Best Viewed at: Your Resolution!

Way back in the day, websites sometimes had banners or buttons (often 88×31 pixels, for complicated historical reasons) to indicate what screen resolution would be the optimal way to view the site. Just occasionally, you still see these today.

Best: 1024 x 768 Best viewed on desktop Best Viewed 800 x 600 Best Viewed In Landscape

Folks who were ahead of the curve on what we’d now call “responsive design” would sometimes proudly show off that you could use any resolution, in the same way as they’d proudly state that you could use any browser1!

Best viewed with eyes This page is best viewed with: a computer and a monitor Best viewed with YOUR browser Best viewed with A COMPUTER 

I saw a “best viewed at any size” 88×31 button recently, and it got me thinking: could we have a dynamic button that always shows the user’s current resolution as the “best” resolution. So it’s like a “best viewed at any size” button… except even more because it says “whatever resolution you’re at… that’s perfect; nice one!”

Turns out, yes2:

Looks best at: any resolution!

Anyway, I’ve made a website: best-resolution.danq.dev. If you want a “Looks best at [whatever my visitor’s screen resolution is]” button, you can get one there.

It’s a good job I’ve already done so many stupid things on the Web, or this would make me look silly.

Footnotes

1 I was usually in the camp that felt that you ought to be able to access my site with any browser, at any resolution and colour depth, and get an acceptable and satisfactory experience. I guess I still am.

2 If you’re reading this via RSS or have JavaScript disabled then you’ll probably see an “any size” button, but if you view it on the original page with JavaScript enabled then you should see your current browser inner width and height shown on the button.

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