Header Size, What size do I make them?

[sammy22]

My mom wants me to make a website header or something like that. I'm not too sure about the different sizes for things except banners and avi's here. Could someone please tell me what size are headers normanlly? I'm sure it depends on the browser but I just want to know the default size so I can get started on it. If you could give it to me in pixles that would also be great.

Hope that makes sense. Thanks

[Cinca]

The header size depends on the layout usually. I only know of LJ having the size of 800x400. But website headers are smaller then that.

[Luke Skywalker]

As Cinca just said, the header size completely depends on the layout you have in mind or that is available. Not even all LJ headers are the same size. For me personally (without knowing what kind of layout you have) I think that 700x150 or 700x200 is a good place to start. It also depends on what kind of header you're making and so on. There is no fixed size, and really that gives you a lot of freedom to make...whatever you want so long as it looks nice.

Also, don't get confused about trying to apply it to different monitors. I think it's a natural thing to worry about when you first start creating stuff for websites, but honestly that's all taken care of in the code. If you're just simply making the header, don't worry too much about how it'll look on other monitors, you have to trust that whoever made the code did their job correctly. Oh, which brings me to a good tip for you. If you have access to the website's source code, then it's always good to look up the width because you don't want your header to stretch the page or to be longer than the content. Another pro-tip, go look at other websites and get ideas. Go to sites that you like and see what they've done and what they do and try to copy that.

And one last bit of information, even though I just told you not to worry about monitor size, a good thing to keep in mind is what kind of monitors people do have. I say this because in the future you may get into this more, and a good rule of thumb is that all your main content on a website should be contained within an 800 pixel block in the center because the smallest monitor resolution is 800 pixels. However, as I told you above, in this case you shouldn't have to worry about that because you're just making an image and all the coding has already been done for you.

[sammy22]

Thanks guys. I was thinking along the lines o 700X200 but I wasn't sure. I was just wondering what a good size would be.

[Luke Skywalker]

Moved this to the Help Archive because I think it's been pretty well answered. Good luck with your header, Sammy.

[sammy22]

Thanks Luke. My questions are pretty easy to answer.