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It bothers me that we are still referencing iPhone 3 resolutions on 4 and above. Eventually @2x will be the default and we need to stop bundling apps with four

It bothers me that we are still referencing iPhone 3 resolutions on 4 and above. Eventually @2x will be the default and we need to stop bundling apps with four versions of an image. Apple needs multi-targeted .ipa files. Why does my iPhone need to download iPad assets?

unfamiliar 12y ago
Because for historical reasons those apps are backed up to itunes where they may eventually be transferred to an iPad.
- iloveshw 12y ago
  Yup - but there's no reason (other than app developers making a mess) not to remove images which aren't needed. So on install - from the app store or itunes, remove ipad assets if there's correct asset for iPhone (same with retina and non-retina). It has to be done at some point because it's already getting ridiculous
interpol_p 12y ago
We have moved to PDF assets for all of our apps. It's wonderful. Generally we have a single illustrator file, some export scripts, and push the resulting PDFs through ShrinkIt to minimise file size. The result is tiny apps that handle all scale factors, can easily be tinted programmatically, and generally match the aesthetic of iOS 7 and 8.
- kalleboo 12y ago
  We're looking at moving to PDF when we adapt to fit the iPhone 6 Plus and I'd be interested to hear if you guys ran into any snags along the way or if it was all smooth sailing?
  - interpol_p 12y ago
    It's been very smooth for us. We use UIImage+PDF to load and cache assets. The only issue is that you can't use PDFs directly in Xibs or Storyboards — you'll have to load them in code. I'd recommend creating all your assets on non-retina sized artboards in Illustrator. We wrote a simple script to export all artboards to separate PDFs, using the name of the artboard as the file name.
- pbnjay 12y ago
  Wow I had not stumbled across this idea yet... Are there any caveats or downsides to PDF over PNG? (other than xib/storyboard issues you mention)
  - interpol_p 12y ago
    None that we have encountered. And we've done quite a few apps like this. I'd highly recommend ShrinkIt for shrinking the Illustrator exported PDFs, as it can reduce the size by as much as a factor of 10. Also PDFs really lend themselves to being dynamically tinted. You can use the new render mode in iOS 7+ or something like UIImage+Tint to make sure your key colours are all well defined in your code. (It's really nice when a client suddenly decides they want their app to be orange instead of blue, and it's a one-line change without touching a single asset.)
Someone 12y ago
Because you might sync that app to iTunes over USB and from there to your iPad. In particular, if your iTunes machine does not have a internet connection, the user messaging/experience could get hairy. Do you copy the non-iPad version to the iPad, yes or no? Do you tell the user, yes or no? Would the typical non-technical user understand what happened? My guess: probably not. Also, restoring a backup made from an old device to a new device with higher resolution could get complicated, either technically or for the end user. Other questions: - what would iTunes show is on your Mac? "You have twitter, but only the 2x resources"? - testing effort would explode, as one would have to test apps with partial resources. I think we will at some time get such partial downloads, but for now, copying the whole app keeps things simple.
- kstenerud 12y ago
  "Please wait while a version suitable for your device is downloaded from the app store". Simple.

unfamiliar 12y ago

Because for historical reasons those apps are backed up to itunes where they may eventually be transferred to an iPad.

iloveshw 12y ago
Yup - but there's no reason (other than app developers making a mess) not to remove images which aren't needed. So on install - from the app store or itunes, remove ipad assets if there's correct asset for iPhone (same with retina and non-retina). It has to be done at some point because it's already getting ridiculous

interpol_p 12y ago

We have moved to PDF assets for all of our apps. It's wonderful. Generally we have a single illustrator file, some export scripts, and push the resulting PDFs through ShrinkIt to minimise file size. The result is tiny apps that handle all scale factors, can easily be tinted programmatically, and generally match the aesthetic of iOS 7 and 8.

kalleboo 12y ago
We're looking at moving to PDF when we adapt to fit the iPhone 6 Plus and I'd be interested to hear if you guys ran into any snags along the way or if it was all smooth sailing?
- interpol_p 12y ago
  It's been very smooth for us. We use UIImage+PDF to load and cache assets. The only issue is that you can't use PDFs directly in Xibs or Storyboards — you'll have to load them in code. I'd recommend creating all your assets on non-retina sized artboards in Illustrator. We wrote a simple script to export all artboards to separate PDFs, using the name of the artboard as the file name.
pbnjay 12y ago
Wow I had not stumbled across this idea yet... Are there any caveats or downsides to PDF over PNG? (other than xib/storyboard issues you mention)
- interpol_p 12y ago
  None that we have encountered. And we've done quite a few apps like this. I'd highly recommend ShrinkIt for shrinking the Illustrator exported PDFs, as it can reduce the size by as much as a factor of 10. Also PDFs really lend themselves to being dynamically tinted. You can use the new render mode in iOS 7+ or something like UIImage+Tint to make sure your key colours are all well defined in your code. (It's really nice when a client suddenly decides they want their app to be orange instead of blue, and it's a one-line change without touching a single asset.)

Someone 12y ago

Because you might sync that app to iTunes over USB and from there to your iPad. In particular, if your iTunes machine does not have a internet connection, the user messaging/experience could get hairy. Do you copy the non-iPad version to the iPad, yes or no? Do you tell the user, yes or no? Would the typical non-technical user understand what happened? My guess: probably not. Also, restoring a backup made from an old device to a new device with higher resolution could get complicated, either technically or for the end user. Other questions: - what would iTunes show is on your Mac? "You have twitter, but only the 2x resources"? - testing effort would explode, as one would have to test apps with partial resources. I think we will at some time get such partial downloads, but for now, copying the whole app keeps things simple.

kstenerud 12y ago
"Please wait while a version suitable for your device is downloaded from the app store". Simple.