why are 88x31 buttons... 88x31?

[orangecarnation]

i've started working on a 88x31 button for the first time in a hot minute and it's got me wondering- does anybody have any idea why those dimensions wound up becoming the standard for these?  it feels like such oddly specific numbers to me !  especially the 31 part.. strange.. let me know   

[fsr]

I've thought about this too, and I always come to the conclusion that we use those numbers because we always have. Obviously that's half an answer, so I found this and it appeals to me:

https://en.everybodywiki.com/88x31_web_button

However, the part I really like is that it started when someone else copied an existing graphic and modified it- The Netscape Now button or even credit card logos being offered as potential seeds for this convention.

So why did Netscape or credit card companies choose this? They were probably going for the smallest thing that Still worked, and 31 is really close to the 32x32 standard icon size from Windows 92, and I suspect that rather than coming up with the "perfect size" for this that it was more like someone at some point said "close enough" and then everyone else followed suit. It's a de facto standard after all.

Even funnier is that the "new" 88x31 is 80x15, with 15 also being one pixel short of a standard icon size.

[ValyceNegative]

I'd add that the 80x15 standard size for web badges wasn't supposed to substitute 88x31 web buttons, they simply ran more commonly in blogware while 88x31 was more of an "actual" webpage thing. For the rest, totally agreeing with the origins not having an exact reason and spreading easily becoming standards overnight. If we think about it these kinds of graphics have different preferred sizes depending on use, with fanlists being 50x50, Wikipedia user badges? I think they're called? Being rather big and then there's those very long and narrow "bumper stickers" designed to go in forum signatures.

[Melooon]

The Netscape Now button or even credit card logos being offered as potential seeds for this convention

It does not directly explain the 88x31 size, its possible that Netscape/GeoCities/LinkExchange (who ever first did it) just chose that to fit into whatever UI they were working with, but I remember reading that the aspect ratio almost perfectly matches half-width billboard signs from shopping malls in the US. I suspect they were imitating these signs to create a kind of advertising billboard association, based on what visitors would know from the real world!

The interesting thing is that these signs are probably disappearing with shopping malls, so people don't actually recognize them anymore; personally if I saw a sign like that in real life, Id think "Ok look an IRL web badge" 

[ValyceNegative]

I remember reading that the aspect ratio almost perfectly matches half-width billboard signs from shopping malls in the US. I suspect they were imitating these signs to create a kind of advertising billboard association, based on what visitors would know from the real world!

This is odd to say but I find web elements trying to imitate real life architecture so amazingly cute. I also remember reading various articles stating that the chaotic and cluttered design trends of the japanese web was directly inspired by their own city streets with their narrow buildings so close to eachother covered in billboards and advertisings. And (to add something in-topic to this comment) quite infact, japanese web is very much more keen on using narrower buttons, like 32x32.

[RatWedding]

I never thought about the origin of it. Of all of the explanations I think I like the shopping mall one the most. The way people talked about the web in the 1990s lends itself to copying real life in weird ways.

Though I think the realistic answer is likely something to do the line size as explained in that article.

If we get enough Internet nerds together we can probably find the true origin eventually.