Occasionally I have to size browser windows quickly to see if a design will really work on smaller computer screens. In times of such need, I use this desktop background:
It’s just a 1600×1200 24-bit PNG file that has the standard 4:3 ratio screen sizes on them. I suppose I should also add the widescreen aspect ratios to them too for completeness. My work is never done…sigh. The grid size is 25 pixels; this is good enough to estimate sizes without literring the entire screen with tiny boxes.
Anyway, people sometimes ask me for this file, so I’m putting it here for future generations of new media designers to enjoy. It’s a mere 63K too, which pleases my inherent cheapness when it comes to using memory, though technically speaking—oh, never mind…these days memory usage practically doesn’t matter anymore.
» Download Desktop PNG File
You will want to right-click and choose “Save Link As” to your desktop. Then do whatever you need to do to set it as your new “desktop background.” Make sure you do not use scaling, otherwise the sizes of the boxes will be completely wrong.
13 Comments
I must be a geek, because I usually type
[removed]window.resizeTo(w,h); void 0;in the address bar—where w is the preferred width, and h is the preferred height.K
I forgot to mention: you can find a list of them at the bottom of Pixy’s Favelets page or on the right side of Tantek’s Favelets page.
Look for “Browser Windows” or “Screen sizes” (respectively), then drag and drop the ones you want into your bookmarks bar. After that, resizing your browser windows is just a click away.
/Me, again. I’m done … I promise ;-)
tsk, tsk… David, I expected more of you.
Why not use something like Kurtis suggested, or something even more convenient, like bookmarking this code: [removed]window.resizeTo(800,600);window.moveTo(0,0);
which is a cross-browser bookmarklets. Those things do wonders. You can find others at https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/ (no relation) that do anything from zapping all the plug ins in a page, to opening full-blown shells to run JavaScript on the current page.
Hi,
You might want to have a look at size utility :
http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html
Jeremy
If you are on Windows, there is a nice little application called Sizer. You can configure it and add your own resolutions.
After you install it, you can resize any window with a right click.
http://www.brianapps.net/sizer.html
Kurtis: Oh, that’s a good trick! Thanks for sharing that!
Tal: I try to avoid Javascript as much as possible, that’s why :-) Plus, I just like making glowing dots and gradiently-hued rectangles ;-)
Jeremy, Alex: Very cool! I’ll check it out!
There’s something about the nice simple, visual, elegant solution here that appeals greatly to me.
Nice!
For anyone using firefox a great utility is the Web Developer toolbar. Resizing the browser window is just one thing this little baby can do.
http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/
See, that’s dangerous. I’d be too inclined to put that on someone’s 1280×1024 desktop and stretch it to fit, just to mess with people’s heads.
Dave
This totally calls to the old-school low-tech-but-not-really guy in me. I think it rocks, as in 80’s rock (showing my age). Thanks again for generously sharing your mojo with us.
ps: I’m all for glowing dots. Just because you can.
Wow, great minds think alike.
I’ve done something similar with my wallpaper, although mine is much simpler.
I’ve also done mine in 4 different colors, because I use a virtual desktop manager (MSVDM) and that allows me to see at a glance which desktop I’m viewing. If you want to see my low-bandwidth version, I posted it @ http://www.osmond-riba.org/lis/media/1024x768_5a.PNG
Thanks
This was extremely useful!
very clever, very clever indeed. I’m going to make one for my big fat 1650×1050 monitor with all the sizes under it . . .