5 ms·

Rounded corners are one of the common things on macos that make it look modern and cheerful. iphone icons are more pleasing because of this. other platforms s

by m463 2y ago

Rounded corners are one of the common things on macos that make it look modern and cheerful. iphone icons are more pleasing because of this. other platforms should add more of this.

gibolt 2y ago
It is standard for web elements. Very easy to set border radius
- EGreg 2y ago
  Bill Atkinson wasn’t aware of that feature. Also, Susan Kare didn’t know about vector graphics. That’s why all her icons ended up pixelated! But it was… quite iconic at the time.
  - Stratoscope 2y ago
    Whatever Susan Kare knew about vector graphics, that's not why the icons were pixelated. It was because she had only two colors to work with, black and white, and only two icon sizes, 16x16 and 32x32. Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson only got 32x32 B&W icons for their own portraits: https://www.folklore.org/Steve,_Icon.html https://www.folklore.org/Steve,_Icon.html > Icons were only 32 by 32 black or white pixels, 1024 dots in total Susan posted more examples here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/81132387/Macintosh-icons https://www.behance.net/gallery/81132387/Macintosh-icons
    - michaeljsmith 2y ago
      (I think that was the joke)
      - Stratoscope 2y ago
        Consider me duly and properly whooshed! It was only when I later re-read the comment I replied to, with the part about Bill Atkinson not knowing about the border-radius feature in CSS, that I realized what was going on. At least I hope my note about the pixelated icons may have been of interest to a few. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!
- ftio 2y ago
  That hasn’t always been true! I remember with great displeasure the bad old days of creating a 3x3 table for every container and jamming a rounded corner gif into each of the four corners to create this effect.
  - lelandfe 2y ago
    See also the old sliding doors article breathlessly making rounded tabs: https://alistapart.com/article/slidingdoors/ https://alistapart.com/article/slidingdoors/
    - aalvarado 2y ago
      A list apart was my go to resource for a long time. Css zen garden was great
  - gary_0 2y ago
    I dunno, I look back on the <table>-based layout days with fondness, probably because I was young and the Web was nothing but rolling green fields and endless potential. I didn't see the limitations, only the opportunities for inventiveness. I'll never feel the same satisfaction as I did when those first few website designs came together.
    - reddalo 2y ago
      I feel like responsive websites killed that magic, because now it's way too complicated to make interesting designs.
  - nayuki 2y ago
    Indeed, CSS border-radius was introduced around year 2010. I was both browsing the web and writing pages before that time. https://caniuse.com/?search=border-radius https://caniuse.com/?search=border-radius , https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/border-radius https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/border-radi...
  - aalvarado 2y ago
- kccqzy 2y ago
  Do you not remember a time before border-radius? Or -webkit-border-radius? I remember including a premade rounded rectangle button in Flash just to get that visual effect.
  - karaterobot 2y ago
    To be fair, the original comment said other platforms should add this, and border-radius has been widely supported for at least 15 years. You'd have to look hard for a browser that needs it to be added.
- somat 2y ago
  ahh yes good ol border-radius, more popularly known as web 2.0
golergka 2y ago
Not only on macos, on the hardware as well. Macbook that I'm typing this comment on has a screen with rounded corners on top, and it just feels better than right angles on the bottom.
- callalex 2y ago
  That effect is 100% done in software. Full black on screens is just really good now. If you don’t believe me look at a photo in full screen while zoomed in.
  - 1d22a 2y ago
    I'm not sure that's true that it's (always) done in software. For example, the newest Framework Laptop 13 has higher resolution screens that come with rounded corners, because whatever supplier had a large stock of them lying around. If it was just software, the concept of having a "rounded corner screen" from a supplier wouldn't exist.
  - pfg_ 2y ago
    I'm pretty sure it's a screen cutout - the corners are still rounded when fullscreen zooming, and on asahi linux. There's also another cutout for the notch at the top of the screen. Also, it's not a great panel and the blacks aren't very good - you can still see light coming from the monitor with a full back image in fullscreen and it changes based on brightness. So if it is software, then it's very low level and with darker blacks than anything else on screen, and has a super tiny bezel right at the corner. I'm pretty sure it's a cutout.

