What's your computer resolution?

[laurenephoto]

I have a 22" widescreen monitor set at 1024x768 resolution and am curious if

the photos on my website look alright on smaller screens with different

resolutions. I viewed my site on a 19" screen at 960x600 resolution and it

looked terrible. Do a majority of people run at 960x600 resolution? Should I

say something about this on my site? Like, best viewed at 1024x768?

 

Heres my site <a href="http://www.laurenephoto.com">www.laurenephoto.com<a/any

feedback will be great.

[mendonphoto]

<p>1024x768????? How can you do anything at that resolution? I have a hard time even checking my email at such low resolution. :)</p>

<p>If you are using LCD displays, it is best to set them at their highest resolution and then use OS functions to make your fonts and icons bigger if you need that. If you use a lower resolution than the native resolution of the display, you are leaving it up to the display to scale your image, and most of them are VERY bad at it (also a contributing factor to why SD content often looks so bad on HD televisions).</p>

<p>You do need to take into consideration the lowest resolution you think is acceptable to view your web site. But, you can't do anything about viewers using crappy display settings (like you probably are with your huge monitor). Just make sure your monitor is calibrated and configured the best that it can be, then scale your images to your best guess minimum (I use 600 pixels high on my web site - (<a href = "http://www.mendonphoto.com">www.mendonphoto.com</a>).</p>

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

Your screen resolution is very low for that huge screen you have, it's fine for my 17" CRT's but you have to design for anything above a certain resolution (1024x768 is now considered a minimum generally) not just for one resolution which very few laptops and almost no flat screens still use. To be honest on my 1024x768 I have to scroll to see your main screen. On my laptop at 1280x800 I still need to scroll.

 

Technically your design is one that should look good at all resolutions, it should center nicely on bigger screens, you just need to get that initial design right.

[ilkka_nissila]

1024x768 is very common in laptops. You should definitely make sure the website works at that res, but not necessarily lower. My desktop is 1680x1050.

[russ_konrad]

28" screen set to it's native resolution of 1900 x 1200.

[photo_dark]

I have a 17" Laptop at 1920 x 1200. Your pictures look pretty good... maybe a little small?

[surfidaho]

Howdy!

 

If you look at webstats, the most common screen resolution is 1024x768.

 

You could use something like SimpleViewer to dynamically scale your pictures. Set your resolution high, and try resizing the window on my website:

 

http://www.lesboisphotography.com

 

Later,

 

Paulsky

[alexacatalin]

Don't get this kind of info asking on a forum.

Just add some Google Analytics code to your site and watch there all the infos about the people who visit your site, monitor resolution included.

 

1280x1024 is the most common, I guess!

[kari v]

"22" widescreen monitor set at 1024x768 resolution"

 

Are you sure? That's completely wrong and messes up everything. Widescreen monitors are usually 16:10, 1024x768 is 4:3. Also, the resolution is very low so the display has to scale it to fit. My eyes would bleed.

 

"960x600"

 

I've never heard anyone using such non-standard resolution.

[steve_c.5]

Lauren, what most everyone here is saying is true; that resolution is not correct for your monitor. Most 22" widescreens should be run at 1680x1050 or higher if your display/video card supports it. 1024x768 is a 4 to 3 aspect ratio (height to width ratio), which we used before we got widescreens. You probably upgraded to a widescreen monitor, but did not know to reset your display resolution accordingly. The advantage of this higher resolution with the wider aspect ratio is that you will have so much more real estate on your screen to see everything with. It really makes a huge difference.

 

I use two 22" Acer monitors with the desktop extended across both, so I have lots of working room for programs.

 

All this said, your question really had to do with what web resolution you should design your site for, which is a little different topic. The standard a few years ago was 800x600, because most people were running in 1024x768 and could easily see your site at that resolution. However, times do change, and it's probably safe to start designing your site a little larger now. 800x600 still isn't a bad size to work within, though.

 

There are still plenty of people (like you, until you learned all this) who are running at 1024x768, but the numbers are diminishing. It's really a painfully low resolution these days.

 

I hope you get your screen running in higher resolution from now on, and join the rest of us in the world of hi-res widescreen!

[jo_dinning]

Hi Lauren, I checked out your site and it looks good to me - I have a 15" widescreen laptop set to 1280 x 800 - hope that helps.

[KenPapai]

1280x1024 is bar far the most common screen resolutions for desktops monitors out there. For desktops, 1024x768 is "Hello! This is 2001 calling, we want our monitor back!".

[david_garcia10]

1440x900 widescreen.

[laurenephoto]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

Catalin - Thanks for the Google Analytics info!

So many different resolutions here maybe I should just aim for the lowest possibility like Aaron said. I was just making sure that there wasn't a common standard resolution that people used on 15"-19" screens.

I set my screen to 1680x1050 the highest and everything is so tiny. I think I am used to the old resolution like Steve said, I have switched from a 17" monitor recently. Thanks again all! =)

[steve_c.5]

Lauren, the text may be tinier than you're used to at the higher res, but try it for awhile and you'll get used to it. Also, in Windows, Display Properties, you can adjust your default font size to a little larger font, and you can widen the scroll bars, etc. This will help, and at 1680x1050, you'll be able to get so much more imagery on your screen. Good luck!

[steve_c.5]

One other thing I wanted to mention, Lauren. You may understand this now, but I wanted to make sure it's clear for you, and anyone else. Widescreen monitors have a certain aspect ratio (height to width), and as such, each size monitor has certain "native" resolutions that will produce an accurate picture (in other words, one that is not squished vertically or horizontally to any degree). For instance, most 19" widescreen monitors will usually only produce an accurate picture when set for 1440x900, because when your picture has 1440 pixels across the top, it will take 900 pixels in the vertical plane to produce a picture that is accurate. If you draw a square on your screen with a drawing program, you could physically measure that square with a ruler, and if the resolution is correct, it will be truly "square". If the resolution is not "native", it won't be square.

 

As such, your 22" monitor manual can tell you what "native" resolutions are right for your monitor, to produce an accurate image. As you've found, you can have it set for 1024x768, but the images you see at that size are going to be squished, and it's not optimum. However, select one of those native resolutions, and you'll be just fine.