default web page width - 1024px or 980px?

Question

When developing web applications, in the past the choice has been 800px or 1024px to fit within the monitor of the user. I\'ve been researching respon

Answer 1

This is a bit of an open ended question since screen sizes are changing all the time and what might have been correct two years ago would likely be out of date now.

I use Twitter Bootstrap 3 at present and it uses a fluid grid system designed to work at sizes ranging from mobile/very small all the way up to the huge wide screen monitors that are now available.

Currently the upper default in BS3 is 1200px which translates to a container width of 1144px after taking account of margins and padding of the grids elements.

In my experience, modern designers are working to a width of around 1366px for desktop. All recent designs I've been given to implement have been 1366px.

Note also that you can customise the BS3 grid quite heavily. For example we will use a 32 column grid with 4px gutter in our sites/designs going forwards.

Ultimately the decision on page width needs to be made based on your website analytics and the screen sizes that your visitors typically use.

Answer 2

even there is no right or wrong answer for this question , but I personally prefer 960px width . since all modern monitors support at least 1024 × 768 pixel resolution. 960 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 32, 40, 48, 60, 64, 80, 96, 120, 160, 192, 240, 320 and 480. This makes it a highly flexible base number to work with.

see this article that shows most popular screens resolutions 2013-2014 in US and UK : http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/best-screen-size/

Answer 3

If it isn't I could see things heading that way.

I'm working on redoing the website for the company I work for and the designer they hired used a 960px width layout. There is also a 960px grid system that seems to be getting quite popular (http://960.gs/).

I've been out of web stuff for a few years but from what I've read catching up on things it seems 960/980 is about right. For mobile ~320px sticks in my mind, by which 960 is divisible. 960 is also evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Answer 4

980 is not the "defacto standard", you'll generally see most people targeting a size a little bit less than 1024px wide to account for browser chrome such as scrollbars, etc.

Usually people target between 960 and 990px wide. Often people use a grid system (like 960.gs) which is opinionated about what the default width should be.

Also note, just recently the most common screen size now averages quite a bit bigger than 1024px wide, ranking in at 1366px wide. See http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/11/move-over-1024x768-the-most-popular-screen-resolution-on-the-web-is-now-1366x768/

Answer 5

I use mostly 978px width for my designs. Adv. of 978px : can be divided by 2,3.