Fluid width vs Fixed width - heated discussion

mythus said

Oh and perhaps another thing, I am a fan of the fluid width. I know I know, most people aren't… I just hate wasted real estate lol.

You are definitely not alone. I just hate seeing my 1920x1200 screen go to waste.

I used to be an advocate of fluid-width designs…until I realised how difficult it is to read text when each line is 1920px long!

We should really be following the examples of newspapers.

Robbie Goacher said

I used to be an advocate of fluid-width designs…until I realised how difficult it is to read text when each line is 1920px long!

I know what you mean, and if my site was full of wall-to-wall text I would agree 100%.

As it is, a 'typical' fixed size of 1024x768 would have been a bit too restrictive for our video focused site. The site is designed for best fit of 1280x1024, but we weren't prepared to force that res.

We should really be following the examples of newspapers.

I have mixed feelings about that one. I don't think the nature of screen based content works too will for newspaper styled content. I understand the benefits of restricting the field of view to reduce the need for the eyes to travel, but resorting/reverting to newspaper columns is a backwards step.

Please allow me to resolve this one, my skins are always designed to be fluid, it is normally a single css adjustment to make a seemingly fixed width skin become fluid.

Petrikuhr said

Please allow me to resolve this one, my skins are always designed to be fluid, it is normally a single css adjustment to make a seemingly fixed width skin become fluid.

That's true for overall page width but doesn't necessarily automatically translate to every element on the page.

Take your frame for example, which is a picture with a fixed size. In a fluid page it will always be the same size, it will not increase as page width increases (and if you set its size to auto it would pixelate). But I hear your thinking "the frame size is supposed to be fixed at any resolution, I don't want it to change". And that then becomes a personal design decision. I might want a fluidity that has the frame in say small and medium sizes and for the system to intelligently choose the appropriate size.

You may also want it fluid, but to max out and become fixed at a specific resolution. And depending on the specific site and its element will not necessarily be trivial to do.

Bottom line - each site developer will have their own take on how fluid a fluid site should be, and for some it will not end up being a trivial amount of work to achieve it.

temp1024 said

Petrikuhr said

Please allow me to resolve this one, my skins are always designed to be fluid, it is normally a single css adjustment to make a seemingly fixed width skin become fluid.

That's true for overall page width but doesn't necessarily automatically translate to every element on the page.

Take your frame for example, which is a picture with a fixed size. In a fluid page it will always be the same size, it will not increase as page width increases (and if you set its size to auto it would pixelate). But I hear your thinking "the frame size is supposed to be fixed at any resolution, I don't want it to change". And that then becomes a personal design decision. I might want a fluidity that has the frame in say small and medium sizes and for the system to intelligently choose the appropriate size.

You may also want it fluid, but to max out and become fixed at a specific resolution. And depending on the specific site and its element will not necessarily be trivial to do.

Bottom line - each site developer will have their own take on how fluid a fluid site should be, and for some it will not end up being a trivial amount of work to achieve it.

You don't know what you are talking about, one of those comcode frames is NOT a skin, my skins are fluid width and height.

Please stop deciding what is what without the facts.

mythus said

Oh and perhaps another thing, I am a fan of the fluid width. I know I know, most people aren't… I just hate wasted real estate lol.

Same here.

Bob

Petrikuhr said

You don't know what you are talking about, one of those comcode frames is NOT a skin, my skins are fluid width and height.

Please stop deciding what is what without the facts.

Of course one frame does not make a skin, but it is/can be part of one. All I am saying is that not all elements lend themselves to be height and width (specifically) friendly.

I seriously do not understand your stance, when designing graphics for a skin I am always aware of the need for fluid behaviour, vertically and horizontally. Areas of a site are irrelevant as my designs will readily adjust to the environment!

OK, lets look at your Comcode OCPFrame 7. Its a great frame and a lot of people will love it and use it exactly as-is to great effect.

Although it tiles great vertically, it is still effectively fixed-width because of the content of the top image. The top part of the image may be split into three parts, but its still not designed to grow horizontally.

Oh I understand what you are so worked up about now, you want to make a skin out of my steampunk comcode frame, it would have been nice to be asked first though instead of you trying to trick me into making a horizontally fluid version.

Why didn't you just ask me that in the first place, I respond much better to straight forward requests you know!

Temp, that code frame does not = one of her skins. I think that's the issue here, but I could be wrong. She released a code frame that is different from the skins she is talking about, and you seem to be comparing the two.

The steampunk code frame is just a comcode that ismeant to act like a box of sorts. A completely different thing IMO. Though ofcourse I'll readily admit, I am no master themer lol.

That is exactly what I stated before, but my point has been ignored, which led me to the theory I have deduced above. I could be wrong of course but cripes, talk about flogging a dead horse, pheweee!

Petrikuhr said

Oh I understand what you are so worked up about now, you want to make a skin out of my steampunk comcode frame

I don't know how you came to that conclusion. I have no interest in your skin at all.

I was illustrating that different people have different views on how fluid a fluid design could be. The only reason I mentioned your frame was to indicate frames could also be considered part of a skin, and that they could be fixed or fluid as per the designers needs:

temp1024 said

But I hear your thinking "the frame size is supposed to be fixed at any resolution, I don't want it to change". And that then becomes a personal design decision.

As for:

Petrikuhr said

it would have been nice to be asked first though instead of you trying to trick me into making a horizontally fluid version.

Why didn't you just ask me that in the first place, I respond much better to straight forward requests you know!

Thanks for thinking I was trying to be underhanded.

Oh my god, I cannot believe you are still going on about this, you are comparing two entirely different things as if they were the same.

I do not instantly suppose anything about anyone but you have been pushing an issue that makes absolutely no sense to me at all. I do not wish to imply you would do anything wrong but come on now, why on Earth would you keep pushing this issue, which you of course are still pushing it.

Honestly, if I am going to recieve this sort of peculiar attitude here when i start releasing skins then I will just forget it and leave now. I have enough real life problems without someone like you playing the fool with me.

I will say the last thing I am willing to say on this matter, those comcode frames were made for a specific purpose, you were suggesting my potential skin design skills would lack fluid control even though my design are exactly that, when they are SKINS.

If I seem like I am getting annoyed it is because I AM getting angry with you. I am done with htis discussion.

I've split off these posts, and closed this topic.

You're both well respected members of the community, it hurts to see you arguing.

It's obvious some personality conflict is going on here. It hurts to read as you both mean well, and it's really quite a pointless argument because neither of you hold any real disagreement or ill feeling in the first place, it's all misunderstanding.

Petrikuhr is naturally going to be sensitivity to any kind of commentary posted around the hard work she's done. Temp1024 is inclined to intense left-brained discussion as a way for everyone to learn from each other. Those viewpoints obviously clash.

Any un-based accusations flying around in the aftermath of this misunderstanding are out of order.

So please try and walk a mile in each other's shoes and learn what makes the other tick, psychologically. People think about things very differently. Certainly it's something I've learned that it's important to try and understand different personality types.