Today's Average Screen Resolution?

ShadowDawn asks: "I'm looking to develop a website for average computer illiterate users and I'm just curious what the average users screen resolution is, now a days? I know 800x600 used to be the main size to develop for, but last I had seen 1024x768 was taking over. I was just wondering if anyone out there ran a 'normal' site that 'normal' people visit and would have some insight."

Comments

ISP website - broad customer base

[Anonymous Coward]

We have about 50% at 1024x768 and about 20% at 800x600. The rest is a wide mix with the common ones being 1280x1024 and 640x480.

Re:ISP website - broad customer base

[toddbu]

We run a commercial website and have similar stats. For all visitors, 1024x768 = 62%, 800x600 = 24%, 1280x1024 = 8%. We also track paying clients separately, and the numbers are 1024x768 = 55%, 800x600 = 26%, 1280x1024 = 10%. I'm always surprised to see the number of dual monitors that we see (2048x768), although the percentage of overall clients is really small.

Fixed width is unnecessary

[Bogtha]

Why do you want to know the screen resolution? That isn't going to tell you what the viewport size is. Non-maximised browsers, browsers with sidebars open, larger than default scrollbars... there's huge amounts of ways in which the viewport size can differ from the screen resolution.

More importantly though, it sounds like you are trying to design a website with a fixed width. That's not necessary. Use percentages, and your layout will expand and contract to fit a wide range of viewports, without leaving an ugly and wasteful gap down the side in larger viewports and without forcing horizontal scrolling for smaller viewports.

I'd like to pre-empt the people complaining that longer line-lengths are harder to read by pointing out that there's evidence to suggest that those studies, while perfectly fine for print, don't apply to computer displays, and in any case can be mitigated by using max-width in ems on <p> elements in a user or author stylesheet.

I'd also like to pre-empt the people who say "but average users don't change the defaults!" by pointing out that, if true, would mean that the average user would be using a non-maximised browser window, as per Internet Explorer and Safari defaults.