Thought on screen sizes for Tablets and Phones

[pauland]

So a 320x480 image on an iPhone4 would only fill half the screens area (?)

No, the iPhone browser treats the screen as though the resolution is 320x480 even though it's double that. The browser would take the 320x480 image and expand it to fill 640x960. If you told the browser the image should fit in 320x480 and supplied it with a 640x960 image it would show the 640x960 image in all it's glory.

Would I be right in saying no computer has ever known the real world size of its monitor screen, just the resolution it puts onto it?

Yes, the computer doesn't care how big the pixels are.

industry standard resolution limits

I have no idea what that means. There are no limits.

I'm not sure what your last point was. The table I gave a link to indicates the actual sizes and resolutions, it can never be definitive because new device come along all the time. All we can be sure of knowing is that the browser will have a display area of some size. From our point of view the actual resolution of the screen doesn't matter quite so much, but we can provide higher quality graphics to make use of any enhanced resolution.

It is complicated.

[Arpeggio]

I just meant what resolution was the maximum that could be achieved at that time if there is such a thing. I suppose it wouldn't be as much an issue with the screen treated as 320x480 and scaling everything between 320x480 to 640x960 to fill the screen, If I've understood this right.

So if I make a website version at 640x960 to suit that, then I would need to make the content and buttons large and spaced apart enough for a person using a screen with a physical width of 56.1mm (iphone4 screen width apparently) regardless of how 640x906 looks on the computer monitor that I am using to create the website!?

I wonder if a website or image that is larger than 640x960, on the iPhone4, would be scaled down to fit the screen and appear smaller than intended, or would it go off the edge of the screen?

Certainly is complicated!

[pauland]

[QUOTE=Arpeggio;523177]I just meant what resolution was the maximum that could be achieved at that time if there is such a thing. I suppose it wouldn't be as much an issue with the screen treated as 320x480 and scaling everything between 320x480 to 640x960 to fill the screen, If I've understood this right.

So if I make a website version at 640x960
No, design the phone website for 320x480, which is what safari sees things at. Xara now has an option for generating graphics at higher resolution for retina-type screens.

make the content and buttons large and spaced apart enough for a person
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1085
Apple recommends touch areas of at least 44points ( 44 pixels on your web design ).

I wonder if a website or image that is larger than 640x960, on the iPhone4, would be scaled down to fit the screen and appear smaller than intended, or would it go off the edge of the screen?
Scrollbars.

Certainly is complicated!
It can be.

[Arpeggio]

Thanks. Will bear all this in mind when using WD10. Am exited about making dynamic responsive websites.