Make web pages small enough to be visible on small screens

How to make your web pages small enough that also people with small computers with small screens can view them, and so that they can be printed readably on both A4 and Letter format office printer papers. Web pages less wide than 514 pixels can be printed on both A4 and US Letter paper without loss of information. Web pages less wide than 595 pixels can be shown on portable computers with 640x480 screen sizes without any need for horizontal scrolling. Table of viewable web page sizes for different viewing devices User viewing device and link to web page which you can use to adjust your web pages and web browser windows Printable viewable size including browser borders Printable viewable size excluding browser borders mm inches pixels Width Height Medium size portable computer 225 x 163 8,9 x 6,7 640 x 480 595 pixels 304 pixels Large portable computer or medium size stationary computer, 15 inch screen 282 x 211 11,1 x 8,3 800 x 600 745 pixels 425 pixels Printing on A4-sized paper, 210 x 297 millimeters or 8,3 x 11,7 inches (this is the mostly used office paper format outside North America) 180 x 282 7,1 x 11,1 510 x 800 520 pixels 690 pixels Printing on letter-sized paper, 8,5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm (this is the mostly used office paper format in North America) 185 x 264 7,3 x 10,4 526 x 749 536 pixels 639 pixels Minium if you want to fit all the above viewing devices 180 x 163 7,1 x 6,7 510 x 480 520 pixels 304 pixels At http://dsv.su.se/jpalme/web-ruler.gif you can find the ruler below, which you can use paste on your screen to test the width of your web pages.A corresponding vertical ruler can be found at URL http://dsv.su.se/jpalme/internet-course/web-ruler-600-vertical.gif.

Test window with squares to test different window sizes and web browser window settings. Corresponding advice for web pages in the PDF (Adobe Acrobat) or Postscript formats. Also see: Screen Ruler from Microfox Software and the web-safe palette by Victor S. Engel. Links to other documents on web page design.

Last revision: 19 July 1998 by Jacob Palme, e-mail: jpalme@dsv.su.se.