Pixels for a web page?

Question

Hi, I'm pretty new to this, but I'm going to make a mock up of a website. What size should my canvas be (Photoshop)?

If you have any web design advice that you'd like to share, feel free!

Thanks!

Answer 1

i'd like to help but i have no idea..

sorry =[

Answer 2

Whoa!  A complete web design in Photoshop is pretty hard to do!

There's something called a fixed layout, which you might be interested in.  This means that no matter how much the user resizes their browser window, the width of the page will stay the same.

Since the average monitor is set to 1024px wide, I'd go for 1000px as your canvas width.

Answer 3

Your best beginning is to consider what sort of audience the website has.  If you're trying to appeal to computer geeks with higher end computers, you can expect a larger resolution (1024x768) and use larger images.  If you want to include everyone from novices to people who are computer illiterate, you should probably assume they are using 800x600.

Keep in mind that the useable viewport of the browser is less than the width and height of the screen resolution. There is a scroll bar on the right, a bunch of stuff at the top, and probably a status bar at the bottom.  This means you should assume no more than 750 pixels wide maximum to allow for the scroll bar.

Consider using Firefox to display your mockup and install the Web Developer toolbar extension.  The toolbar has a feature that allows you to specify the size to make the browser window, so you can easily preview what people will see at different window sizes in the browser.  It's useful to preview it in the browser so that you can get an idea of how it scrolls, few web pages fit entirely in one viewport and don't require scrolling.

You will probably want your most important information to fit within half to two-thirds of the height you target.  This is because most people like to have anything really important about the "fold" (not requiring the user to scroll down).

Answer 4

Generally we (my employer and I) create sites that still cater to those who use 800x600. For these sites, I use a canvas/document size of 760px wide. Why? If you use a full 800, users with an 800x600 resolution will still see a horizontal scrollbar in their browser. If you want a wider site (esp. if you have a lot of content to display), create your doc size based on the 1024x768 resolution. This means using an canvas width of 940 or even 950. Either will work fine, it just depends on how much breathing room you want to give to your design on the left and right. The Barack Obama site uses a width even wider than that, but for me it hugs the browser edges too much.

Answer 5

Dear Marietta,

Its really depend on your requirement. But mostly designer use is 640x480 Pixels, 800x600 Pixels or 1024x768. 800x600 is Normal one.