What is the optimum resolution for a Silverlight Application?

Question

I read and article talking about moving beyond 960px width for websites. This width is considered optimal since it is divisable by 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 16 (no these aren't the Lost Numbers ;-) ) This helps in grid placement and this really doesn't apply to Silverlight apps but I started to wonder what would be optimal.

What would you recommend as the optimal resolution for a Silverlight app?

I'm thinking 960 x 720 would be in the range of almost every monitor out there.
Or maybe the next step down 720 x 540?

Answer 1

Personally, for the type of apps I do, I wouldn't bother to try and support people with less than 960px of available space. There is always going to be somebody with outdated tech/monitor size...and 960 is probably going to cover 95% or more of any target audience for me.

Answer 2

The optimum for a Silverlight application would be whatever the user has the resolution set to - the application scales accordingly.

Refer to this MSDN article for more information.

Answer 3

One thing you need to be careful of is that a lot of laptops have a maximum vertical resolution of 800 pixels, and once you add the title bar, toolbars, start menu, status bar, etc. you're actually very easily below 600 pixels for vertical screen space. It can be even worse with netbooks. I've seen too many Silverlight apps that are 600 pixels or more vertically and they get cut off because the div isn't set to the proper height to make the page scroll.

Answer 4

I agree with Anthony that you should just let the app resize itself. Just make sure that the app and all of the controls scale well (nothing gets cut off or stretched too big or too small) when going to a really small size to a really big size.