This is the web: it moves. We have small screens, wide screens, and a variety of needs for the desktop space on any screen. Fixed layouts are for magazines.
If visitors have a 1024 pixels wide screen – and they don’t want to stretch the browser widow across the entire width – any 1024 pixel wide fixed layout means horizontal scrolling – and that’s not very nice.
In order to demonstrate liquid or fixed CSS functionality within the page it’s necessary to have a liquid layout. It’s even possible to have a liquid elastic layout.
Here’s a list of some of the best liquid layout tutorials on the web: CSS Liquid Layouts.
Liquid layouts do need a minimum width to stop the design breaking when the browser is narrowed. CSS or JavaScript can be used to do this (click here for some links.)
O.K., a rant about liquid layouts within a fixed layout design may be the epitome of irony but hypocrisy is this “blogger’s” speciality. This liquid layout for Wordpress: SeaBeast looks great. It doesn’t have a minimum width but uses a drop column technique so the design looks good at narrow widths.
Here’s a couple of liquid layouts with border images to give great flexibility with web page design:
Make like the polar ice caps: go liquid.