Percentage or Pixel?

All of us that dedicated ourselves to designing web pages, at one time or another we have been asking ourselves this question, should I use percentages or pixels to define the width of the tables in my site? What is better?

For the people who are not very familiar with HTML:
Tables defined with percentage are those that auto adjust to fit the screen of the user depending on the used resolution.
Tables defined with pixel fixed or absolute, are those that are seen the size no matter what the size of the resolution.

This article does not try to give a sharp law of what to do and what not to do, but I will expose the pros and the cons of both options.

Pros and cons of the use of percentage. (relative tables)

   The main advantage of the use of percentage is the possibility of designing for all the resolutions with no need to make different versions for the Web.

   This advantage is considerable, but it is necessary to consider that there is Designing for most probable, even if you try to please everyone, you cannot.

   Another disadvantage of these tables with respect to the absolute ones is the fact that they are slower to load, although they weigh the same. This is because the navigator must calculate the percentage with respect to the resolution used by the user. To see times of load

   Another advantage of the relative tables, we could mention that they are better to print .

  Another black point in the percentage tables is the width of the columns. The problem takes place when not being able to control the wide one of columns when we work with percentage tables. This implies that in the computers with greater resolution the columns are wider. It is demonstrated that the widest columns are slower to read, is why the average writings as the magazines or the newspapers use narrow columns.

   My personal opinion on the tables with percentage is that it is more difficult to work with them , since normally they are mixed with pixel fixed for zones like the menus, that we want to remain fixed.

Pros and cons of the use of the Píxel I fix (absolute tables)

   The tables with fixed pixels are more stable , and it is for that reason that in applications like Web-mail, that they are most recommendable.

   An advantage of the page with fixed pixels it is necessary to emphasize that we can perfectly control the width of the columns for all the users. So that we can make the width of a column between 40 and 60 characters to facilitate reading.

   The problem with fixed pixel is that it does not adapt to the resolutions of all the users. This does not imply that they will not see it correctly, but that users with a greater resolution will see it a little smaller. In any case, if we decided to make the pages for 800x600 and centered, we will cater to the greater number of users. And although I have my resolution set to 1024x768, is not especially annoying to me that the pages do not occupy all the screen for me.

   It can give problems at the time of printing when the width exceeded 750 pixels.

   I have struggled with the tables, mainly at the time of making them compatible with Netscape. After these struggles, I have reached the conclusion that it is easier to adapt the tables to all the navigators when fixed pixel width formula is used correctly. When I say this, I mean is that the sum of pixels of the cells must match the size in pixels of the table. Most of the problems with the tables happen due to the nonobservance of this principle.

Author: Fabio Núñez Iturriaga
URL: http://www.dreamweavering.com (Spanish)