Introduction

Basic Design Elements

Overview
Column Width
Backgrounds
Logos
Fonts
Images
Sounds
Hyperlinks

Site Elements

Clients

Column Width

Most web pages are built in columns. Originally, columns were generally 600 pixels wide. (Pixels are the little light dots that display color on your screen.) Since the internet was originally used to transmit documents intended to be printed, the web is set up so that a document 600 pixels wide by 800 pixels long will print correctly on a standard 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper with the proper margins. Some older computers and browsers only displayed things that were 600 pixels wide, so that if a website's columns were 900 pixels wide, users with those browsers would have to scroll to the right to see the whole column. Today, most people don't print out much of what they find on the internet and they have higher resolution screens, so the old rule of thumb doesn't apply. Still, web pages generally are built using columns of a width between 800 to 1200 pixels. This column, including the navigation items at left, is 1000 pixels wide. It is centered on the screen; for some animation effects, a column has to be displayed on the left.