[Debate] Forum Width - Percentage vs Pixels

[Alnarra]

myke said:

fullphaser said:

I personally think that proboards customization is actually inherently held back by pixel design. Now and days the overly standard thing to do is slap on a 700x100 banner and call that the width, It has been a good while since I have seen a board that was a.) not advised to drop to a pixel amount rather than the base percentage. b.) the few boards that did due it based off of a size greater than 750 + were criticized for doing so.

I try to keep a pretty close eye on goyab, and 700-800 is quite draft at this point, I would love to see some CSS level innovations by PB skinners, in an attempt to do something that does not revolve around a pixel level number. Right now 90% of the PB width hacks, and standards (the standards that are somewhat invisible, like have gradients, customize images, etc. the things we think about when rating a forum) revolve around that 700 pixel idea, and I have only seen one forum so far that really actually took a different approach to the "standard setup" (gotten away from banner then menu, than boards.

I would personally love to see more pixel based percentages, but with the CSS level coding not across the board yet (as there is a css code for width out there) it will be along time before we see really decent pixel based boards, (just because PB is so JS reliant, that CSS which would do the job 10x better with particular problems such as image width etc. , is often ignored)

Fullphaser, currently one can adjust the width of a ProBoard using CSS.

Headers:

<style type="text/CSS">
body table tr td table.bordercolor, body table.bordercolor {
width: 92%;
}
blockquote table.bordercolor, td.windowbg table tr td table.bordercolor, 

td.windowbg2 table tr td table.bordercolor {
width: 92%;
}
</style>
<div align="center" style="align: center;"><div style="width: 92%;" width="92%">

After using that, one could use a javascript to hide the welcome table and menu bar, then design their own banner, and buttons in their own table(s). This would give them the option to customize them so the banner appears to adjust to the width of one's browser/resolution like is being done on a lot of websites today.

As for titlebars, catbars, menubars, & head and base images, I haven't really figured out how to have them anything other then a solid gradient at this point and look good while repeating and adjusting to widths, but then again I've never claimed to be a designer.

Anyway, if I'm understanding your post correctly, I think what you're suggesting can be done already, it just would take some innovative thinking and creativity.

Its not so much the lack of availability of the CSS to modify the width, It has more to do with the way the images work out in the most common schema, right now the most common setup that I see is the 700 px setup for the grace of the 800x600 users that are still out there, what I strive to point out is the fact that along with this there has been very little development in the area of width's that are greater than the 800px mark, which is where the force of modification to the way we design would play in

As it stands, there is very little in the way of dynamic image resolution do to limitations of the codebase, Although one can use CSS to shorten the width, I have seen very little in the way of an adaptive page (which would almost have to be accomplished by CSS as image manipulation and JS atleast as of right now, although it is possible it would be much easier with css) and the key image is the banner, that is the one thing that holds so many back, and I think what you get into is more or less a fight of fluid vs. fixed, where as fixed is for the most part easier to do, if fluid is done well it comes out quite nicely.

The problem with fluid design on proboards, I am not sure what causes it, because it is not a lack of coders, but I would say a lack on interest into the area.

[Black Angel]

I use pixels.. because I need the forum to be the same exact width as the gradient that I am working on.. I don't use percentage in CS2..

When I make my skins, I always have the board width set at 728 px.. if not, then the width is ALWAYS between 728 px and 734 px.. and never more.. but 95% of the time it will 728 px the reason I always use this is because that is the exact width of the google ad..

The board looks sloppy if the ad is wider than the board, and it doesn't look right when the board is wider than the ad.. so for that, I have to use pixels..

[tavkat]

So, which do you prefer to use, which is the best to use?

Debate

I use both. I have my banner and Welcome center set to 700 pix. By commenting out the Border width script, I was able to default my message boards to 92%. This did however make my info center to 92% as well.

The problem I have now though...I use a premade template. after maximizing the message forum borders to 92% the image of the catbar repeats and becomes off center in the table row it is located in. I have tried setting the command to "No-repeat" only to discover that the image dissapears completely.

I have tried copying the image and adjustingits size then having the Image url point to the new image but that didnt work as well as I had hoped either. But...I am persistent and will find a way to adjust the catbar and menu bars. I will keep you updated and forward code as I discover it.

