Whats the best dimensions to design website at?

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Guest

I understand that that there is an accepted width and length for a website to
be designed around, so that it will look acceptable in most browsers. Could
anyone tell what the industry standard is?
 
There isn't an industry standard.

A web page is as wide and as long as it needs to be to contain the
content.

I never bother with length, but design for a browser portal width of
800px, others will suggest a width of 920px is more in keeping with
modern monitors. Many users with high resolution or wide screen
monitors may not open the browser to full screen, and may also have side
panels open in the browser which reduces the available width.

The file size of the home page should be kept below about 50KB
(including images, external CSS, Flash and JavaScript files) to allow a
good experience for users on dialup - the page should render completely
within 10-15 seconds. Other pages can be bigger, but keep in mind
people may lose interest after waiting 20 seconds on dialup.
 
Hi Ron
Where does tthe 920 come from I can understand 800 X 600 and 1024 X 768 and
will 920 need to be reduced for the vertical scroll bar?
Thanks
Paul M
 
you need to allow for browser "chrome"...so 750-760px would be your width
for 800, etc.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





| Hi Ron
| Where does tthe 920 come from I can understand 800 X 600 and 1024 X 768
and
| will 920 need to be reduced for the vertical scroll bar?
| Thanks
| Paul M
|
| | > There isn't an industry standard.
| >
| > A web page is as wide and as long as it needs to be to contain the
| > content.
| >
| > I never bother with length, but design for a browser portal width of
| > 800px, others will suggest a width of 920px is more in keeping with
modern
| > monitors. Many users with high resolution or wide screen monitors may
not
| > open the browser to full screen, and may also have side panels open in
the
| > browser which reduces the available width.
| >
| > The file size of the home page should be kept below about 50KB
(including
| > images, external CSS, Flash and JavaScript files) to allow a good
| > experience for users on dialup - the page should render completely
within
| > 10-15 seconds. Other pages can be bigger, but keep in mind people may
| > lose interest after waiting 20 seconds on dialup.
| > --
| > Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
| > Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.
| >
| > http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp
| >
| >
| >
| >
| > | >
| >> I understand that that there is an accepted width and length for a
| >> website to
| >> be designed around, so that it will look acceptable in most browsers.
| >> Could
| >> anyone tell what the industry standard is?
| >> --
| >> webmaster x
| >
|
|
 
920px seems to be the design target for websites from large companies
(Microsoft, for example) when targeting high resolution screens. You
will have to allow for chrome and scroll bars, so the available width
will be 860-880px.
As Rob said, for 800x600 the content should be confined to 760px width.

--
Ron Symonds - Microsoft MVP (FrontPage)
Reply only to group - emails will be deleted unread.

http://www.rxs-enterprises.org/fp




Hi Ron
Where does tthe 920 come from I can understand 800 X 600 and 1024 X 768 and
will 920 need to be reduced for the vertical scroll bar?
Thanks
Paul M
Click to expand...
 
Hi Ron I have had a look at the microsoft web
http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx

and I am not knit picking here I only wish to learn, but it seems that
there web is for 960px with 15px (ish) taken off for chrome
This is getting most confusing, I wish a standard could be set somehow
Best wishes
Paul M
 
Paul M said:
Hi Ron I have had a look at the microsoft web
http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx

and I am not knit picking here I only wish to learn, but it seems that
there web is for 960px with 15px (ish) taken off for chrome
This is getting most confusing, I wish a standard could be set somehow
Click to expand...


That would be sort of like saying, "There should be a standard for the size
of men's socks."

There's no possible way a standard could be set, because there are an
unlimited number of browser window sizes being used, within a large number
of monitor resolutions.

If you wanted to create a pair of "one-size-fits-all" men's socks or
something, you'd look at all the many different sizes, and try to come up
with a size that is big enough for almost everybody, and not hugely too big
for most people.

This is kind of like what we have to do. If you go with 960px, you'll be
fine.
 
Thanks Patty
Best wishes
Paul M
P@tty Ayers said:
That would be sort of like saying, "There should be a standard for the
size of men's socks."

There's no possible way a standard could be set, because there are an
unlimited number of browser window sizes being used, within a large number
of monitor resolutions.

If you wanted to create a pair of "one-size-fits-all" men's socks or
something, you'd look at all the many different sizes, and try to come up
with a size that is big enough for almost everybody, and not hugely too
big for most people.

This is kind of like what we have to do. If you go with 960px, you'll be
fine.
Click to expand...
 
You forgot about stretch socks (liquid design layout).



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





|
| | > Hi Ron I have had a look at the microsoft web
| > http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
| >
| > and I am not knit picking here I only wish to learn, but it seems that
| > there web is for 960px with 15px (ish) taken off for chrome
| > This is getting most confusing, I wish a standard could be set somehow
|
|
| That would be sort of like saying, "There should be a standard for the
size
| of men's socks."
|
| There's no possible way a standard could be set, because there are an
| unlimited number of browser window sizes being used, within a large number
| of monitor resolutions.
|
| If you wanted to create a pair of "one-size-fits-all" men's socks or
| something, you'd look at all the many different sizes, and try to come up
| with a size that is big enough for almost everybody, and not hugely too
big
| for most people.
|
| This is kind of like what we have to do. If you go with 960px, you'll be
| fine.
|
| --
| Patty Ayers | www.WebDevBiz.com
| Free Articles on the Business of Web Development
| Web Design Contract, Estimate Request Form, Estimate Worksheet
| --
|
|
|
 
Rob Giordano (Crash) said:
You forgot about stretch socks (liquid design layout).
Click to expand...

I didn't forget - I just don't personally think that's a good solution. I
used to do a lot of them, but frankly, unless it's a page of plain text,
it's a lot of extra work arranging all text and images so that they look
good at lots of different sizes. With all of the high-resolution monitors
with giant browser windows these days, there's a lot of planning involved.

Plus, I think there are reasons why we call them web "pages". Humans have
been looking at information on paper pages of roughly the same size for a
long, long time, and that size works pretty well. Monitors may continue to
get bigger and bigger, but my sense is that most of us will still will only
want a certain amount of information in our faces at any one time anyway.
 
definitely more work...and math too!


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression





|
| | > You forgot about stretch socks (liquid design layout).
|
| I didn't forget - I just don't personally think that's a good solution. I
| used to do a lot of them, but frankly, unless it's a page of plain text,
| it's a lot of extra work arranging all text and images so that they look
| good at lots of different sizes. With all of the high-resolution monitors
| with giant browser windows these days, there's a lot of planning involved.
|
| Plus, I think there are reasons why we call them web "pages". Humans have
| been looking at information on paper pages of roughly the same size for a
| long, long time, and that size works pretty well. Monitors may continue to
| get bigger and bigger, but my sense is that most of us will still will
only
| want a certain amount of information in our faces at any one time anyway.
|
| --
| Patty Ayers | www.WebDevBiz.com
| Free Articles on the Business of Web Development
| Web Design Contract, Estimate Request Form, Estimate Worksheet
| --
|
|
 
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