smallcarnivorousmammal
June 24, 2026 at 6:19:41 PM
what's your site?:
smallcarnivore.neocities.org
some button tips!!
during the "Browser Wars" between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, websites often looked completely broken on one browser but perfect on another. to warn visitors, webmasters started placing small graphic badges in their sidebars or footers like “Best Viewed with Netscape Navigator”
the standard size quickly solidified into 88x31 pixels because it was small enough to load quickly on dial-up internet but large enough to contain a readable pixel font and a tiny logo
this size originated in the mid-to-late 1990s during the early days of the World Wide Web in the same period, where monitor resolutions were low (often just 640x480 or 800x600 pixels) and screen real estate was precious so the 88x31 format was the perfect size to link to another site without cluttering the layout
now that our screens are much higher resolution, you can bump up the res on your button too if you want, but remember the dimensions so it fits in with the others.
also, this specific size actually became an official internet advertising standard! The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) formally designated the 88x31 format as a "Micro Bar" or "Micro Button."
they are also often animated GIFs, but don't have to be.
you might see button walls on other sites. a button wall is a dedicated section of a personal website used to display buttons from other people's websites! to me, it's kinda like trading cards. I do this with my neighbors section on my resources page, where I put up buttons of people who also have mine on their site!
if you're using buttons and they look blurry, make sure to use image-rendering: pixelated; in your CSS.
if you plan to share your button on your site for others to use, it's common courtesy to include a little copy-paste text box with the HTML code (<a href="..."><img src="..." width="88" height="31"></a>
right next to it. this makes it much easier for other webmasters to trade with you!
I hope this helps 
Replied on: June 25, 2026 at 4:30:21 PM
you are an absolute angel!!! I can't believe you took the time to explain me all this, I'm so thankful!!! but I have one little question, as I am a graphic designer of trade I used illustrator do make my button but when I exported to photoshop to fit the 88x31 size my image lost all quality. should I design with the pixelated quality in mind or can I use a bigger image with the same dimensions??