How big should my pictures be?

One of the things a web designer has to deal with is how big should the pages be. In general you want to deliver concise, readable web pages that people can easily read. One of the design criteria is what screen resolution people are using. Services such as Google Analytics can tell you what your visitors use.

For my New Brunswick Railways site, I can tell you these stats:

• 53% have 1024x768 pixel resolution


• 30% have 800x600 resolution


• Only 1.24% surf at 640x480


• One visitor uses 1440x900

From that I can determine that the vast majority of my viewers use screens at least 800 pixels wide. I should set my own screen at 800 pixels wide to test the site. Ideally visitors should never have to scroll left or right. I typically design photos to be no more than 600 pixels wide to allow for margins.