Optimal “page” resolution for online publishing?

[Parallax Panda]

I’d like to make something like a digital “book” with “pages” that’ll most likely be uploaded to a webpage and viewed on computer screens, tablets, etc.
So my question is what resolution would be best for this, 2018?

Also, I’ll work in pixel art and will have to enlarge the final images (which will be smaller than the target “page” size) while maintaining the aspect ratio and in multiples of 100% (so: 200%, 300%, 400%, etc.) So the resolution has to be an even number else this won’t work very well.

I hope this is the right forum for this kind of discussion.

 

[Kes]

'Art, Literature and Music' is for posting examples of your work in those categories, even if not RM related.
[move]RPGMaker MV[/move]

 

[Poryg]

I think the right resolution for a page would be at least a standard A4. It's both readable on PC and well zoomable on tablets.

 

[Parallax Panda]

@Poryg

Well, maybe. But I'm not sure that A4 (~2480 x 3508 pixels at 300 dpi) is the best choice since printing is out of the questions. If printing were an option then something like A4 might be smart, but since it's not I think the resolution should probably be something that looks good on whatever device(s) people tend to use these days... without being too large/small for the actual pixel art. Something tells me the optimal size is probably less than 2480 x 3508.

It's a difficult question though and I'm not sure what to go for.

 

[Poryg]

A4 is a standard proven with time and used in many documents: pdf, doc and others. It is a pretty optimal solution, because it's even and offers leeway for zooming both in and out. Take half of that and either you'll have more pages or you decrease the size by half. The former is fine, the latter not so much,because people would be more forced to upscale. And rather than upscaling it is always better to downscale.

 

[Parallax Panda]

Well, zooming in and out might look good on a stanard PDF o DOC but it doesn't work too well with pixel art. Because the artwork will get screwed if you zoom in say... 125%, or 75% or 135%...etc. It just doesn't work well for the medium so I'm wondering if the ideal resolution is something that would fit on most pc and tablet monitors without the need of zooming?

I fail to see what would make A4 measurements relevant for something that'll never be printed. However, in a low 72dpi one "A4" would translate to 595 x 842 pixels. But I wonder if it wouldn't be better then to make sure it worked without zooming on the closest resolution (1024x768)? For example, something like 514x762 maybe?

 

[Poryg]

If you want something that fits without zooming, then yes, it's small resolutions. Maybe even less than 1024x768, since I've seen many tablets with res 1024x600 (had one of them too). So perhaps 800x500 might be good, or the one that you mentioned.

 

[Parallax Panda]

From what my research tells me, 1024x768 as well as 1366×768 seems to be the most common resolutions online today... or at least what seems to be recommended as a good target size. Of course, some people will still use PC's with 800x600 or old smartphones with lower resolution, but I'll have to draw the line somewhere else it's a race to the bottom...

Also if I were to use earlier mentioned 514x762 (a compromise between your suggested A4 and my wish to eliminate the need for zooming as much as possible), the original artwork would most likely be half the size of that - 257x381. I want the pixels to be visible so I'll probably have to resize the final work with 200%. So, well, it's already a rather small canvas at that point. I can see problems with going much lower, even for pixel art.

I'll start experimenting. Maybe I feel I don't need to enlarge the final artwork at all, then I'll have plenty of canvas... or, maybe I need to. We'll see. For now, I guess I'll try 514x762 (257x381*2) and see how that works out for me.

(I'm still very much open to input on this topic!)