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Sizing to pixels works great when the device manufacturers all use approximately the same ratio of resolution to viewing distance. The problem with that approac

by mark-r 9y ago

Sizing to pixels works great when the device manufacturers all use approximately the same ratio of resolution to viewing distance. The problem with that approach is that it doesn't allow for nicer, high-resolution displays. Sizing to pixels is vital when using low-resolution displays, since any scaling will be unacceptably blurry. Apple's approach with their Retina displays was brilliant - make the high-res screens an integer multiple of the low-res ones. That made the scaling issues much easier to deal with. The tragedy is with Windows. Microsoft has long emphasized font hinting, which results in sharper display fonts. But it means that the font metrics don't scale linearly with the resolution. Apps that weren't tested at anything but the default resolution would invariably have rendering issues, so nobody used oddball resolutions. Because nobody used high resolutions, the app makers didn't feel the need to test them. Chicken/egg problem. It has taken far too long to overcome this.

omegote 9y ago
> Apple's approach with their Retina displays was brilliant Brilliant? Rather "lazy". They jeopardized the entire screen resolution spectrum introducing non-standard resolutions just to fit their vision, producing a new set of problems on its own.
- colejohnson66 9y ago
  Unless I’m missing something, if your programs are designed properly, non standard resolutions shouldn’t be a problem; Your app layout should flow to fill the space.
dcposch 9y ago
The web has already solved this. HiDPI screens just get a multiplication factor, where a 1px by 1px <div> shows up as 2x2 or even 3x3 physical pixels. So the CSS px unit is a bit of a hack, but ultimately works well. Stuff sized in px stays readable across a super retina iPhone X, an older screen, a projector, or a stadium Jumbotron. That's more than can be said of physical pixel or distance units.
- baybal2 9y ago
  >So the CSS px unit is a bit of a hack, but ultimately works well. No, it doesn't. That "innovation" breaks programmatic graphics big time. Imaging you are drawing something on the screen, and you have no way to prevent things to alias at those 3x3 CSS pixels
deleted 9y ago
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by mark-r 9y ago

omegote 9y ago

> Apple's approach with their Retina displays was brilliant Brilliant? Rather "lazy". They jeopardized the entire screen resolution spectrum introducing non-standard resolutions just to fit their vision, producing a new set of problems on its own.

colejohnson66 9y ago
Unless I’m missing something, if your programs are designed properly, non standard resolutions shouldn’t be a problem; Your app layout should flow to fill the space.

dcposch 9y ago

The web has already solved this. HiDPI screens just get a multiplication factor, where a 1px by 1px <div> shows up as 2x2 or even 3x3 physical pixels. So the CSS px unit is a bit of a hack, but ultimately works well. Stuff sized in px stays readable across a super retina iPhone X, an older screen, a projector, or a stadium Jumbotron. That's more than can be said of physical pixel or distance units.

baybal2 9y ago
>So the CSS px unit is a bit of a hack, but ultimately works well. No, it doesn't. That "innovation" breaks programmatic graphics big time. Imaging you are drawing something on the screen, and you have no way to prevent things to alias at those 3x3 CSS pixels

deleted 9y ago

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