guessing you dropped a "not" there.

I have heard that the safest option is to design for

800X600 although, some people use javascript to detect the screen
resolution and load approriate.

I think you need to understand the difference between "screen resolution"
and "browser viewport size."

I can see problems with the javascript method:

(1) Not every system has javascript enable

True.

(2) More than one version of the site has be designed (not much done
though)

That is, as I think you understand, a real hassle. Much better to design a
layout that adapts to any viewport size (with the understanding that things
will inevitably fall apart a bit if, for example, the viewport size is less
than the dimensions of some truly critical image. Any viewer in such a
situation knows that a compromise is involved there).

See, for example, <http://www.allmyfaqs.com/faq.pl?AnySizeDesign>.

"PhilG" <phil (AT) aplusdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote

What is the best/safest screen resolution to design for? I currently
work
in
1280X1024 and I do appreciate that everyone works in this resolution. I
have
heard that the safest option is to design for 800X600 although, some
people
use javascript to detect the screen resolution and load approriate.

I can see problems with the javascript method:

(1) Not every system has javascript enable
(2) More than one version of the site has be designed (not much done
though)


I was just wondering, as a snapshot, what resolution some you design to?


Not really replying to myself but let me see if I have got the gist of
this
correct.

You do not design to a screen/browser resolution, you let the design do
the
work, by that I mean fluid design. If you design to a specific resolution
then you tie yourself to that size and you will most probably have
horizontal scroll bars.

As I read in one of the links, a fluid design is one where the page loads
and fills the screen/browser whatever the resolution.

Is that close?

The reason that I asked the original question is that, so far, all my
design
attempts have been of the fixed variety. I now wish to progress to
something
that is much more universal and pleasing to the eye!

"pleasing to the eye"
....beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It has nothing to do with screen
resolution unless you want to get semantically distracted.
....by the way, screen resolution *is* the term to use -- go to display
properties/settings and you will see for yourself!!
Don't get distracted by the misinformation offered by a few gearheads in
this ng!

--
W

"West" <not (AT) this (DOT) one> wrote

"PhilG" <phil (AT) aplusdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote in message
news:3fc47e8a$0$12666$fa0fcedb (AT) lovejoy (DOT) zen.co.uk...

...by the way, screen resolution *is* the term to use -- go to display
properties/settings and you will see for yourself!!

This is only because microsoft, as usual got it wrong. What they really
meant to say on that dialog was "screen dimensions in pixels". This is
reinforced by the annotation below the slider bar which reads, in my case
"1600 by 1200 pixels". Note the term 'pixels'. It does not say 'pixels per
inch' or 'pixels per parsec', it says "pixels", which I interpret to mean
"pixels per screen"

It is sad that this single microsoft mistake has has lead to a generation of
people who don't really know what "resolution" really is.

Resolution is usually expressed as so many things per something. What is
your printer resolution? It is probably 600 dots per inch like mine is. That
is exact. The printer spurts out 600 dots in an inch, each of them 1/600
inches wide. A peice of 8 inch wide paper is ... 4800 "pixels" wide.

What is the resolution of your screen? Is it 800 pixels per 15 inches or
1275 pixels per 10 feeet (yes, I do have a display that is 10 feeet wide, it
is my home theatre projector).

The "resolution" of your screen is most certainly not 800x600, without any
units. At the very least it is 800x600 pixels per screen.

Microsoft got it even more wrong in that dialog. Press that Advanced button.
You get to choose your DPI. What is this? Dots Per Inch? How the bloody
hell do they know how wide in inches my screen is? It might be my telephone.
It might be my ten feet wide TV projector. This DPI value is merely a
multipication factor the screen drivers use to scale text when they need to
convert font points into pixels. Nothing to do with "inches" of "milemetres"
or "fathoms".



Regardless of the "resolution" issue: the browser may not be maximixed, mine
never is. Even if it is are the borders/scrollbars/office toolbars taken
into account? Answer: rarely.

Don't get distracted by the misinformation offered by a few gearheads in
this ng!

Yes, do get distracted by the information probided by the gearheads in this
group. Those gearheads just may be experts in their field. They just may
know what they are talking about ;-)

Cheers
Richard.

"PhilG" <phil (AT) aplusdesign (DOT) co.uk> wrote

You do not design to a screen/browser resolution, you let the design do the
work, by that I mean fluid design. If you design to a specific resolution
then you tie yourself to that size and you will most probably have
horizontal scroll bars.

not necessarily, u will only get horizontal scrollbars if u design at a greater resolution than the
viewer is using

As I read in one of the links, a fluid design is one where the page loads
and fills the screen/browser whatever the resolution.

yes

The reason that I asked the original question is that, so far, all my design
attempts have been of the fixed variety. I now wish to progress to something
that is much more universal and pleasing to the eye!

fixed width can also be pleasing to the eye, if u were to use a fixed width then 800px would be the
minimum to use
---------------------------------------------------
Hung Diep
New Media Designer
www.intro-spect.co.uk
0795 6576 319