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28 Comments

1. Andrew Beeston
   May 20, 2011 7:44am

   p.s. Wufoo rocks!

2. Ros Hodgekiss
   May 20, 2011 7:48am

   

   Wufoo is absolutely amazing, Andrew! Thanks for your vote :)

3. Stephen Muchmore
   May 20, 2011 8:18am

   Although the average display is getting bigger, we find that business to business still requires using the 600px limit and it sucks especially when the whole agency has 1920px wide screens…

4. Tim Bennett
   May 20, 2011 8:46am

   I agree with Stephen Muchmore.

   I think although screens are getting bigger the width we build websites and emails for is almost going to be capped. As your screen gets bigger you fill it with other windows. For example, I work on a 27” iMac and hardly ever have a window more than 2.3 the width of the display.

   600px always for me.

5. Chriz
   May 20, 2011 9:13am

   650 px. Not to forget, that all relevant details for recognizing the brand are within a height of 250 px.

6. Antti Pietilä
   May 20, 2011 10:23am

   For B2B customers, 600 px, so that it fits nice to Outlooks Preview pane.

7. David
   May 20, 2011 1:05pm

   At the end of the day it is easy to alienate customers with old smaller screens that can not read your missives, but you will not upset someone by not exceeding the 600 px standard all be it an old one.

8. Abdelmonem NAAMANE
   May 20, 2011 2:21pm

   600 px is the best width.

9. Jonathan
   May 20, 2011 2:38pm

   When companies make super-wide websites, you can always be sure that the boss has just bought himself a new super-wide monitor. I’ve often found that people look at their web stats and see the size of the screen people have, and work for this, which I believe to be a mistake - unless, like some I know, you suffer from maximize-all-windows-syndrom ...

   On the 250px rule quoted by Chriz, it’s curious to see that lots of the best designs in the Gallery ignore this.

10. Ben Poole
    May 20, 2011 3:00pm

    People are increasingly seeing email messages on phones and mobile devices before seeing them at their desk, I think the more important target is either fluid, or a mobile-friendly resolution. I for one, catch at least 75% of my email on my phone first. This has actually resulted in me unsubscribing from a lot of lists who don’t appear to understand this trend. Oddly enough, it’s the text-only messages that get my attention now, rather than the image-heavy marked-up ones.

11. Newsletter Templates
    May 20, 2011 5:04pm

    We always use 600px.

12. Matt Bee
    May 20, 2011 5:06pm

    A bigger display for me means a wider folder siderbar, or more features open in my email client, and the preview pane hasn’t really got much bigger, just means it doesn’t have to take up my whole screen when reading emails.  I might say 800 is good for me, but its still a case of check you audience if possible and design based on screen size facts from your recipients.

13. Serge D
    May 20, 2011 7:19pm

    I would say that email reading screens are getting smaller. More and more our traffic is coming from email campaigns that are being viewed on mobile devices.

    People are comfortable/used-to the standard 600px on any desktop monitor size, so now the main concern is too be able to properly display your campaign for someone with a fraction of the screen real estate.

14. Philip Moore
    May 20, 2011 7:35pm

    600px here. I must agree with all comments regarding displays getting bigger.

15. Stefano Bagnara
    May 20, 2011 10:33pm

    SOME display is getting bigger, but this is already took into consideration by email clients that uses much more space for folders, message lists, chats, social stuff and similar things leaving the old good 600px to the message pane. I’m on 1920 but my reading pane is at 500px. Mobile having 320px wide screens usually render email zoomed out, so that 500-600px email is rendered fine, just make sure to not use small text.

16. Adrian Neal
    May 20, 2011 10:42pm

    I’ve been using 600px (because CM recommended it) but this really has me thinking. I’ve recently acquired a 27” iMac, but I still view my emails in the preview pane no wider than before (agree with Tim Bennett). I’m also hearing Serge D in that campaigns are often now first viewed on mobiles.

    I’d like to say 100% fluid is the answer, but if they are viewed in a big window on a desktop, the line length would become intolerable.

    I’m a big fan of responsive website layouts, e.g. 1140 CSS Grid. I wonder, is there something similar for emails? Or at least @media queries?  I feel some R&D time coming on…

17. Isabel
    May 21, 2011 11:48am

    Agreed on all points of mobile screens and clutter: small is the new big. Besides, from a simple legibility standpoint, would anyone actually maximize an email message window to fill the entire width of a 27” screen? In our email campaigns, we send a simple message with the goal of getting a click-through. The email is just the vehicle.

18. Denis Graur
    May 21, 2011 2:13pm

    We should not forget about the raising number of mobile devices used for reading emails.

19. Rich Simisker
    May 21, 2011 4:33pm

    540px max for me, because it’s the most that GMail’s preview pane can accommodate @1024x768. 600px just gets clipped or overflows, depending upon the browser.

    The loss of 60px of width isn’t that big a deal; if anything it nudges you towards mobile-friendly single-column layouts.

20. Anna Yeaman
    May 21, 2011 6:37pm

    Can I pick more than one :) I’ve seen an increase in horizontal emails in the past year, as the maximum horizontal scroll in Outlook 2007 is 2110 pixels I’d say 2110px.

    Saying that I just sent out a 320px wide email this week and I do heart fluid…If I had to pick a traditional fixed width I’d say 480px. lol no answer at all!

21. Dan
    May 22, 2011 9:16am

    I use 650px but now we have to think about mobile phones. There is more and more people who read emails on their handheld device. Fluid layout will help but it is not suitable for every customer

22. Megan
    May 24, 2011 8:37pm

    650px - still wide enough to get the content to layout nicely, but still narrow enough to fit within the default preview size within Microsoft Outlook…

23. Matthew Luxford
    May 25, 2011 11:36am

    +1 for 650px

24. Rian
    May 25, 2011 10:31pm

    What was the result of the poll?

25. Ros Hodgekiss
    May 26, 2011 1:15am

    

    @Rian - We’ll be publishing the results in this blog tomorrow - stay tuned!

26. Ken L
    May 26, 2011 10:13am

    Definitely 600px and try nothing more than that!

27. ReaderX
    June 28, 2011 9:35pm

    Is there a link to the poll? I’m curious to see the results.

28. Ros Hodgekiss
    June 29, 2011 12:22am

    

    Hi ReaderX, I can see you found the post - for reference, the results can be found here.

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