How much longer do you cater for the 800 x 600 screen resolution?

[Egg Bramhill]

It's been an almost unwritten law that web pages are created for an 800 pix x 600 pix resolution.

Like Web Safe colours at some time this standard will become defunct, as did 640 x 480 resolution standard. But when? Looking at the latest data from HERE it would suggest that by Jan 2009 only 2% of surfers will be using 800 x 600 resolution.

I create sites using 1024 x 768 but give an alternative for lower resolution users.

No bone to pick, just interested in your views.

[steve.ledger]

Personally I don't follow why big screens and larger resolutions should mean web pages should be created to fill the extra space.
I have always thought that a web page should print perfectly on an A4 sheet of paper without any special conditions or 'printer friendly' page creation being necessary.

Large wide-screen monitors simply mean you can view two documents side by side. No need to stretch the document when you can't print it that size in any case.

Have paper back books or newpapers changed in size relative to the improved technology which produces them? Of course not.
If they had, then I'd expect a paperback to be the size of a box of cornflakes by now

It's more about ergonomics surely.

Of course the rule changes with multi-media flash and online game sites designed to entertain. Like cinema screens, bigger is better

[ss-kalm]

I agree with Steve - Nothing infuriates me more than printing a site to find that most of the important text is not on the page.

[Egg Bramhill]

That's strange, I've never considered the printing function of a web site (except in Flash as printing can be a problem here). I very rarely do so. Personally I find the restriction of a max width of 770 pixels limiting. The "shrink to fit" option on printing suits my rare printing excursions just fine. I've noticed that more and more big sites are dropping the 800 restriction and moving to a 1024 width. BBC, Ebay etc.

[zaphodeist]

The BBC says 95% of end-users have 1024 or over. I find the concept of printing a web page a bit alien - though I suppose some will want to - but I agree with Steve, if a page is likely to be printed, then A4 is logical.

[remi]

The best approach is, to design your pages resolution independent.
Ok, ok unfortunately this is not always possible.

Some widths of known websites:

• Firefox website: 950px
• Apple website: 982px
• Microsoft website: 934px

Regards,
Remi

[steve.ledger]

That's strange, I've never considered the printing function of a web site (except in Flash as printing can be a problem here).

..and

neodeist: I find the concept of printing a web page a bit alien

I guess my history has set my opinion in stone. Years ago I won a competition run by a local ISP to design their new website, one of the things was that it had to print gracefully to normal home printers.
All information sites should print to an A4 page in my opinion, they are called web *pages* after all
But seriously, as I see hundreds of home computers users each year and answer their questions about their computing and internet woes it so very often comes up that they get so frustrated trying to print some information they found on a web site (geneology for example is very common amongst older generation users) only to find it doesn't print right on their home A4 printer simply because the site designer hasn't considered this.
It's a fundamental flaw that makes no sense to me.
Websites are morphing into TV style productions now with flash and I suppose Silverlight etc, and it's unlikely that very many people will want to print these multi-media style sites, but basically for information sites we are still talking an online 'magazine' style *publication* with *pages* which can reasonably be expected to print to an A4 sheet of paper. It's obviously a more common requirement of home users than some have realised.
So yes, in my view all websites should be resolution independent rather than fixed.

Incidentally, eBay isn't fixed at 1024 - it will shrink to around 762 - 840 pix before a horizontal scroll bar appears & will print perfectly to an A4 page (though some sellers create html content that can blow it out) as does vBulletin actually, they are resolution independent allowing for printing See window width on Opera title bar in screen shot below, which also shows a print preview of the eBay site, perfectly fitting an A4 sheet of paper..

[raynerj1]

A browser is not fixed width, so web pages should not be fixed width.