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The problem is that if you want this, you now decide that scaling is not on integral or simple fractional scales (i.e. 2x or 2.5x), but on any arbitrary floatin
by xpaulbettsx 9y ago
The problem is that if you want this, you now decide that scaling is not on integral or simple fractional scales (i.e. 2x or 2.5x), but on any arbitrary floating point scale (i.e. 2.0245x), which makes shipping bitmap assets generally pretty problematic.
We decide that, in order to make writing applications easier, we will _approximate_ font sizes, because in most applications, it's Going To Be Okay. It sucks that certain ones like DTP apps get the raw end of the deal, but at the end of the day, it's better for most people using computers that we don't try to perfectly abstract away the exact pixel density and dimensions of your display.
- lucaspiller 9y agoIf you are designing an application today, why would you use bitmap assets? Logos, buttons, icons, and other UI are all going to be designed in a vector graphics program, so just export them as SVG and be done with it. SVG is even supported well enough in web browsers to use without issue. Take a look at the Stripe website for example, most of the images there are SVG.
- TheCoreh 9y agoSVG is often pixel-hinted to match pixel edges and provide visually pleasing lines and shapes at low resolution
- iainmerrick 9y agoFloating point scaling for bitmaps sounds bad, but often it's actually OK. It helps if PPI is very high, which these days usually it is. The iPhone 6 Plus (and I imagine the 7+ and 8+) scales its screen in hardware from 1242x2208 to 1080x1920 and it looks fine. If you really need UI graphics to be completely crisp, you can always use vectors.