Optimal target pixel dimensions for website you have designed?

Okay, so let me start by saying: PLEASE do not tell me how to create a fluid website or that I should read some statistic from Google on just how much pixel width by height is visible by website visitors as tracked by Google analytics...

As a web designer, certain assumptions about your audience must be made in order to design an effective website. So, what pixel dimensions do you assume are the minimum pixels width and/or height that these users should view your website at?

I understand that with a properly formatted "fluid" design, you should be able to view it at any dimensions - HOWEVER, there is al开发者_StackOverflow中文版ways a target that the designer is hoping for as their minimum and maximum viewing sizes.

So, how about it? I want to hear people's personal experiences. Please do not point me to some obscsure net-article. All of that is great, BUT, I want to hear from those others, like me, who are in the trenches, actually designing websites: what pixel dimensions do you think are the minimum that your site should be seen at?

So, once again, for those in the cheap seats....

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS THIS:

What size is the optimal size to view your latest, greatest website design at?

Please, no flaming-weenies telling me what is wrong with my post... if you have nothing constructive to add, please do not respond.

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I usually design for 800x600, taking out some vertical space for the browser, so around 800x450 - 800x500. If all of the important information falls in that resolution when viewed with OS-default font size settings, I consider that a good thing.

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We had to build a webapplication for users from several systems. We decided that the users will need at least a resolution of 1024x768. the bad part with this page is that graphic designers had too much influence in creating the site. Well, also on bigger screens, everything is in a maximum 1024 pixels wide. We wanted to use the whole screen, but no: "doesn't look cool enough".

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At the company I work, we design for a target resolution of 1024*768. This just stems from the fact that the place we are writing an application (GWT) for at the moment have a few old 15" computers lying around, and the application needs to run on their browsers too.

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For on-screen viewing, you should trim about 40 pixels off of the width of the screen resolution. The narrower width accommodates for borders and scrollbars.

Think of your target audience:

1. Are they more likely to have high-resolution monitors (and a 1024x768 or larger display)? If that is the case, keep your width to about 980 pixels.

2. If your target audience is elderly, or has poor eyesite, they tend to prefer the larger fonts that an 800x600 resolution provides. For this audience, keep your width to about 760 pixels.

3. Will your audience print out your web pages (or a portion of them, e.g., for order confirmations or instructions/directions)? If so, the page to be printed must fit a 540 pixel width for 8.5x11" paper with .5" margins or 511 pixels for A4 paper.

(HTML5 standards may stray from these traditional guidelines, as pages can grow horizontally and vertically when the user expands viewing areas of the page.)