Screen resolution usage statistics - 800x600 monitors

If you've been using computers for some years, pre-LCD era, you're probably aware of the prevalent 800x600 screen resolution. Once upon a time, this screen size was very popular with web designers. Web sites were created to display properly on such monitors - the web page width was 780 pixels (the 20 pixels were reserved for the web browser scroll bar).

However, over the years with increased use of high resolution monitors the number of people using 800x600 screen resolutions has gradually fallen. In this article we shall look at the usage statistics of 800x600 screen resolution for this web site and discuss whether it still is worth our while to design web sites based on it.

Important: Please understand that usage statistics shown on this page pertain only to the visitors who came to this web site. These numbers might not be applicable for your web site - in fact, they would most certainly be different. But they do show a trend which would be common around the world - the 800x600 resolution is slowly dying.

800x600 screen resolution usage is decreasing

The graph above clearly shows that the usage of 800x600 screen resolution has declined over the years. However, if we check the numbers for the last year or so, it has reached a kind of plateau. Does this mean the old monitors are still in use? Probably... though it also implies that people, especially those with visual impairment have set the screen resolution on their monitors to this value because it helps them in reading online text.

Though WebDevelopersNotes.com gets only about 3% visitors using 800x600 screen resolution, I don't expect all other web sites to have the same stats because of different visitor profiles. This site caters to web developers, experienced and aspiring, and the probability of them using newer monitors or those with higher screen resolutions is definitely more.

According to Market share, the global share of 800x600 screen resolution is a little over 4% which can mean a lot of visitors especially for web site that get tons of traffic. The most popular resolution is the 1024 x 768 - my personal favorite because I used it for years till I shifted to my new laptop with 1280x800, which comes second.

Should one keep designing web sites for 800x600?

It would be foolish of me if I answered in a direct yes or no; I suggest you read more about this on the best width for web pages. Having said that, you can always have a liquid web design template where the width of the column that contains text is fixed. Most web designers are still creating fixed web page layouts with widths between 800 and 100 pixels. The right section of the web page which may be lost on 800x600 resolution (and can only be seen by scrolling horizontally), typically has advertisements or links to less important pages.

Update: September 2009

The 800x600 screen resolution just refuses to die. With 3% visitors to this web site (worldwide number will probably be more) employing it for their monitors, I suggest you look at the statistics for your web site to arrive at a decision.