It`s that age old question that gets asked time and time again!!

I`m currently re-designing one of my sites, and I was hoping I could keep it `stretchable` however it`s proving to be a nightmare!!

I have quite a few images for the homepage, mainly in the form of charts and maps that vary from 150px to 350px. Of course with this many images it leaves ugly white spaces when the browser resolution is increased. My homepage is based on three columns, with the left and right columns fixed and the center column is fluid (%).

I`m getting close to thinking to heck with the fluid width, and just fixing it at one width and be done with it. Am I bad for thinking such? I know fluid sites look nice, but they can be a real pain!! Many of the big sites opt for a fixed width: CNN, BBC, weather.com etc etc.

So my question, if I opted for a fixed width, what resolution should I be playing for - 800px or 1024px? Obviously the latter is much more popular, but of course those on 800px would be left with the scroll bar and that apparantly is a NO? Ok, when I say 800px, the site would be fixed around 750px.

Suggestions appreciated :)

Fluid is optimal, because it allows people to decide for themselves how much of their screen real estate will be devoted to your site and your information.

When fluid is not an option, do not discount 800x600 visitors. Heck, don't discount them even if you are creating a fluid site and you're trying to figure out a good minimum.

I prefer fixed just because so,metimes fluid shows up pretty funky. When it's fixed, atleast I'm pretty confident in how it will show up.

If i remember correctly the max width for a 800x600 user is 778px

Stats from w3 2006:

Above 1024x768: 17%
1024x768: 57%
800x600: 20%

800x600 is slowly dieing out, decreasing allmost 10% each year.

These days people are using over 17" monitor and LCD widescreen.

12"-15" are old monitor sizes
Over 17" included widescreen are new

I prefer fixed most definitely. Fluid designs have many shortcomings and I decided to just design for 1028. If your pages wont contain much content... such as mozilla.com .. then a fluid layout might be optimal, but if you run a site with more content like a foxnews.com... then fixed is the way to go.

I vote Fluid :)

I prefer "elastic" personally. It is basically a fluid design with a set minimum and maximum width so it gets neither too compressed nor too stretched out of shape. It seems a decent compromise 90% of the time. If the requiremetns permit it I use fluid. On occasion fixed is almost mandatory.

I always do fixed. I like to know exactly how the user will see my sites, and design them accordingly. Since some people still use 800x600 :eek2:, I usually keep my widths at 800.

Due to the magnitude of resolutions used, fluid sites can look a bit odd at the extremes.

You should have made this thread a poll. ;)

just because people are running large screens/resolutions it doesn't necessarily mean that will always browse with their browser at full width. I'm currently using 19" monitor running at 1280x1024 but have my brwoser at about 2/3 of the screen width (about 800px).

I do fixed

If your running below 1024 768 then you dont deserve to be on the net nowadays.. Naw I'm just kidding.

Though if you want PDAs/Cellphones and such to your website, fluid I suppose would be a bit better.

I prefer fixed,

Ive had loads of problems with fluid.

Fluid, so much complicated to code but so much prettier :D

I go back and forth.... First i wanted to go fluid.... Then stumbled upon the known problems.... I went to fixed for 800 width browsers.... Then stumbled upon problems using scripts inside the website that would break the layout and i had to use 'tricks' to get it right.... so now i'm back on fluid.... It depends on the website and its needs...

I always perfer fluid simply because it feels more comfortable on my eyes and as many here said sometimes images seem to be screwed depending on how and where you are browsing.

I always go for fixed aimed at 800x600, the reason i like it is cause i know that every single time the site is viewed, by whomever, everyone is seeing exactly the same! Also for fluid justifcation of text never displays amasingly on the high resolutions... but thats just my personal perference!

I always go for fixed aimed at 800x600, the reason i like it is cause i know that every single time the site is viewed, by whomever, everyone is seeing exactly the same!I had to stop and comment on this very common misconception about layout design. There is no way you can create a Web page that everyone will see exactly the same, short of creating one big image and displaying it on the page. This is a good thing, because different visitors have different needs. One visitor might have fonts set larger, another might have them set smaller, a third might override aspects of your design to accommodate colorblindness, a fourth might use a screen reader. You might have people browsing with images turned off because their connection isn't very good at that point. You might have people using small screen devices. You might have people using high resolution screens, and tiling multiple small windows on that screen, since that's what windows are for. There are many, many different browsing scenarios, and designing fixed in an effort to deliver an identical experience to all visitors is a fool's errand.

The goal for creating a site isn't to give an identical browsing experience to everyone, it is to provide a consistent, predictable experience to the audience. Fluid design gives back the power that rightfully belongs to the visitor. If any individual doesn't like long lines of text, they are probably not browsing with their browser windows maximized. See, with fluid design, you can have your personal preference...and so can everyone else.

I hate fluid....its unbearable...it shows up horribly...fixed is better

Well, after a week of working on this particular site I opted for a fluid design. I`ve pretty much used css/xhtml throughout which was a learning experience for me!! However, one or two pages were tricky to render properly in a fluid format so I used a combination of both fixed and fluid. The page that had the large images, I decided to use fluid headers and footers for these pages, and a fixed center container where those large images were placed. At least the whole site now has that fluid look throughout.

Iapplaud your decision. It's not an easy one to make! I'd be interested in seeing the results, if you have the inclination to post a review thread in a appropriate forum below. If you're not looking to do this, I'd still be interested in a private viewing :)

a well designed fluid site is always > a fixed site imo