Optimal photo size for website?

nuttyboy78

nuttyboy78

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Can anyone tell me what the best size would be to post a photo in an online gallery on my website?

Are there any general guidelines on this? I've seen people suggest 800x600 and others who say 1024x768. Which one is it?

Also any particular size the pics should be for optimal performance?

:help:
 
In days of dialup, I thought I was being generous with 360x240. As the pics got nicked, perhaps I was? :bang:
 
photon said:
In days of dialup, I thought I was being generous with 360x240. As the pics got nicked, perhaps I was? :bang:
Click to expand...

Lol. I hope they were happy with their mini postcards.

Anybody with a more modern size? :)
 
nuttyboy78 said:
Can anyone tell me what the best size would be to post a photo in an online gallery on my website?

Are there any general guidelines on this? I've seen people suggest 800x600 and others who say 1024x768. Which one is it?

Also any particular size the pics should be for optimal performance?

:help:
Click to expand...

They are monitor size's rather than picture sizes (unless its going to be full screen with no borders etc)- also saying that, many people have larger monitors now. There is no "right" answer.
 
aligibbs said:
They are monitor size's rather than picture sizes (unless its going to be full screen with no borders etc)- also saying that, many people have larger monitors now. There is no "right" answer.
Click to expand...

Is there a 'best answer', maybe? :)

What do you think the most common size would be nowadays, with so many people uploading their pics? Would you agree that the most common monitor size is probably 1024x768? Which means that the photos will have to be small enough not to fill the screen completely?

Or am I getting this all wrong?
 
nuttyboy78 said:
Is there a 'best answer', maybe? :)

What do you think the most common size would be nowadays, with so many people uploading their pics? Would you agree that the most common monitor size is probably 1024x768? Which means that the photos will have to be small enough not to fill the screen completely?

Or am I getting this all wrong?
Click to expand...

I would agree that 1024x768 is a good size to design for- as its pretty common and some do have higher but least it will still look ok on their displays. Yeap, by the time you take out space for the browser and taskbar etc, your probably going to end up with about 800x600ish. You can always have links to larger pictures if you want users to see the images bigger (in the same way that flickr does).
 
aligibbs said:
I would agree that 1024x768 is a good size to design for- as its pretty common and some do have higher but least it will still look ok on their displays. Yeap, by the time you take out space for the browser and taskbar etc, your probably going to end up with about 800x600ish. You can always have links to larger pictures if you want users to see the images bigger (in the same way that flickr does).
Click to expand...

My concern with the 800x600 size was that it looks pretty small on a larger monitor. I have a 20" screen and it looks tiny.

As for click to enlarge, I'm planning to use iWeb to create the website and I'm not sure if it has that functionality.
 
nuttyboy78 said:
My concern with the 800x600 size was that it looks pretty small on a larger monitor. I have a 20" screen and it looks tiny.

As for click to enlarge, I'm planning to use iWeb to create the website and I'm not sure if it has that functionality.
Click to expand...

You don't want them appearing too large on the majority of monitors forcing viewers to scroll, so you need to plan for the average display size, unless you want to allow autoresizing in the browser.

Have a look at a commercial 'tog and the size of images they're using

Here's Dave Hill

http://www.davehillphoto.com/


I aim for no taller than 800px which comfortably fits into a 1440x900px display (common resolution for 15-17" displays)

You may find this useful to plan for sizing.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

You should also consider image size and speed of downloading, all of which are very pertinent.
 
JasonRS said:
I aim for no taller than 800px which comfortably fits into a 1440x900px display (common resolution for 15-17" displays)

You may find this useful to plan for sizing.
Click to expand...

1440x900 common resolution? no way. 1024x768 sure, 1280x1024 sure. 1440x900 is a widescreen resolution.
 
Thanks Jason. The davehill website does use larger pics, though.

Interesting to see from your link that the majority of screens are going past the 1024x768 size now.
 
aligibbs said:
1440x900 common resolution? no way. 1024x768 sure, 1280x1024 sure. 1440x900 is a widescreen resolution.
Click to expand...

Should have clarified that most displays (inc laptops) now sold are widescreen, and so that ratio is becoming more pertinent.

I can't recall the last time I saw a 4:3 monitor tbh, and my day job is for a Virtualisation and Networking vendor..
 
So if I keep it to a max height of 800 pixels and preserve the aspect ratio and let the width fall where it does, will that be ok?
 
I'd be inclined to choose a max height and max width that you would use for resizing images. which would set maximum boundaries for the images.

Something along the lines of...

800 max height
1024 max width

If you always shoot or crop to the same format, this becomes easier.
 
1024x768 is pretty much the "standard" resolution that most web developers work to these days. Even though most are on widescreen displays, with things like the Windows sidebar (that many people use), it eats away a bit at your screen.

So, go for whatever image size that fits inside your website's layout without going over about 950 pixels. If your website's interface/navigation uses 250 pixels on the left side of your screen, you want your image 700 pixels or less wide. Only you can really say what size fits into your layout.

The days of designing for 800x600 are long gone.

Personally I run a pair of monitors on this machine, one's 24" HP LP2475w @ 1920x1200 and the other's a 22" Emprex @ 1680x1050, and smaller websites can get annoying sometimes.
 
Thanx guys. :thumbs:
 
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