Recommended Screen Resolution for Web Design

Website visitors use a wide range of screens and devices, but designers cannot possibly prepare mockups for every use case. You need to choose the proper screen resolutions to use for web design files. But what is the best screen resolution for web design? 

As a digital agency working with various clients, understanding screen resolution sizes is crucial for creating responsive and user-friendly websites. In this article, we’ll explore the most important things to consider when choosing the screen resolution for your web designs. We will also provide insights on how to optimize your designs for the diverse range of devices used by your clients’ audiences.

What is Screen Resolution?

Before we dive into the specifics, let’s clarify what screen resolution means. Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels displayed on a screen, typically expressed as width x height. For example, a resolution of 1920×1080 means the screen is 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high, resulting in a total of 2,073,600 pixels.

What is My Screen Resolution?

You might be wondering, “What is my screen resolution?” – Your screen resolution is the number of pixels your display can show both horizontally and vertically. To find out your screen resolution, you can use online tools or check your device settings. For instance, a common laptop resolution is 1366×768, while many smartphones have resolutions like 360×640 or higher. Understanding your screen resolution helps you optimize your viewing experience and ensures compatibility with various applications and websites.

Common Screen Resolutions in 2024

As we move into 2024, the landscape of screen resolutions continues to evolve. Here are the most common resolutions you should consider for different devices:

Desktop Screen Resolutions:

• 1920×1080 (1080p dimensions, Full HD) – 23.4%
• 1366×768 – 12.54%
• 1536×864 – 11.59%
• 1280×720 – 6.48%
• 1440×900 – 4.22%

Mobile Screen Resolutions:

• 360×800 – 11.26%
• 390×844 – 6.9%
• 393×873 – 5.57%
• 412×915 – 4.5%
• 414×896 – 4%

Tablet Screen Resolutions:

• 768×1024 – 21.87%
• 810×1080 – 11.34%
• 820×1180 – 7.5%
• 1280×800 – 6.42%
• 962×601 – 3.24%

Choosing the Right Resolution for Web Design

When deciding on the best screen resolution sizes for your web design projects, consider the following factors:

1. Target Audience: Analyze your audience demographics to understand which devices they commonly use.
2. Device Usage Trends: Keep track of the latest device usage statistics to ensure your designs are future-proof.
3. Responsive Design: Implement responsive design techniques to cater to various screen sizes and resolutions.
4. Content Adaptability: Ensure your content looks good and is easily readable across different resolutions.

1080p Dimensions vs. 1440p Dimensions

Two popular resolutions for desktop design are 1080p (1920×1080) and 1440p (2560×1440). Let’s compare these common resolutions:

1080p Dimensions (Full HD):

• Resolution: 1920×1080
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Total Pixels: 2,073,600
• Pros: Widely supported, good balance of screen real estate and performance
• Cons: May feel cramped for some professional applications

1440p Dimensions (Quad HD):

• Resolution: 2560×1440
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Total Pixels: 3,686,400
• Pros: Sharper image, more screen real estate for productivity
• Cons: Requires more powerful hardware, may not be supported by all devices

There’s no standard resolution for web design that is best for all cases since websites need to consider how their audience is using the site and what their design concept is.

However, to give you a quick answer, the most common design file resolution used by digital agencies is 1440px wide, with the main content container that is 1140px. But 1920px is also very common, so it’s worth considering both options.

Basic Concepts Behind Responsive Websites

To understand how to choose the right screen resolution for web design, we need to cover some basics of responsiveness and how it works on most websites.

The CSS Grid

To position items on a website, designers and developers use a grid with a predefined number of columns and gutter space between these columns. A common setup is to use 12 columns and 30px of gutter, but it’s up to the designer to choose.

Together, these columns make up 100% of the main container of the page, which can in turn vary in size depending on the browser window size. This floating definition of object sizes helps to avoid cropping them on smaller window sizes and having to scroll horizontally to see what falls outside the frame.

It’s common to set a maximum width for the main container to e.g., 1280px or 1024px to not stretch the content too much. Instead, the browser window will center the main container and show a background color on each side of it.