by m463 2y ago

Rounded corners are one of the common things on macos that make it look modern and cheerful. iphone icons are more pleasing because of this. other platforms should add more of this.

gibolt 2y ago

It is standard for web elements. Very easy to set border radius

EGreg 2y ago
Bill Atkinson wasn’t aware of that feature. Also, Susan Kare didn’t know about vector graphics. That’s why all her icons ended up pixelated! But it was… quite iconic at the time.
- Stratoscope 2y ago
  Whatever Susan Kare knew about vector graphics, that's not why the icons were pixelated. It was because she had only two colors to work with, black and white, and only two icon sizes, 16x16 and 32x32. Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson only got 32x32 B&W icons for their own portraits: https://www.folklore.org/Steve,_Icon.html https://www.folklore.org/Steve,_Icon.html > Icons were only 32 by 32 black or white pixels, 1024 dots in total Susan posted more examples here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/81132387/Macintosh-icons https://www.behance.net/gallery/81132387/Macintosh-icons
  - michaeljsmith 2y ago
    (I think that was the joke)
    - Stratoscope 2y ago
      Consider me duly and properly whooshed! It was only when I later re-read the comment I replied to, with the part about Bill Atkinson not knowing about the border-radius feature in CSS, that I realized what was going on. At least I hope my note about the pixelated icons may have been of interest to a few. Thanks for keeping me on my toes!
ftio 2y ago
That hasn’t always been true! I remember with great displeasure the bad old days of creating a 3x3 table for every container and jamming a rounded corner gif into each of the four corners to create this effect.
- lelandfe 2y ago
  See also the old sliding doors article breathlessly making rounded tabs: https://alistapart.com/article/slidingdoors/ https://alistapart.com/article/slidingdoors/
  - aalvarado 2y ago
    A list apart was my go to resource for a long time. Css zen garden was great
- gary_0 2y ago
  I dunno, I look back on the <table>-based layout days with fondness, probably because I was young and the Web was nothing but rolling green fields and endless potential. I didn't see the limitations, only the opportunities for inventiveness. I'll never feel the same satisfaction as I did when those first few website designs came together.
  - reddalo 2y ago
    I feel like responsive websites killed that magic, because now it's way too complicated to make interesting designs.
- nayuki 2y ago
  Indeed, CSS border-radius was introduced around year 2010. I was both browsing the web and writing pages before that time. https://caniuse.com/?search=border-radius https://caniuse.com/?search=border-radius , https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/border-radius https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/border-radi...
- aalvarado 2y ago
kccqzy 2y ago
Do you not remember a time before border-radius? Or -webkit-border-radius? I remember including a premade rounded rectangle button in Flash just to get that visual effect.
- karaterobot 2y ago
  To be fair, the original comment said other platforms should add this, and border-radius has been widely supported for at least 15 years. You'd have to look hard for a browser that needs it to be added.
somat 2y ago
ahh yes good ol border-radius, more popularly known as web 2.0

golergka 2y ago

Not only on macos, on the hardware as well. Macbook that I'm typing this comment on has a screen with rounded corners on top, and it just feels better than right angles on the bottom.

callalex 2y ago
That effect is 100% done in software. Full black on screens is just really good now. If you don’t believe me look at a photo in full screen while zoomed in.
- 1d22a 2y ago
  I'm not sure that's true that it's (always) done in software. For example, the newest Framework Laptop 13 has higher resolution screens that come with rounded corners, because whatever supplier had a large stock of them lying around. If it was just software, the concept of having a "rounded corner screen" from a supplier wouldn't exist.
- pfg_ 2y ago
  I'm pretty sure it's a screen cutout - the corners are still rounded when fullscreen zooming, and on asahi linux. There's also another cutout for the notch at the top of the screen. Also, it's not a great panel and the blacks aren't very good - you can still see light coming from the monitor with a full back image in fullscreen and it changes based on brightness. So if it is software, then it's very low level and with darker blacks than anything else on screen, and has a super tiny bezel right at the corner. I'm pretty sure it's a cutout.