What resolution to make my website for?

[Berryracer]

I'm having an urgent question;

In 2008 I created my website (budopower.com)... and at the time a resolution of 1024x768 seemed to be the best choice, on behalf of several forums.
So back than I made my website around that resolution, staying on the safe side by keeping it 1000 pixels in width.
I used 1024x768 as well on my personal laptop.
In 2010 I switched to 1600x900 (for personal use), but didn't touch my website resolution and left it at the previous mentioned 1000 pixels in width.
The site looks pretty descent, viewing at 1600x900.

- Now (4 years later) I recently switched to 1920x1080 on my personal laptop... and now I start to notice I have quite a bit of black (empty) space on both left-/right sides.
The site just looks a bit narrow when viewing at higher resolutions.
Also, the letter font seems to be a bit harder to read, or is that just me?
So I'm starting to think about re-doing my whole website, although I;m not quite sure what resolution would be the best choice to do that in?

* I don't even know IF it's a wise thing to do, re-doing the site in an other resolution?
I mean, what resolution is the most common these days?
(I want to be safe, not being forced to redo it AGAIN in 2015)
Of course I could just go for a bigger letter font and leave the width as it is - at 1000 pixels -, but still it does look a bit narrow for people (like me) who use somewhat higher resolutions...


--> So what do you recommend me?
(bigger letter font, change my resolution... if so, what size)

Thanks

 

[FoBoT]

1280 x 800 or bigger

 

[Berryracer]

Alright thanks!

1280x800 it is

 

[T_Yamamoto]

1280 x 800 or bigger

most likely 1080p because well..everyone has 1080p

 

[RavenSEAL]

most likely 1080p because well..everyone has 1080p

Wrong

 

[Pia]

Try to avoid making it fixed size unless you really, really need to. Good websites should scale gracefully.

If you do make fixed size decisions, then don't go over your old 1k pixel limit. It barely fits a sideways iPad/iPad2, for example. Slightly below 1k is also a good width for a browser filling exactly half of a 1920xX screen, which is how my browsers always are.

 

[Imp]

Whatever the hell Ikea's isn't.

OMFG, can't stand how I can't split screen the Ikea website since it's designed for full-widescreen.

 

[Ken g6]

Try to avoid making it fixed size unless you really, really need to. Good websites should scale gracefully.

This. "Build Responsive Websites Like Bruce Lee"

Edit: more, and still more.

 

[Aluvus]

Also, the letter font seems to be a bit harder to read, or is that just me?

If your new monitor has smaller pixels, then the text will be smaller. This is not (just) a resolution issue. If your text is unusually small (compared to other sites), then maybe making it bigger is a good idea. If it's currently sized in pixels or points rather than something like percentages, then yes you should change that.

So I'm starting to think about re-doing my whole website, although I;m not quite sure what resolution would be the best choice to do that in?

1. Websites should not be built for any one single resolution, but rather to look as good as practical in as many resolutions as practical.

2. If you are going to target a "notional" width, the usual advice continues to be about 1000 pixels.

 

[brianmanahan]

960 px wide

 

[brianmanahan]

using 960.gs

 

[flexy]

If you run a website and are able to collect stats, you would be surprised how MANY (the majority!) of people run ridiculous low resolutions, with most of them 1280 but also many 1024.

If you make a site, ALWAYS design/optimize the site for 1280 at the max. If you make a very simple site, like a one-pager sales letter, you can even go down to 1024 or 800 width.

On that side-note, what gets more important right now, instead of going for higher resolutions like 1600+...if you can use a way to optimize for mobile devices. I have sites where the number of visitors who use smartphones/ipads etc. is about the same as the nr. of people who use chrome...so this is a BIIG chunk of people. If you use wordpress, you should look into options (plugins etc.) where it switches the layout to some mobile optimized one once it detects visitors using a tablet computer.

 

[xanis]

The size of the current site looks fine.

 

[erikistired]

most likely 1080p because well..everyone has 1080p

not sure if you are trolling or not, but the ipad (which is hugely popular) is 1024x768 (outside of the new one, of course), and most laptops seem to be 1366x768. i'm going to stick with the trolling though.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Make it stretch according to what the browser window is set at. I always aim to make a site look fine in 800px or more wide. Now this is actually more important because of tablets and smart phones.

 

[Cerb]

These days, we have line height. It's referred to by the measurement, "em."

Depending on the specific study, somewhere between 50 and 80 em seems to be an ideal width for a block of text. A maximum width can be set in addition to preferred width, so that it can be bounded to the screen width (IE: width: 60em; max-width: 90%).

That way, someone using a new notebook or tablet with double the DPI of their old desktop (well, ~180% I have actually seen) can just have a higher zoom level set, and use it just the same, but someone with a very wide display won't be stuck with 300 character wide lines.

Based on your website's appearance, consider getting to know a good CMS, and use that.

<- 1024x768, 1280x1024 (posting w/ this res), 1440x900, 1680x1050, or 1920x1080, depending on time and location

 

[Leros]

using 960.gs

One thing I really like is adaptive CSS, where your layout changes depending on the width of the browser.

Try changing the width of the screen on this site: http://adapt.960.gs/

 

[zinfamous]

800 x 600

 

[RavenSEAL]

One thing I really like is adaptive CSS, where your layout changes depending on the width of the browser.

Try changing the width of the screen on this site: http://adapt.960.gs/

Neat

 

[Dx3me]

Hi guys,

Well, first of all I would like to thank you all for your feedback... as "Matrix Leader" posted this topic on behalf of mine.
(wasn't a member of this forum at the time)

I will definitely look into this, sounds good I guess.

- 1280 looks to be the resolution I would be aiming for (coming from the current 1000), but before I make the official switch I have to be absolutely sure that it's a safe setting that most people can watch without having to scroll sideways in their browser.
What do you think?

 

[xBiffx]

640 x 480. I want to use my old flip phone to view it dammit.

 

[Dx3me]

Well, in that case I might as well start aiming to make it Nokia N95 compatible...
(that would mean like 60x36 I guess)

 

[RavenSEAL]

Hi guys,

Well, first of all I would like to thansk you all for your feedback... as "Matrix Leader" posted this topic on behalf of mine.
(wasn't a member of this forum at the time)

I will definitely look into this, sounds good I guess.

- 1280 looks to be the resolution I would be aiming for (coming from the current 1000), but before I make the official switch I have to be absolutely sure that it's a safe setting that most people can watch without having to scroll sideways in their browser.
What do you think?

No way in hell anyone has a lower monitor width resolution lower than 1024, unless your potential clients are still in the 90s.

If you're worried about phones, make a mobile version that people would get automatically redirected to.

 

[Krazy4Real]

QFHD (3840x2160)

 

[Saint Nick]

not sure if you are trolling or not, but the ipad (which is hugely popular) is 1024x768 (outside of the new one, of course), and most laptops seem to be 1366x768. i'm going to stick with the trolling though.

Nah, he's not trolling. He's 16.