so what's the latest stat on resolutions of web users?

[ocelot]

I demoed a site to a client the other day and it had side-scrolling because she was on 800x600. I was shocked. I thought everybody had 1024x768 or higher these days

[tedster]

Stats for my clients still show in the 25% to 35% area for 800x600. Many new systems come with that setting as default, even though they are capable of being re-set to a higher resolution.

Note: W3Schools posts their figures at:
[w3schools.com...]

The site's user base tends to be tilted toward the tech savvy, so their figure of 35% is an eye-opener for many people. Also note the color-depth figures - 35% at 16-bit color. This can also make for some ugly surprises.

[grelmar]

I think the % is higher than that. My site stats reflect about 40% at 800x600 (averaging between three different sites) or lower. (ok, the 640x480 crowd is sitting around 5% - but hey, its still a significant number).

I know lots of people with it set to 800x600 because they find it the easiest way to bump up text size, which makes things easier to read.

I know, there are better ways of dealing with text size, but we're not dealing with a tech savvy world.

[sonjay]

And even if everybody were on 1024x768 or higher, there's no guarantee that they have (or want to have) their browser window filling the entire screen. In fact, on a large monitor running at a high resolution, I never want to have my browser full-screen.

I have my 2 19" monitors set to 1280x1024, and my preferred browser window width is approximately midway between 800 and 1024. If you design a fixed-width site for 1024x768, I'll get horizontal scrolling on my 19" monitor at 1280x1024, and unless I really want to see what you have on your site, I'll not resize my browser just for you.

[victor]

thecounter.com has global stats for last month showing 800x600 is stil a healthy 30%.

Of course, global stats need interpreting -- they may not apply to your market.

But stats for a single site need even more interpreting -- if the site is biased against a class of visitors, then its stats will show that very few of that class ever stay, or come back.

What you need is stats for your market. And not just percentages of vistors, bur profitabilty per class:

Maybe the people on 800x600 are deferring an IT upgrade, and wanting to buy your product instead.