What table width for a site?

[Jon12345]

I want to design a site and wondered what is considered the ideal table width? 720 pixels or something?

Regards,

Jon

[RammsteinNicCage]

If you don't want to do a fluid site using %'s (which many people will tell you it is better to do), 720px is a pretty good figure since most resolutions will be at least 800px.

Jennifer

[TheDoctor]

I looked, just this afternoon, at the site of a hotel where I'm going to spend my holidays. It was an excellent site to look at, readable, easily navigable and set precisely the right mood - EXCEPT that it had been set to a fixed width, and I was browsing with my window maximised. Thus there was a big white space to the right.

There was no reason for the pages to be fixed width. They'd have worked even better had they been designed with a fluid layout. I suspect, from the quality of the design, that the pages had been created by someone who knows their job when it comes to design on paper, but doesn't really understand the potential of HTML. Hopefully they'll learn.

My advice is - go for a fluid design unless there are very, very good reasons not to.

[RammsteinNicCage]

Wow, I just went to a site with this warning:

CHANGE TO 640 X 480 PIXELS FOR BEST RESULTS. ELSE IMAGES WILL NOT BE OF THE SIZE THEYA RE MEANT TO BE AND THE SITE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SERVE YOU THE BEST. SORRY FOR THE INCONVINIENCE!

Do NOT take his path!

Jennifer

[Even_Steven]

I have a site where apparently many visitors try to print a page on their printer. I've found that a table set to 600 pixels wide will fit perfectly on a page of paper, in portrait layout, with 1" margins.

Then again, if you use all percentages for your table sizes, it should still print on page, unless you have some large graphics which could force some of the table cells to get REALLY narrow.

[RammsteinNicCage]

I've found that a table set to 600 pixels wide will fit perfectly on a page of paper, in portrait layout, with 1" margins.

Good reason to have printable versions of your pages using css. :)

Jennifer

[Ian_Cowley]

I'd go for fluid page design and use %'s. If you want it fixed width then I ussualy go for 780 wide. Yes there are still people who view 640x480, but there are still people who watch Black and White TV sets, but they stopped filming black and white films a long time ago!

Printer Friendly pages are always a good idea. Look for a free script that allows you to place markup in your site so you can decide which bits get printed. Many scripts also allow you to template you print friendly page.

[Eric_Jarvis]

generally a page set up using % widths will print fine...the % will be applied to the paper size