What are "average" screen sizes, resolutions etc. for websites

These days the variety of devices which can display web pages ranges from small mobile phones to large high definition TVs. So there's no way your web pages will look good on everything - especially older 800x600 CRTs.

Although Apple's iWeb templates are narrow (700pixels?), Apple's own recently re-designed webpages at apple.com are now mostly 980 pixels wide. This is also the width that iPhone's Safari is optimized to:

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/designingcontent.html

...scroll down & click on "Optimize for Page Readability"; it says: "Safari on iPhone also sets the viewport width to 980 pixels, *the width of most webpages*." And: "if your webpage is less than 980 pixels wide causing it to scale too small on iPhone..."

So clearly the iPhone's default scale is optimized for 980 wide and apple.com also. Obviously 980-wide pages won't be good on a non-scaling 800-wide display because of the need to scroll horizontally - which should be avoided where possible. But you'll never satisfy all viewers - especially those with old technology.

Since the iPhone automatically scales 980-wide web pages perfectly to its 320 x 480 screen and future display devices will scale too, perhaps you won't go far wrong if you take Apple's example and set your page width to 980.

Hi Prof,

My webpages are set to 1024 px. by about 3500 px. They look fine on my 20"iMac with a resolution of 1680 by 1050 & also on my 14" iBook. However, when I visit the site at my son's house the pages appear stretched. He has a large monitor. Unfortunately I forget what the settings are on his. I've looked at the website on other computers and it looks fine. Even the large screens at the apple store.

It seems around 1000 is average. If you set it there maybe you could check the site from a different computer and see how it looks. If you don't like it, just change the size.