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Screen resolutions for web and how they effect website design

When designing a website, a balance has to be struck to reach the widest audience with the intended design.

The trend is consistently moving to larger monitors and screen resolutions. We monitor all our websites’ visitors screen sizes and our results are compatible with the data provided by W3 Schools:

Screen resolution Percentage
800 x 600 pixels 04%
1024 x 768 pixels 36%
Above 1280 pixels 57%

Pixels don’t mean much to most people, so screenshots of a sample website will show how a design stands or falls at different resolutions.

Screen resolution 800 x 600 pixels - 4% of users

8% of the market and falling . . . should be non existent in a few years. You could design a website that accommodates this market, but the design would look pretty strange to the other 92% of users. You also have to ask yourself, who would you want to reach that works on a 12 year old computer?

Screen resolution 800 x 600 pixels

Screen resolution 1024 x 768 pixels - 36% of users

This screen resolution accounts for the vast majority of all internet users, but it is also falling as people switch to larger monitors. For any web developer, their design should fit within these constraints to avoid horizontal scrolling.

Screen resolution 1024 x 768 pixels

Screen resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels and above. 57% of users

Big time? It’s estimated that 38% of users have this screen resolution - and higher. However, you should bear in mind that modern operating systems allow for window resizing - so just because they can view a page at this size doesn’t mean they will. Most users will resize their screen so that the majority of pages on the web look thier best. Which takes us back again to 1024 x 768.

Screen resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels

Tool bars - there’s no accounting for personal preferences

Although we can go as far as possible to accommodate the majority, there’s nothing that can be done for personal preferences. As you can see in this example of a 1024 x 768 screen, if you load up a ton of toolbars into your browser window, it throws the content down - requiring scrolling to reach the navigation.

Screen shot with tool bars

Download PDF version of Screen resolutions 1.3MB

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