It is often pointed out by clients who are choosing a new layout for their website that, although many other websites they like seem to fit the screen very well on one computer, they can look very different when viewed on another computer.
A common problem is usually that the design is either too small (too much 'empty space' at the sides) or too large (some of the site is not viewable unless the horizontal scroll bar is used).
The reason for this is that monitors, and other screen displays, can be set up with a range of different screen resolutions.
Shown below is a display monitor with a resolution with 800x600 pixels and, on the right, the same monitor with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels:
800x600 pixels
1024x768 pixels
Note that screen resolution is not related to the physical size of a monitor, and is set by the user to their preferred resolution (depending on system specifications).
A website is designed in one of two basic layout styles; either as a 'fixed-width' or a 'liquid' layout.
A fixed-width layout is usually chosen by the designer so that they can control exactly how the content is set out on the screen.
The choice needs to be made as to whether to cater for all viewers--starting from those with a relatively low resolution of 800x600 pixels--by limiting the width to less than 800 pixels. This means that if the site is viewed on a high resolution screen (e.g. 1600x1200 pixels) there is a lot of 'empty space' at the sides. This can be filled with a background to lessen the impact.
A larger overall width can be chosen if it is felt that most viewers are using a high resolution monitor and, those that view the site with a low resolution monitor will have to use the horizontal scroll bar to view all of the content.
Alternatively, a liquid layout can be chosen whereby the website stretches to whatever size the screen (or browser) is. Although this solves the problem of fitting a site into any screen size, the downside is that objects (i.e. blocks of text and images etc.) have to be 'floated' on the screen so that they 'grow' with the layout--this sometimes causes the content to behave a little unexpectedly, and there is certainly a lot less control over how the content will be set out.
Below are some examples to view:
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