A problem that has faced web designers for some years is the type of layout their site should use—should it be fluid, fixed width, have the benefits of being elastic, or a hybrid version that draws on the benefits of a mix of these layouts?
The type of layout we choose to use will of course depend on client requirements—making it a fluid layout means we are effectively one step closer to making it responsive; the difference being that the latter uses media queries to allow resizing of content for different devices, not just normal desktops!
To understand the differences, and how responsive layouts compare, let's take a quick look at each in turn:
Fixed width layouts: These are constrained to a fixed width; a good size is around 960px, as this can be split equally into columns, with no remainder. The downside is fixed width makes assumptions about the available viewport area, and if the screen is too small or large, it results in lots of scrolling which...