3 ms·

I was online during that era but "88x31" does not ring any bells. Is it significant at all or just some arbitrary size? What about the number of animation frame

I was online during that era but "88x31" does not ring any bells. Is it significant at all or just some arbitrary size? What about the number of animation frames? 88x31x10?

anyfoo 4y ago
88x31 in numbers doesn't ring a bell for me either, but seeing those buttons, I remember being them everywhere. Some were more common than others (HTML validated, XHTML validated, Netscape, optimized for 1024x768, Apache, ...).
electroly 4y ago
It's only significant in the sense that so many of them were made to that same size. It was an arbitrary choice for the first button image (Netscape Now?), then everyone else copied the size and format.
SoftAnnaLee 4y ago
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that 88x31 was done because Netscape distributed similar buttons for webmasters to include on their webpages if it was optimized for the Netscape browser. Buttons which were arbitrarily 88 pixels by 31 pixels. But then as those buttons propagated, other webmasters started creating other buttons that fit in with the original Netscape buttons; copying the same dimensions and styles. Then it became an odd ad-hoc standard of that era of the internet, where you'd include 88x31 buttons because it was cool and popular. While others would be advertising their page based on how cool the buttons looked, and making them fit that standard 88x31 buttons so they were more likely to be included.
devindotcom 4y ago
Exactly my question. It doesn't go cleanly into any of the common widths from the time. Common powers and multiples are way off. My guess is it was an arbitrarily chosen size on free hosting like Geocities, that fit into their default layouts and frames. Edit: Oh, someone answered in another thread - appears to be as another person remembered here: https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31.html https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31.html
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

I was online during that era but "88x31" does not ring any bells. Is it significant at all or just some arbitrary size? What about the number of animation frames? 88x31x10?

anyfoo 4y ago

88x31 in numbers doesn't ring a bell for me either, but seeing those buttons, I remember being them everywhere. Some were more common than others (HTML validated, XHTML validated, Netscape, optimized for 1024x768, Apache, ...).

electroly 4y ago

It's only significant in the sense that so many of them were made to that same size. It was an arbitrary choice for the first button image (Netscape Now?), then everyone else copied the size and format.

SoftAnnaLee 4y ago

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that 88x31 was done because Netscape distributed similar buttons for webmasters to include on their webpages if it was optimized for the Netscape browser. Buttons which were arbitrarily 88 pixels by 31 pixels. But then as those buttons propagated, other webmasters started creating other buttons that fit in with the original Netscape buttons; copying the same dimensions and styles. Then it became an odd ad-hoc standard of that era of the internet, where you'd include 88x31 buttons because it was cool and popular. While others would be advertising their page based on how cool the buttons looked, and making them fit that standard 88x31 buttons so they were more likely to be included.

devindotcom 4y ago

Exactly my question. It doesn't go cleanly into any of the common widths from the time. Common powers and multiples are way off. My guess is it was an arbitrarily chosen size on free hosting like Geocities, that fit into their default layouts and frames. Edit: Oh, someone answered in another thread - appears to be as another person remembered here: https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31.html https://neonaut.neocities.org/cyber/88x31.html

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]