Screen Sizes and Breakpoints

Since the columns of a grid are defined in percentages and not with a fixed width, the columns will become really narrow on small screens, and the content will need to cover more columns to look good. The way to tackle this is to adjust the object size definitions depending on the browser window size.

When developing websites, a developer will define ranges of screen resolutions that correspond to different device types, which are used to determine how to display the content. The width limits for these ranges are called breakpoints. You’ve probably seen how the content on a website will rearrange itself at certain widths of your browser window. These are the breakpoints.

Many standards use only three groups–desktop, tablet, and mobile–but some also break desktop into a large and a small version. For example, the Zurb Foundation CSS framework uses these breakpoints:

• Large: 1024 pixels or wider
• Medium: 640 pixels or wider
• Small: smaller than 640px

Recommended Screen Resolution for Web Design

Based on our experience working with many digital agencies, we’ve found that there are two popular choices for design file resolutions: 1920px and 1440px wide.

There’s a natural reason to use 1440px, since it’s the width of a MacBook Pro 15″ screen, counted in CSS pixels (it’s actually 2880x1800px), and it covers most PC laptop screen sizes as well.

The next decision will be to decide what maximum size the main container should have, within which you’ll have your columns. This is even more important than what size your design file has.

You want to make sure it looks good for most people, so let’s consider the most common browser viewing sizes. If your max width for the main container is 1024px, it will look like your designs for 94% of your visitors.

The most common max-width among our partners is 1140px, which also covers most cases and makes better use of larger screens to fill them with content.

Recommended Screen Resolution for Smaller Screens

A good developer will be able to take your desktop designs, if they’re using a grid, and set up a behavior for tablet and mobile that looks good. However, some designers prefer to take full control of how the designs appear on a mobile device, so they create separate design files for different breakpoints, e.g., 768px for tablet and 375px for mobile. These are common measurements for resolution on iPhone and iPad.

With the rapid increase in mobile phone usage in recent years, having an exceptional mobile design is no longer optional—it’s essential. Google has increased the importance of mobile experience when ranking websites in their search. In 2018, Google announced its Mobile-First Indexing approach, making mobile-friendly design crucial for SEO.

Common Issues with Screen Resolution for Web Design

1. Main container width too large: If the design shows the main content in a container that is 1200px wide, there’s a risk that it will look strange on a 1024px screen since the columns could be too narrow to display the content correctly.
2. Retina resolution confusion: When designers use “Retina resolution” in the design file without informing developers, objects may be built at twice the size and then adjusted for smaller screens in unpredictable ways.

Best Practices for Web Design Across Multiple Resolutions

1. Use a Responsive Grid System: Implement a flexible grid that adapts to different screen sizes.
2. Optimize Images: Use responsive images that load appropriately for each device and resolution.
3. Test Across Devices: Regularly test your designs on various devices and screen resolutions.
4. Consider Touch Interfaces: Design with both mouse and touch interactions in mind.
5. Prioritize Content: Ensure that critical content is visible without scrolling on most devices.
6. Use CSS pixels: When communicating with developers, use CSS pixels to standardize dimensions across devices with different pixel densities.

White Label Agency’s Recommendations

Understanding and adapting to various screen resolution sizes is crucial for creating successful, user-friendly websites. By considering common resolutions, implementing responsive design techniques, and staying informed about emerging trends, you can ensure that your web projects look great and function flawlessly across all devices.

Remember these key points when setting up your web design file:

1. Use a grid system, e.g., 12 columns
2. Stick to the grid when aligning objects on the pages
3. Choose a pixel width of 1440px, 1920px, or somewhere around there
4. Define the maximum container width (e.g., 1140px or 960px)
5. Create separate design files for tablet and mobile if you want full control
6. Follow the default grid of your developer’s preferred CSS framework, or clearly show how you want to adjust each breakpoint

By mastering screen resolution considerations, you’ll create websites that provide an optimal viewing experience for all users, regardless of their device or screen size. This approach will not only improve user satisfaction but also contribute to better search engine rankings and overall website performance. Contact us today, and let us help you achieve better results.