If your screen resolution is 1024 x 768, how many pixels do you generally have to play with when you’re developing for the browser? I don’t want to do a fixed width design but I need a rough guideline for my GUI documentation.
@DocileWalnutSep 02.2004 — #The general consensus is that the width of your design should be 20-30 pixels smaller than the actual resolution. However, it's usually best to have it moreso.
Height is generally of no concern, unless it's integral to your design for it to fit on one page.
Also, take into consideration 8x6 users.
I find that making a layout 750 wide generally is the best.
Hope this helps.
[I]Oh, and if it at all matters, 1024x768 is 786432.[/I]
@Stephen_PhilbinSep 02.2004 — #Don't even think about trying to make a page that nicely fills the entire browser window unless you define every single element on the entitre page using relative definitions. Define anything in pixels and your page will likely die an ugly death very quickly.
Width is not too much of a problem. Sticking with around 760 - 770 px for width will see you right most of the time, but height is not something you really want to go for unless you have to. Even the same resolution with the same browser on the same operating system can give massively varied viewable page height.
@JPnycSep 02.2004 — #I usually go with 800 to 820 so that it will fit on 800 but not look lost on 1024. I've also written a page where everything's size, from fonts to images, is a % of client width, so it looks proportionally the same at any resolution. Actually, the script is called on resize, so if you resize the browser, the page always fits in it the same way.
@careyfauthorSep 02.2004 — #Thanks everyone. Just a note, I would generally support 800x600, but not for this particular project. It's only for our use and it would be very hard to fit everything they want into this size.
@PeOfEoSep 02.2004 — #Make it fluid, can't you? That way you do not have to worrie about individual resolutions because the site will resize for other resolutions.
@careyfauthorSep 02.2004 — #It will be as fluid as possible, but I need to write a document that states what the target resolution is and other GUI considerations (colours, fonts etc).