WSXGA or WXGA

Hey Guys,

I know this'd seem like a stupid question, cause a day or so ago i was searching avidly for a nice WSXGA res monitor. I do web design so a nice high res is important (more real estate for all those pesky Photoshop toolboxes).

Buuuuut, when I went into the computer shop and actually test drived a WSXGA monitor, it felt like the resolution was almost TOO high! I checked out some of my web designs on it 760px X 420px (designed to cater for damn 800X600 monitors) and they seemed so small. I wonder if i'll strain my eyes working on em or they'll give me a warped perception of what my designs will look like to the average user.

Anyone got any advice on this one? Similar experiences?

Any info would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks guys,

Lara.

 

This is a bit of a tricky one. I really love the high res screen on my M6Ne, its great. But I do understand the problem of trying to design web pages on such a high res screen, as I do find it a bit harder to design sites at 8X6 resoultions. Although thanks to dreamweaver I can switch betw. resoultions and check how my designs are looking. All in all I think that the benifits of the better quality screen, esp when looking working with images/photos far out ways the negatives.
I would have to say go the WSXGA...but its all down to personal preference in the end.
a

 

Hook up a second monitor running at 800x600 and drag your windows over there when you want to see how they'll look. I just hook up the S-video output to my TV...

 

Hi Guys!

Thanks so much for the feedback! Actually I also came back here today to ask about the dual monitor support, and I think you've just answered my question about that too! Because that's what I was thinking of as a solution - plug it into the monitor I currently use and drag onto there.

So do all laptops support dual monitors (laptop screen + 1)? Are there any limitations to what you can plug in?

Thanks guyys,

Lara.

 

>>Buuuuut, when I went into the computer shop and actually test drived a WSXGA monitor, it felt like the resolution was almost TOO high!

Perhaps, your horror when looking at your web designs on a high resolution screen is an indication that you shouldn't be designing at 800 x 600 -- or any other resolution at all!

HTML is NOT a page layout language. I get very perturbed when faced with fixed-resolution designs (especially 800 x 600) when looking at them on my 1600 x 1200 laptop. They look silly! Take a look at this site for example: http://qav.biz

This designer's "need" to come up with some kind of "high-tech" looking design using images and tables works well with a brochure, but the web page looks down right lame on my screen as it is surrounded by void area.

Here are the visitor's screen resolutions captured from a web site that I host:
1024x768 45.3%
800x600 25.3%
1280x1024 14.6%
1440x900 8.2%
1152x864 2.9%
Others 3.4%

If you design for 800 x 600 you are clearly designing for the past and are doing a huge disservice to anyone buying current hardware. You could change your designs to 1024 x 768. Users at 800 x 600 would then have to scroll just a bit (which they should since users who view at 800 x 600 are typically people who bought a cheap, small monitor and complain that the fonts are too small to read at a "normal" resolution--screw them--they should buy a bigger screen, or glasses!) Designing at 1024 x 768 is still ignoring the problem, however. With more and more small portable devices and cheaper high-res monitors, it's clear that screen resolutions will soon vary wildly from very low to very high. Designing for a particular size is a mistake in my view.

Apple's new 30" LCD has a resolution of 2560 x 1600. Several manufacturer's make an LCD monitor that is 3840 x 2400. Can you imagine how LAME an 800 x 600 design would look on that? Truly elegant web designs take advantage of HTML's device independence. Take advantage of word-wrapping and other browser features that will let your designs expand to fit the user's full screen size!

Get off the fixed-resolution boat and start designing for everyone!!!