visual design
Above the fold
Does "above the fold" still matter, and how much?
"Above the fold" is whatever's visible before you scroll - borrowed from newspapers folded in half on the stand. It still matters because the first screenful gets the most attention and sets whether people stay - but the fold isn't a wall: people do scroll, and the line itself moves with every screen size.
Also known as: above the fold, the fold, below the fold
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The demo
Here's a landing page in a window you can shorten. Drag the viewport height and watch the "fold" move - and notice when the call-to-action drops out of sight.
What this demo shows (text version)
A sample landing page (logo, headline, supporting line, a primary call-to-action, then features, testimonials and footer) is shown with a movable "fold" line set by a viewport-height slider. Everything below the line is dimmed as "below the fold" - seen only if you scroll. As you shorten the viewport, the fold rises and the call-to-action can drop below it.
The point: the first screenful gets the most attention, so the value proposition and a clear next step belong up top - but the fold sits at a different place on every screen, and people do scroll when the top gives them a reason. So treat the fold as a prioritisation cue, not a wall: lead with the essentials, hint there's more below, and don't cram everything above an imaginary line.
The first screenful carries the most weight, so put your core message and a clear next step where they're seen without scrolling. But the fold isn't a hard limit - people scroll happily when the top gives them a reason to - and its position changes with every device, so don't cram everything above an imaginary line or starve the page below it. Earn the scroll; don't bet everything on the fold.
Drag the fold up to a short screen and your call-to-action slipped below it - unseen unless someone scrolls. Drag it down and the top felt cramped, everything fighting to be "above the line". The content never changed; only the fold did - which is exactly why it's a priority cue, not a boundary to obey.
The fold matters as attention, not as law. The first screenful is seen by everyone and skimmed hardest, so it should carry the essentials - what this is, why it's for you, and an obvious next step. A confusing or empty top screen loses people before they ever scroll; a clear one earns the scroll.
But "stuff everything above the fold" is a myth that produces cramped, cluttered tops and the false belief that nobody scrolls - they do, readily, when the top gives them a reason. And there is no single fold: it sits at a different place on every phone, laptop and window size, so designing to one fixed line is designing for a device that may not exist.
Use it as a prioritisation question, not a pixel boundary: what must be seen immediately, and what can reward a scroll? Put the value proposition and primary action up top, hint that there's more below (a peek of the next section beats a dead-end full-screen hero), and let the rest breathe down the page.