I have my ui for my app but I would like to work within interface builder for the ui. I only have a Retina scaled set (640 x 960). There are a lot of .png's but I don't know what I should do to be able to implement both 320 x 480 scale ui and 640 x 960 scale ui. Is there a way to do something from within xcode or is there a way to scale down the images using preview or similar. If the only way would be to use a scaling program, then what should I scale them to?
Thanks
You will love this little tool, free in the Mac Store
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/unretiner/id411277085?mt=12
[EDIT]
It also sounds like you're not sure about how to implement both retina and normal interfaces.
You will need a pair of images for each "graphic object" and the retina version should have it's filename appended with #2x. So in the case of an image called "background.png" you will have one called "background#2x.png" for retina, and "background.png" for the older screens.
In your interface builder files you can simply choose the "background.png" version and the OS will pick up the retina version and apply it when needed.
The tool mentioned above will also save the "unretinized" files with the correct filename so if you use an image with the #2x appended, it will scale it down and rename it too!
You can use Preview to scale the images. Open the image, go into the Tools menu and select Adjust Size.... Change the Width (and height) to 50 percent and press OK.
Then use File/Save as... to save your new not-retina image.
I'm not an iPhone developer, but I believe the correct way to handle this would be to have two sets of icons: one for the iPhone 3GS and earlier and one for the iPhone 4. Scaling icons down will make them look muddy.
Related
If i want my application to be compatible with the Retina display, am i obliged to recreate all my images by doubling their sizes? even the icon?
if you will not use high resolution images your images will look pixelated/blurr.So better to use high res images as well.Some Key points are:
Displaying graphics depending on the device model can be done by duplicating image files and adding an ‘#2x’ suffix. So, when the normal image file is named ‘button.png’, the hi-res version should be ‘button#2x.png’.
You don’t need any additional code for this. In Interface Builder or your code, assign the normal version (without the suffix) to an object. The same goes for the application icon. The resolution of the 2x icon should be 114 by 114 pixels. You will need to add a separate ‘Icon’ property in the Info.plist file for this icon.
If for some reason you do want to perform a check in your code, you can do so by checking the scale factor of the display. Older models will return a scale factor of 1.0, while the iPhone 4 will return 2.0. You can check this with:
float factor = [UIScreen mainScreen].scale;
Depending on the type of application you’re developing further optimizations can be made to utilize the new retina display the best you can.
A very good information here
hope it help you :)
You're not obligated, it just will look very pixelated if you don't.
As for the icon, I believe you are obligated to provide multiple sizes when submitting to the AppStore.
Maybe you'll want to take a look at iRetiner.
You could also check this previous stackoverflow thread : how to set image for ipad application that support retina display
A summary of the icons and what is required can be found in the human interface guidelines. I highly recommend providing high resolution artwork for the retina display even though it is not required. Your default now should be to design artwork at the higher resolution, then scale down for older devices. I doubt Apple would choose to highlight an application as new and noteworthy if it looks pixelated on the latest devices.
I have a few questions about screen resolution, that I'm not clear on. These questions assume they my app will be running on iOS 4.0 and up, and on either iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.
Should the size of the splash image (default.png) be (960x640) or (480x320)?
Should the size of the app icon (Icon.png) be (57x57) or (114x114)?
What about other graphics that I may use in my app, such a graphic that represents a button? Should I always create these images for the higher resolution, and have the app scale them down? In other words, if I want a button image to be displayed on the 3GS that is 200x40 - should I create the image at 400x80, so that iPhone 4 can take advantage of it?
Thanks!
A good guide to this can be found here: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/preparing-your-iphone-app-for-higher-resolutions/
In general you just create 2 sets of images. Your original and then a new one twice as big with #2x in the name. So for image.png at size 32x32 you would have one that is twice the resolution called image#2x.png at size 64x64. In your app just always use the image.png in Interface Builder and when loading in code.
There is no need to detect the device. These images will automatically be picked up by the OS and subbed in as necessary.
