Web Page Size

I'm trying to use Photoshop (CS2) to design a web site. My main problem right now is that I can't figure out what size to make everything. I'm using a 12" Powerbook, and I'm not exactly sure how to judge how big things will be on other screens. Should my document be 1024x768? But then everything seems oversized... Get my drift?
I was also thinking that maybe I'm getting carried away and I should wait to try and take care of this when I bring the Photoshop stuff into my web design program (Dreamweaver).
If anyone can shed some light on this subject, I'd appreciate it.

It really depends on the intended audience for the site. If you are making a site that is going be usable by just about anyone, then you would want it to be able to be seen on a screen that is only 760pixels wide, maybe even as low as 600. I wouldn't worry so much about the height so long as all the main nav and such will be within top portion of the page.

mynameis said:

It really depends on the intended audience for the site. If you are making a site that is going be usable by just about anyone, then you would want it to be able to be seen on a screen that is only 760pixels wide, maybe even as low as 600. I wouldn't worry so much about the height so long as all the main nav and such will be within top portion of the page.

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Thats what I was thinking, but then won't there be a lot of white space when people view it on screens over 800x640?

Thats the problem with making a page that is a static width, thats how the Ebay's main page is, if I have it maxed on my 1600x1200 screen, half the screen is white. Depending on what you are doing you can make one that will look good and scale up to any resolution while still being readable at lower res.

mynameis said:

Thats the problem with making a page that is a static width, thats how the Ebay's main page is, if I have it maxed on my 1600x1200 screen, half the screen is white. Depending on what you are doing you can make one that will look good and scale up to any resolution while still being readable at lower res.

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So it sounds like it comes down to Static v. Scalable. Is this something that I can define? (excuse my ignorence, i'm trying to teach my self web design as a hobby...)
Thanks!

It is pretty safe to say that most people now are using a 1024x768 resolution at the lowest, however make sure that atleast your site is still somewhat useable in 800x600 forget supporting anything under that, anyone using lower than that is not going to visit your site. Another thing to keep in mind, check your site on the highest resolution your computer can handle, as well if you can on a widescreen LCD for they can leave alot of unwanted white space, one way to trick the user is to use a somewhat off white background color.... hope some of these tips help

PBG4MAN said:

So it sounds like it comes down to Static v. Scalable.

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I don't know what you are using for your overall format. If you are using tables: on a static width site you would set the width as a specific pixel amount while on a scalable site it would be a percentages(at least some columns would be).

ryanyogan said:

It is pretty safe to say that most people now are using a 1024x768 resolution at the lowest, however make sure that atleast your site is still somewhat useable in 800x600 forget supporting anything under that, anyone using lower than that is not going to visit your site. Another thing to keep in mind, check your site on the highest resolution your computer can handle, as well if you can on a widescreen LCD for they can leave alot of unwanted white space, one way to trick the user is to use a somewhat off white background color.... hope some of these tips help

Click to expand...

I'd say you should still design to 800x600. According to W3's Browser Statistics, as of June 2005 28% of people use 800x600. That's a significant amount. It's hard to drop support for even 1% of any statistic, mustless 28%.

bhanson said:

W3's Browser Statistics

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Wow, I figured at least some people were still using 640x480. I guess 800x600 is pretty much the standard minimum now.