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I am developing an iOS application for iPad. Currently I am using images of resolution 2048×1536 px (iPad3 resolution). If I run this app on iPad2 or iPad1 will it get fitted to its resolution (1024×768 px)? Or should I use a 1024×768 images and specify image@2x for iPad3?

Since I only have iPad3 , cannot know how the images will be seen in the lower resolution devices. But it should work perfectly on them too.

Any help greatly appreciated. Please cite your sources.

RVJ
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2 Answers2

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You could try this in the simulator if you don't have a non-retina device.

It's certainly possible and will usually look fine (at least for photos, text and icons may look worse when scaled down), but you are wasting quite a lot of memory which is pretty scarce on an iPad 1 (it only has 256 MB), so you should usually also include non-retina images.

omz
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  • Thank you omz. If I include separate images for non retina devices will it cause any memory issue in iPad1 since the bundle size will grow? – RVJ Jun 08 '12 at 07:32
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Automatically scaling down images typically results in visual artifacts, which is why the SDK includes an easy way to include different versions of any image, instead of just a single big one.

As far as I know, all iOS devices (within the same family) have resolutions that are multiples of each other so automatic scaling artifacts are somewhat mitigated, but it is still best to include the correct resolution.

  • How can I use different versions of the same image? So you are suggesting that I should use different images with the corresponding resolution of the device, for better results? – RVJ Jun 08 '12 at 07:12
  • @RVJ Yes. You should use different images of different sizes for each screen resolution. (Hopefully they look similar.) –  Jun 08 '12 at 07:13
  • One problem is that if I use separate images for iPad2 and iPad3 the bundle size will become bigger. Is there any naming convention for the images (like image@2x or image@3x) to be used so that the device automatically recognizes the image and scales the image to its respective resolution? – RVJ Jun 08 '12 at 07:30
  • If you want to use the same image for all devices, don't change its name and just include that. The devices will automatically scale them to fit. This assumes, of course, that you're okay with visual artifacts. –  Jun 08 '12 at 07:32
  • So the 2048 x 1536 image will have the same visual effect in all the 3 iPads? – RVJ Jun 08 '12 at 07:36
  • Just to be perfectly clear: no, they will NOT. These "visual artifacts" I'm talking about refers to blocky-looking edges and other undesirable effects. You are looking at a trade-off between quality and bundle size. –  Jun 12 '12 at 05:42