Fixed vs. fluid CSS layout

  • March 20, 2008
  • In CSS

People are arguing about which layout is better since web exists. Some like it fixed, others prefer it fluid (or elastic). I always used fluid layouts, mostly because I really hate to see narrow column with unreadable small text on the screen with large resolution - and I used to see it a lot. Naturally - large companies going after broad audience don't want to alienate even tiny portion of potential customers and always go with [W:lowest common denominator]. Lately, though, I start noticing these ugly sites disappear. To confirm my guess, I went to [W:Google analytics] for my blog and looked at screen resolution for clients that access this site. Wow... you guys! Every time I visited local library, I felt bad for people still using low-end computers with small screens and thought about myself as been rich and spoiled (hmm… technically anyway). Not anymore! It turns out - I am the one using cheap low-end monitors here.

scrrez.png

This discovery lead to uneasy decision I made - I will revolt and try something... old. I'm switching to fixed layout. Here are my reasons:

  1. It looks decent on wide variety of screens - as long as you don't have to support 640x480 anymore...
  2. It is much easier to design and support.
  3. You can guaranty that everybody sees (almost) exactly what you see.
  4. This greatly simplifies your main task, which is supposed to be content (and not layout) creation.

Let me know if you hate it and think this is a blinder on my site :)

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