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This is absurd. Spend five minutes comparing an iPad 1 to an iPad 3 and you will quickly notice that a retina-quality display allows you to comfortably read muc

This is absurd. Spend five minutes comparing an iPad 1 to an iPad 3 and you will quickly notice that a retina-quality display allows you to comfortably read much smaller font sizes, thus providing an increase in effective screen real-estate. Sure, the new retina MacBook has a logical screen size of 1440x900 -- but why would I care if I can now set my Terminal font four points smaller and see just as much as I do on my clunky 17" MacBook with a 1920x1200 screen.

gsibble 14y ago
You clearly don't understand the idea of screen real estate and how this display will be used on the MBP. They don't intend to use smaller fonts for instance. They are simply going to scale the fonts to the same life-size as a 1440x900 screen. They'll just be crisper.
- stinky613 14y ago
  Wouldn't the extra crispness allow you to use a smaller font than you normally would? I understand that the OS defaults are going to be the same visual size, but there's nothing stopping a user from choosing smaller fonts.
  - lbotos 14y ago
    Actually, at this moment it doesn't look like it's possible: http://applesliced.com/ask/how-do-i-increase-the-system-font-size-in-os-x-lion http://applesliced.com/ask/how-do-i-increase-the-system-font... Maybe Mountain Lion will change that?
    - huxley 14y ago
      There are lots of tools that let you adjust the system fonts, TinkerTool and Onyx come to mind. You may see quirks in some apps that expect the standard font and sizes.
- veidr 14y ago
  You are the one who is not understanding. What you say is correct about window chrome and OS widgets, but those are not what uses the bulk of the screen real estate for most activities, such as writing code in any editor using a terminal program, or creating diagrams. The user is in charge of the font size or zoom ratio in those cases, and with decent eyesight you can see a LOT more text in the same area on this new high-density screen. If, on the other hand, your work involves mainly pressing OK or Cancel in modal system dialogs, then you are right.
- hesdeadjim 14y ago
  Of course by default any non-retina enhanced Mac app will just be pixel doubled. However, one that is retina-aware can make decisions about UI element sizing that takes into account the screen being much more readable at small sizes. I am at WWDC and have seen the actual hardware cycling screenshots of the retina-enabled Final Cut UI, and they appear to be doing exactly this -- the screen just feels bigger than a naive 1440x900 screen doubling would accomplish. Additionally, for any application whose content is tied to the font size of the content (think text editors, terminals, IDEs, etc), simply lowering said font size will directly increase the amount one can see on the same sized screen. With that said, please explain to me how I am mistunderstanding screen real estate.
- cjoh 14y ago
  Man this discussion would have been so much better had the phrase "You clearly don't understand" not been uttered.
  - AnthonBerg 14y ago
    The Japanese have it right - "You" sucks!
- astrodust 14y ago
  Have you never changed the font size in any application, ever? Really? If you want to use smaller fonts, use smaller fonts. Is this really hard to figure out? It's a bigger screen physically. It has, by any definition, more real-estate. That it is smaller in terms of relative pixels is absolutely meaningless. Once you get >200DPI the whole idea of "pixels" becomes meaningless. It's simply about screen area. The limiting factor for small text on most screens is pixels because below a certain size they become unreadable. This is why people generally buy bigger screens: more pixels, more readable text. At 220DPI it's pretty much always readable until it's too small to discern any more.

gsibble 14y ago

You clearly don't understand the idea of screen real estate and how this display will be used on the MBP. They don't intend to use smaller fonts for instance. They are simply going to scale the fonts to the same life-size as a 1440x900 screen. They'll just be crisper.

stinky613 14y ago
Wouldn't the extra crispness allow you to use a smaller font than you normally would? I understand that the OS defaults are going to be the same visual size, but there's nothing stopping a user from choosing smaller fonts.
- lbotos 14y ago
  Actually, at this moment it doesn't look like it's possible: http://applesliced.com/ask/how-do-i-increase-the-system-font-size-in-os-x-lion http://applesliced.com/ask/how-do-i-increase-the-system-font... Maybe Mountain Lion will change that?
  - huxley 14y ago
    There are lots of tools that let you adjust the system fonts, TinkerTool and Onyx come to mind. You may see quirks in some apps that expect the standard font and sizes.
veidr 14y ago
You are the one who is not understanding. What you say is correct about window chrome and OS widgets, but those are not what uses the bulk of the screen real estate for most activities, such as writing code in any editor using a terminal program, or creating diagrams. The user is in charge of the font size or zoom ratio in those cases, and with decent eyesight you can see a LOT more text in the same area on this new high-density screen. If, on the other hand, your work involves mainly pressing OK or Cancel in modal system dialogs, then you are right.
hesdeadjim 14y ago
Of course by default any non-retina enhanced Mac app will just be pixel doubled. However, one that is retina-aware can make decisions about UI element sizing that takes into account the screen being much more readable at small sizes. I am at WWDC and have seen the actual hardware cycling screenshots of the retina-enabled Final Cut UI, and they appear to be doing exactly this -- the screen just feels bigger than a naive 1440x900 screen doubling would accomplish. Additionally, for any application whose content is tied to the font size of the content (think text editors, terminals, IDEs, etc), simply lowering said font size will directly increase the amount one can see on the same sized screen. With that said, please explain to me how I am mistunderstanding screen real estate.
cjoh 14y ago
Man this discussion would have been so much better had the phrase "You clearly don't understand" not been uttered.
- AnthonBerg 14y ago
  The Japanese have it right - "You" sucks!
astrodust 14y ago
Have you never changed the font size in any application, ever? Really? If you want to use smaller fonts, use smaller fonts. Is this really hard to figure out? It's a bigger screen physically. It has, by any definition, more real-estate. That it is smaller in terms of relative pixels is absolutely meaningless. Once you get >200DPI the whole idea of "pixels" becomes meaningless. It's simply about screen area. The limiting factor for small text on most screens is pixels because below a certain size they become unreadable. This is why people generally buy bigger screens: more pixels, more readable text. At 220DPI it's pretty much always readable until it's too small to discern any more.