Re:Why You Should Design Fixed-Width Websites
by ars on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @07:58PM
(#486490)
I think he's 100% wrong, but in the spirit of HN, I'll upmod the story.
CNN, Yahoo, BBC, ebay, there are tons of major sites the use a fluid layout.
He is wrong that you have to deal with ANY size. You can assume the browser will be at least 800 pixels wide, you can assume it won't be more than about 1280, because people with larger screen typically shrink the browser.
It is harder yes, but not that hard to make a fluid site - especially if your designer actually makes websites and not flyers (as so many seem to).
And as a bonus you are a good deal of the way to a mobile version of the site if you make it fluid.
And a fluid site does not mean you need to have extremely long columns of text - max-width to the rescue (it can be made to work on all browsers, including IE6).
CNN, Yahoo, BBC, ebay, there are tons of major sites the use a fluid layout.
He is wrong that you have to deal with ANY size. You can assume the browser will be at least 800 pixels wide, you can assume it won't be more than about 1280, because people with larger screen typically shrink the browser.
It is harder yes, but not that hard to make a fluid site - especially if your designer actually makes websites and not flyers (as so many seem to).
And as a bonus you are a good deal of the way to a mobile version of the site if you make it fluid.
And a fluid site does not mean you need to have extremely long columns of text - max-width to the rescue (it can be made to work on all browsers, including IE6).