Website fixed width

I am developing a website. I heard that it is best to have a website with a fixed开发者_开发问答 width. What possibly could be the best fixed width I can allocate to my website ?

As Yahoo says:

* #doc - 750px centered (good for 800x600)
* #doc2 - 950px centered (good for 1024x768)
* #doc3 - 100% fluid (good for everybody)
* #doc4 - 974px fluid (good for 1024x768)

I recommend using yahoo styles and follow their advice. Another helpful resource is Display Browser Statisics from w3schools.com.

While I agree to a point with those who say variable width has its benefits, I find that unless there is significant content, when a site stretches the content winds up looking pretty sparse as it's stretched out to wider widths. It's for this reason alone that many of my client request fixed-width skins. Keeping a site narrow can help frame the content and maintain a more 'constant' appearance (when that's a concern). Usually, when designing fixed width sites I use the stats over at the W3C for the most popular resolutions. Currently, I've been designing with ~980px wide, this allows for 1028 wide, with scroll bars and some background to still be seen. However, I am noticing a shift in statistics towards wider resolutions as more people adopt wide screen monitors.

However, it really does come down to what you feel is a good fit for the site, content and client.

960 Grid System argues that 960 pixels is a wise choice since the number has so many divisors. I am not sure that I agree, but they sure have an impressive list of demo web pages on their site.

You can find a link to a fluid alternative at the bottom of the page.

In my experience the fixed vs. fluid debate seems to be a designer vs. programmer discussion. Designers generally prefer a fixed layout because that will give them more control, while programmers generally prefer a fluid layout because that will let them choose the width they want, by setting the width of the browser window.

Ideally your website should scale with the width of the screen resolution. But that is difficult in most of the cases. Since most of the users still use 1024x768 resolution, so any width such that all the content appears on such a screen without needing to scroll is a good width.

Where did you hear that? A website with a fixed width comes with the problem that it (most times) only looks good where the screen suits the width. Think of a website with a fixed width of 768px, how would that page look on a resolution of 1920x1200?

You should develop websites that scale with the browsers resolution.

Here is a little hack that might come in handy. On the larger screens I find that not having a 100% width is good as the amount of horizontal eye scrolling is more than what is comfortable. About an A4 or foolscap page is what people like their content width to be.

However on very small screens if you set your width to 70% or 80% you will be wasting valuable screen resolution. So workout what is the smallest width in pixels that you will allow - for argument's sake let's say it is 800px.

Create a 1x1 pixel image the same color as your background. Then put this image into your content pane (div, table whatever you are using for layout) but set width="800px" height="1px", this will force your content to always be at least 800px wide but not cover the fullscreen on resolutions that have width greater than 800px.

As I said it's hack, and it may or may not be exactly what you were looking for.

Because websites can appear in any number of browsers, on any number of devices, at any number of resolutions, (phone, netbook or cinema screen?) a fixed width is a kludge. Kludges can work, but it would be better to design for a purpose, instead of deciding on some arbitrary rules and then sticking to them without really knowing why.

Don't just go with 1024px because most people can handle that in most cases. Know what you're trying to achieve, and use that to inform your decision.

So, who're you targetting, and what do you want them to do?

This kind of question really has to do with theming/templating and if you are using a CMS like drupal (and many others) can be flexibly handled to provide you anything you want. Fixed or fluid - whatever. You even can let your users decide.