What is the average resolution i.e pixel width for a standard web page?

Question

Hi,

I just finished constructing web pages and am trying to decide what the optimal lay out should look like. I am trying to decide between a fixed width for my main divs (about 1200 pixles or so) and a variable percentage width. I worry that the variable width will look awful under lower resolutions of under 1600 by 900. I am assuming < 1600 X 900 resolution is pretty rare out there these days but would love some opinions.

Quazi

Re replies:

Thank you all for your valuable remarks. It turns out my problems stemmed from using a mixture of variable divs with fixed width elements. A total disaster for viewing at lower resolutions. Your comments led me in the right direction. thank you

Answer 1

I assume the average resolution for a web page is really just the average resolution for a monitor. I find fixed-width layouts kind of annoying when I go to sites that are only using a fraction of my screen, but I understand why some people do it. Getting it right on a wide range of screens can be a real pain.

If you want to make sure it looks good on all screen sizes, you can use different stylesheets for different resolutions. Or you can alter the layout using javascript as sites like amazon do.

Answer 2

Google has a Browser Size page which shows statistics for the browser window size of people who visit Google. You can overlay any website over the graph to see what would be visible on various browser sizes.

So while this is a different statistic from overall screen resolution, it shows that many people view the web using small browser windows - e.g. 30% have a window smaller than 1000 x 575 or so.

Note - the statistics are apparently about a year old.

I first saw this tool mentioned in this answer to a question on the Pro WebMasters SE.

Answer 3

Be better to use percentage size on CSS.It good for every platform.