[aquamaster]

There is one big problem for people who use pixel for their forum width: ignorant members

On my forum there are quite a number of members who are on broadband and own 30" monitor. (imagine the resolution!) They simply upload pictures which are as big as my wallpaper (I'm still on 1024 x 768), and post them in the forum. Those on 56k and 800 x 600 resolution people are suffering, yes but that is a small issue. The bigger issue is that, if you limit your forum width to 700pix to accomadate with your forum template, those big images will simply spoil your template, and make your forum extremely ugly on certain pages.

Stating a rule to call these members to resize those images will chase them off, since it is pretty troublesome to resize at times. Considering the fact that more and more people are moving to broadband, and larger monitors, I opt for percentage for my forum width. I still keep the 700 pixel width for my index however, since that page will not be affected by pictures of these ignorant members.

[Mmomenth]

I currently have most my boards set to a 750 width. Its a nice width on the maximum screen dimension my computer can take (that being 1280x960 pixels) and yet isn't too big for those on 800x600 px.

For images larger then 500 pixels I either use a code that resizes them automatically to a thumbnail you can click on (say for a character bios board) or I'll state that images larger then 500 px HAVE to be linked to, not posted as an image.

[Graham R]

Most of my users have either 800x600 or 1024x768. So what I do is use pixels, and each of my skins have a different pixel-width to match the premade template images I got from gfx design forums like SoCal...

I especially like the 1024x768 bg's that look as if the forum should fit inside it, as if the borders of the forum don't move when the forum scrolls down... and when one is using an 800x600 on the forum with a 1024x768 bg, they're none-the-wiser about missing out on the pictures/gradients that are outside of their screens until they switch to a larger res...

Sometimes I design a skin with border-style bg's where the inner border is about 5 pixels inside of 800px, just to let the low-res users know that there's more to the bg image, and they should at least try the slightly larger res. See what they're missing... an example of this border is one that was designed for me by VanillaOrchids on SoCal. It can be found by following this link. As you can see if you're in 1024x768 or higher, there are what I like to refer to as "Bonus images" running down the sides, that don't get seen properly in 800x600, and just look like thin columns inside which the forum sits.

So, to put it bluntly, I prefer pixels.

[hellblazer]

well i'm trying to integrate the script you are using but it doesn't work. I'm still getting the skewed up tyling.

[Enchant]

hellblazer said:

well i'm trying to integrate the script you are using but it doesn't work. I'm still getting the skewed up tyling.

This is not a support board for coding issues, but a discussion board for the topic of the thread. If you are having coding issues, please post in the support board and someone there will be more then happy to give you some assistance. Thank you.

[Ginger]

My forum is 65% because I use Smangii's side tables (both sides) in the maind header/footer, so when you go into a board, the size stays the same instead growing bigger.

[jdrek]

That was great help.Try this

[grieves and squick]

We use 700 px wide for our forum and have never had a complaint that it's too narrow or too wide. I believe that this is related to the fact that the length of lines of text on a forum this wide roughly approximates that on most hardcover novels. I believe there is something ideal about that length {width} of text lines that makes it easier to read. Too much narrower and your eyes have to keep skipping down too quickly, too much wider and you can lose your place visually when going to the next line.

It also doesn't conflict with any resolutions, at least nothing other than ones very rarely used.

[Shini]

Funnily enough I had a bit of a problem with this myself when making my new forum, I originally played about with the width while on my work computer - which is a much bigger screen than at home, I got to a width that I was happy with in relation to my banner, only to find when I got on my home PC that it came out much smaller and cut off the edges of half my members' sigs.
I can understand why someone with a smaller screen might get frustrated by a wider site that they'd have to scroll side-to-side to read (there is nothing that interrupts the flow of reading something more than unnecessary scrolling), but at the same time it's frustrating not having the ability to match my forum width to a level that suits my banner on all forums - not without dipping into more in-depth code than I really have a handle on these days, so I think it would be nice if the 'easy' method gave you the option for either or.
(That said, I very much appreciate the given code, I'm willing to give everything a try so I might even have a go adjusting it to the correct pixel width that I want rather than relying on the ever-changing percentages)

[Shaliza]

I actually didn't even realize that you could set the forum width as a percentage until one of my members pointed it out to me. So now I usually set the board for about 80% on each theme. It works so much better for different screen sizes and my members and staff like it too.