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I am working on a template for an iPhone App and was wondering what dpi resolution is used for it ? 300 or 72 ?

I am not sure and I hope somebody can answer me that question.

Machavity
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5 Answers5

84
iPhones
iPhone 1/3G/3GS           320 x  480    163 ppi
iPhone 4/4S               640 x  940    326 ppi
iPhone 5/5C/5S            640 x 1136    326 ppi
iPhone 6/6S               750 x 1334    326 ppi
iPhone 6 Plus/6S Plus    1080 x 1920    401 ppi
  Without downsampling:  1242 x 2208    461 ppi

Except for the 6th generation (= 5th) iPod touch,
all the models are equal to their iPhone counterparts

iPads
iPad 1/2                  768 x 1024    132 ppi
iPad 3/4/Air/Air 2       1536 x 2048    264 ppi
iPad Mini 1               768 x 1024    163 ppi
iPad Mini 2/3/4          1536 x 2048    326 ppi
iPad Pro                 2737 x 2048    264 ppi

Apple Watches
Apple Watch 38 mm         272 x  340    326 ppi
Apple Watch 42 mm         312 x  390    326 ppi
Berendschot
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neoneye
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    Those numbers for the iPhone6Plus are only correct for the physical screen, but internally the screen the app deals with is 1242x2208 with a dpi of 461. This is due to the downsampling done by the hardware to make the @3x buffer fit into the 1080x1920 panel. Ref: [Curious Case of the iPhone 6+ 1080p Display](https://medium.com/@brucewangsg/the-curious-case-of-iphone-6-1080p-display-b33dac5bbcb6) – progrmr Sep 18 '14 at 19:15
7

The original iPhone screen has a resolution of 163dpi - use that in your template if you want to be able to print your screen designs at actual size.

For iPhone4/4s, use 326 dpi

Paul Dixon
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4

72 is the dpi for images

postalservice14
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Given the difference in the dpi between the iPhone and the simulator, you might want to use the raw pixel values of 480x320 for the iPhone screen.

mahboudz
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  • yes, I have these dimensions. thank you anyway. By the way any good resources out there to download free templates? –  Sep 01 '09 at 23:25
  • There is a company/person who sells pads of paper that are meant as freehand templates, but I don't think that is what you are looking for. Also, I think the company that does OmniGraffle has templates for the iPhone. LMGTFY: http://www.knoxing.com/2007/08/20/create-iphone-apps-with-knox-iphone-template/ http://www.osskins.com/main/joomla-mambo/commercial-joomla-15-template-iphone-template/2009/05/14 http://graffletopia.com/stencils/358 http://graffletopia.com/stencils/413 http://iphonedevelopertips.com/design/omnigraffle-iphone-stencil.html http://konigi.com/tools/omnigraffle-ux-template – mahboudz Sep 02 '09 at 05:18
  • What are you really trying to do? I find Interface Builder to be a good starting point and then I print and draw things by hand. When I have some idea of what I want to do, I then get to work creating just the UI in Xcode, without the actual functionality, and anything that needs to be drawn, I do in Photoshop or other graphic tool. I do envy those who can use OmniGraffle and other tools to create their pre-coding UX designs. However, the amount of time I'd have to spend in OmniGraffle is best spent in Xcode and Photoshop (I hate/love/hate Photoshop). – mahboudz Sep 02 '09 at 05:21
  • awesome. Thanks guys for the resources and tips. I like OmniGraffle so far. Let's see how that goes. –  Sep 02 '09 at 18:17
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The iPhone screen has 163 DPI, but I've found that images at that resolution appear too small in Xcode and Interface Builder. I recommend pretending that the screen has 72 DPI when making bitmap images for the iPhone, but remember that the screen has 163 DPI if you're drawing a ruler.

Will Harris
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    This has some history behind it: The original Mac was (approximately) 72 DPI, giving one-pixel-per-point; this is still the "native" DPI of a lot of graphics calls (so when I try to set a userpic in Adium, it sees my camera's "300 DPI" and shrinks everything); this is annoying for things that should be pixel-for-pixel (like iPhone dev, since iPhone OS ignores DPI information). Of course, PNGs use integer pixels per metre so can't represent exactly 72 DPI, so occasionally I see images which appear slightly off in Xcode; the fix is to remove DPI information entirely (`pngcrush -rem pHYs`). – tc. Sep 26 '10 at 23:01