Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Standard Monitor Sizes and Resolutions

The first step in determining the likely size of your web page is to look at the maximum amount of space provided by the computer monitor. Computer monitors come in a variety of standard sizes, typically measured in inches, ranging from 12” laptop displays all the way up to 30” cinema displays.

A more meaningful measurement, however, is monitor resolution: the total number of pixels available on the screen. The higher the resolution, the more detail can be rendered on the screen. Resolution is related to but not necessarily determined by monitor size. Depending on the video card driving it, a single monitor can display a number of different resolutions. For instance, a 17” monitor can display 800 × 600 pixels, 1024 X 768 pixels, or even higher. The following is a list of some standard monitor resolutions supported by Windows and Macintosh platforms. This is not a complete listing, merely the most commonly occurring configurations.

• 640 × 480

• 800 × 600

• 1024 × 768

• 1152 × 870

• 1280 × 1024

• 1600 × 1200

It is important to keep in mind that the higher the resolution on a given monitor, the more pixels are packed into the available screen space. The result is smaller pixels, which will make your images and page elements appear smaller as well. For this reason, web measurements are made in pixels, not inches. Something that appears to be an inch wide on your system may look smaller or larger on other screens. Chapter 28 further discusses resolution as it applies ...