What is the best absolute width for a webpage? [closed]

Answer 1

At one time it was 800px; however, more and more sites are beginning to use 1000px. This is driven by the fact that, more often than not, visitors' low end resolutions are at 1024x768. The additional 24 pixels leaves room for the browser chrome, padding and margins you may want to manipulate, etc.

Just to give some perspective, even the new wave of netbooks with their tiny screen have resolutions of 1024x768.

But, above all else, know your audience as @warren suggests and capitalize on that.

Answer 2

According to these statistics, a minimum of 1024 pixels wide will cover most users.

Answer 3

Check out http://browsersize.com for some quick stats on screen resolutions users use nowadays. You can use http://setmy.browsersize.com to quickly resize your browser to emulate viewing your website at a particular screen resolution. Make sure that your layout satisfies at least the most widely used screen resolution (1024 x 768).

Also, don't necessarily aim to take up the maximum horizontal space. The width of text (number of words per line) ideally shouldn't exceed a certain threshold for usability:

At the very common 1024×768 screen resolution, most fixed-layout websites don’t use all available space to the left and right of their content. Flexible layouts make a better use of horizontal space, but struggle to maintain usable line-lengths. Usability experts have told us that there are just so many words you should put on a line. Between 8 and 12 words seems to be the ideal line length. Print media, especially newspapers, don’t hesitate to use even shorter lines. Why? Because they can, by laying out text across several columns.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/css3multicolumn

Answer 4

The maximum website width for optimal performance and cross-monitors compatibility is 960px when it is related to desktops and laptops.

For more details on how and why see the following article:

Screen Size and Resolution

Answer 5

If you use a fixed width that is any wider than the smallest screen likely to visit your site, you will annoy and frustrate users who have to scroll sideways to get to the rest of your content.

Answer 6

I vote to divide the motion here. Just because screen sizes are X doesn't mean that X or anything that is close to it is the best design for your website.

Your website purpose has a lot to do with the width that you choose.

Many marketing experts think that a more narrow column "converts" more visits into sales. Perhaps this is because it is easier to direct people's attention if the page is narrow.

On the other hand, a site dedicated to images should show at the best available resolution for each visiting browser.