Provide both sizes (960x640 & 480x320) for the splash image using the #2x method described above
Provide both icons (57x57 & 114x114) using the #2x method
For our apps we use a combination of the #2x images and just Scaling the large images. (More information on this can be found in the above article) We use the #2x images for bar buttons, icons, etc. But for UIImageViews we often just use the Scaling. There can be a performance hit for doing this, but for most apps I'd say this is negligible. The savings in file size sometimes make scaling the only option.
Related Questions:
Retina/non-retina images in UIImageView
Making an app Retina Display friendly
You need to provide both if you want them to look nice. For example,
Default.png -> (480x320)
Amd
Default#2x.png -> (960x640)
I have an app and would like to make it retina display friendly.
How exactly does the process work? What images need to be added apart from what I have?
I know the sizes should be different, but am not sure on the details?
What else needs to be done to handle retina display?
Should the device be detected and use other images if the device supports retina display?
What if there are a lot of images? And how will this effect the app size?
Thanks
A good guide to this can be found here: http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/iphone/preparing-your-iphone-app-for-higher-resolutions/
In general you just create 2 sets of images. Your original and then a new one twice as big with #2x in the name. So for image.png at size 32x32 you would have one that is twice the resolution called image#2x.png at size 64x64. In your app just always use the image.png in Interface Builder and when loading in code.
There is no need to detect the device. These images will automatically be picked up by the OS and subbed in as necessary.
good articles if you're using sprites
http://weedygarden.net/2012/04/hi-res-retina-display-css-sprites/
The main thing about working with retina image is that image name convention.
And the size of image should be 2times greater than regular1.
Example- if your icon name for regular is icon.png then it should be icon#2x.png for
retina.And second thing is size for regular is 72*72 then it should be 144*144 for Retina.
It might be helpful for you.
Thnks
I hope to create an iphone window based app for retina screen?
But I found that the size of window in mainwindow.xib is fixed.
How to adjust it or there is any to tell interface builder create window for retina pixel size?
Welcome any comment
Thanks
interdev
There's no need to do anything in terms of the various components you layout in Interface Builder, as it's based around points, not pixels - and as all the iPhone screens sizes are the same in points no action is required.
In terms of any images you're loading, you will need to supply higher resolution (twice the pixel size) versions, but as long as these are named "[original name]#2x.[extension]" they'll simply work automatically.
For more information on the image naming, see the "Specifying High-Resolution Images in iOS" section of the Resource Programming Guide and if you want to delve a little deeper, there's a discussion on "Points Versus Pixels" within the Drawing and Printing Guide for iOS.
UPDATE - As of the iPhone 5, the iPhone screens are no longer all the same point size. :-)
The window will be automatically resized for you, you do need concern about the size of your image elements, since retina display uses a bigger size of resolution. You need name your images like this:
regular image name: myimage.png
retina image name: myimage#2x.png
When running in an iPhone4 your program will identify the token "#2x" and change the images for that kind of device.
Design your layout using the size of: 640x960 (double of the original: 320x480)
Good luck.
I'm developing my software, all the ui is drawn based on 480x320 size screen, can my software run on iphone4 without any modification?
Yes it can run with no modification.
If you'd like to create "retina" assets you can create all of your images at the double resolution and include copies with '#2x' appended to the filename in your Application bundle. The iPhone will automatically load the correct images.
Example:
existing image - myImage.png
new up-sampled image - myImage#2x.png
Yes, but any images sized for the earlier iPhone models will look chunky compared to custom-designed iPhone 4 images.
Both the iPhone 4 and older devices are 320x480 points in size, which is the coordinate system that Core Graphics and UIKit uses. So your software will run the same.
Only the automatic scaling between your bitmaps and the display will be different. If you have bitmapped content or images, you can optionally provide #2x sized versions that will look somewhat smoother without the 2X scaling on iPhone 4 devices. This is nice, but optional.