I am making a Universal app on xCode 4.4, using Storyboards. I am making the images for this app in Photoshop. I want to make a background image that fills the whole screen.
What I want to know is:
What resolution do I make the images?
Do I need 1 for iPad and 1 for iPhone, or more?
How do you make it work with the iPhone 5 as well?
You might need up to 10 background images:
There's the retina iPad: 2048x1536, non retina iPad and iPad Mini: 1024x768, retina iPhone: 640x960, non-retina iPhone: 320x480 and the new iPhone 5 (retina only): 640x1136.
That's 5. If you want to support both landscape and portrait, then you have 10 combinations.
PS: If you decide to keep the status bar visible (as most apps do), then reduce the height with 20 pixels (40 pixels for retina displays). That's how much room is needed for the status bar.
You should consider the approach of using only one image. The user experience of most apps is poor if you dont respect the available canvas size.
And you might want to focus special areas of your artwork to the user.
I would propose you to implement different scenarios at least for iPad and iPhone.
The resolution itself is described within the specs. So use one for iPhone and one for iPad, the different logos are posted in two resolution, with a postfix #2x or for the new Appstore dimensions with another prefix, but all these details are within the specs.
My experience is that in most cases you have to organise the user interface separately in order to provide a good user experience.
Related
I am trying to make my app universal so now I have universal image sets but apparently I need to make separate iPad sets. I have images in my Assets that fit an iPhone the way I want, and I can scale up for 2x and 3x, etc. but when I go to iPad what would be the size comparison for the first (standard) iPad image? I just don't know, relatively which of my iPhone images I should use and how much to increase it by for my starting point on iPads.
I have a question that I need confirmation on. I know that the Apple Developer document shows App icon size at #3x
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconMatrix.html.
Does this also apply to regular images that you use in your App? I just need to make 100 percent sure. The other stackoverflow answers I encountered just show App icon sizes, but doesn't address regular images that you use through out your App.
If you want your app to take full advantage of the Retina HD display then yes, you need to have all versions for all images used by your app, i.e. image.png, image#2x.png, image#3x.png.
Dont forget to setup launch screens for each iPhone size, or your bigger phones will just enlarge your app views without really using AutoLayout or using the high def images.
It doesn't apply for regular images that you use in you app. Make sure they are with good pixels.
Provide high-resolution (#2x) versions of all image assets.
Images that are not #2x will appear blurry on the Retina display.
source:
https://developer.apple.com/design/tips/
According to this link, would I need four different version of the same image size? Originally, I only created one for the iPhone 5, and I used the autosizing feature on storybuilder to resize the image correctly on iPhone 4s and below.
Concerning the four resolutions (***#2x.png): As it is described in https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconMatrix.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH27-SW1 you have to resize some images, for example the App Icon has to be high- and low-resolution,
If you need to support standard-resolution iPhone or iPod touch devices
(Source: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconMatrix.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH27-SW1)
For the other Images, it is not necessary, but as "ta.speot.is" described in https://stackoverflow.com/a/12549329/1113407 it is better if you do it yourself.
And "JustSid" comment
Why should already slow devices do even more work?
(Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12549329/1113407)
put it straight: The older devices which do not support retina display are slower and at most times (own experience) your app won't run fluently on those if you do not prepare the app.
Concerning the iPhone 5 vs iPhone 4S:
You need some images in both heights, as it is mention in https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconMatrix.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH27-SW1.
As the iPhone 4S has got the Apple A5-Chip and doesn't have to resize the image, as it has got an retina display, other images don't have to be resized. Therefor you could use the storybuilder-feature... But you have to ask yourself if the app should run on an older, non ratina display device...
Google Play allows different apks per screen density, does Apple Store support this?
I'm sure the info is somewhere, but all I find when I search are people asking how to develop one app to support all devices.
I know how to do that already, but this specific (top secret) project will be 1000 times better if I can release one super optimized version for each screen resolution... but I'll settle for density or device (generation and type) if needed.
I don't have access to XCode (no Mac) to check options currently.
Bonus points: If possible, is Apple going to frown on this and possibly reject my app because of this?
This can't be done. If your app supports the iPhone then it must support both 4" and 3.5" inch iPhones. If it supports only iOS 7 then you can avoid non-retina devices because only retina devices can run iOS 7.
But if you support the iPad you must support both retina and non-retina.
You can have one app (Universal) that does it all or you can have separate iPhone and separate iPad apps. But the iPhone app must support both sizes and possibly both types (retina and non-retina) of screens. And the iPad app must support both types of screens.
Apple won't accept apps that don't support the differences.
It should also be pointed out that in the Interface Builder part of Xcode, you setup the UI with points and not pixels. So, for an iPad, when you place a button, you do not have to specify retina or not. On a Retina screen a point is 2x2 pixels and on a non-retina screen a point is 1x1 pixels. Also, with image assets, you have a single image asset you ask for in code, but you add multiple copies of the image in the image assets. Like the retina and non-retina copies. If you have an image named cat.png, for retina this would be cat#2x.png and for non-retina it would be cat.png. But, in code or the inspector you would reference it with imageNamed:#"cat" and Objective-C is designed to handle the rest.
I got non retina graphics from a graphic designer to use with an app. The splash screen has a resolution of 400x640. And yet I am supposed to make a universal iphone 5 and ipad app using this graphics. It is in a .jpg file.
My question is, is it possible to use such low resolution images (400x640) on a retina iPad which requires 1536x2048 pixel images? Or should I get images of proper resolution?
You can see on the Apple's developer page that you must meet some graphic requirements for you app. If it's possible to ask for proper resolutions I believe it would be the best.
You can find more information here to pass it to your graphic designer
You can also read here more exactly what is required and what not if you want to get your app in the store
The aspect ratios of the images are different for a start.
Also, IIRC, if you don't have a default image that is 568 points tall, then your app will run letterboxed on 4 inch phone screens.