Hello. My first post.....

 

Designing a site for a business that will have a lot of reach. Analysis of current stats show most every screen resolution imaginable.

 

The choices:

1) Liquid design - CSS with percentage based layout

2) Fixed Pixel layout - CSS with pixel based layout

 

What thoughts do you have on a liquid layout vs. a fixed pixel layout?

If in favor of fixed pixel layout, what width would you use for the main page?

 

Also, if you have a different alternative or highly advanced solution, I am all for it. I am versed in most languages (PHP, AJAX, etc.).

 

Thanks.

Difficult to say as it all depends on the style of your design.

 

If you go with a fixed width, I like 980px although somebody on this forum pointed out that 960px is good as it is divisible by 3 and 2 (as well as many other numbers) which makes it great for three column layouts as well as two.

 

I rather like this look, a design on freecsstemplates.org

At first look, it appears to be fluid but actually it is a fixed layout.

I prefer a fixed pixel width layout. It makes things easier as the page will appear the same no matter who is viewing it. First company website I designed has percentage width and I got a few complaints. Pixels are absolute and easier. 1000 pixels is good for me, which is also divisible by 2 and four

960 is easlily divisible by 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10,12,16 and so on.

 

So it's extremely flexible, and supported by the majority of modern browsers.

 

So say you split 960 into a 16 column grid.

 

You could say have two sidebars at 4 each, and the center at 8 (4+4+8=16)

 

or lets say you want one sidebar, that takes up a third, that'd be 12+4

 

Or four equal columns 4+4+4+4 = 16

 

and so on, the flexibility is golden, personally i find liquids can be a pain, and generally there aren't too many around. Because it just gets difficult, especially with detailed layouts.

 

However, if screen real estate is important (admin interfaces, complex app's etc.) then i'd go with liquid.

Looks like 960 is the winner. I have used this before but was concerned with the increase in larger screen resolutions.

 

If anyone else has an opinion, I would love to hear.

 

Thanks.