Websites on Wide Screen – How The Other Half Lives

Back last year I posted about Fixed vs. Fluid Layouts and Screen Resolutions. I made reference to a friend of mine that I went to and saw how my site looks on his LCD Monitor. That was just a couple few hours, one experience. Everywhere else I go I encounter only 17" monitors, CRT or LCD. So that 800 pixel limit for sites seems to work out just fine.

Now I finally got the parts for my new computer last week. One of the new things I’ve gotten is a 19" wide screen LCD monitor. Now, one thing learned about LCDs is that LCD monitors don’t look good in any other resolution except the one they are designed for. Mine is 1440 x 900. Now I’m not complaining. I love this monitor. Everything is so beautiful and crisp. The only thing that could make this better is if I had two of them side by side.

Now the problem I’ve been having isn’t with web design. Truth be told, it’s lovely. It makes multitasking much easier, as you can have multiple windows open and can still work. My issue is with web browsing. A lot of sites still run fixed width layouts, with only 800 pixels across. I can almost fit two of these sites on my screen at any one point in time. As a result, I hardly ever maximize Firefox anymore because there is just too much wasted space on the screen. So I finally realize how the other half lives on wide screen monitors. With drastically reducing price of large LCD monitors are we to expect web designers to make bigger and better website? I believe so.