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I have an app that I'm testing on my macbook that generates images. They are fairly low resolution. Is there a way to make the images of a higher resolution, or do I have to go to the iPad to generate there? I have the following code that I was hoping would do the trick, but it didn't seem to do anything :

self.imageView.contentScaleFactor = 2.0;

Thanks in advance!

rmaddy
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pikovayadama
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  • I am generating a drawing in my app, and I'm saving the drawing after it's created. I eventually want to physically print this image on a large piece of paper and I don't want it to look pixellated. Currently, if I zoom in on the image it becomes pixellated almost immediately. I'd like to have as much smoothness in the image as possible without it looking pixellated and out of focus. – pikovayadama Aug 31 '13 at 03:14
  • You can scale the image in the simulator. Window -> scale. It defaults to 50% and goes up to 100%. – AdamG Aug 31 '13 at 03:27
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    Show your code of drawing – Iducool Aug 31 '13 at 04:39
  • Tell us how you: 1) "generating a drawing in my app" AND 2) "saving the drawing after it's created" . Include code snippets in both the cases. – metsburg Aug 31 '13 at 04:49

1 Answers1

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When doing screen snapshots, make sure the simulator's "Hardware" - "Device" settings is for a retina device. Then either the simulator's "File" - "Save Screen Shot" or doing it programmatically will yield a retina-resolution image (regardless of the setting for "Window" - "Scale" in the simulator). Just make sure you've configured the simulator to simulate "Retina" hardware.

When you generate these retina-quality images, though, you don't have the appearance of the physical device (which is nice to have when going to print). If you want the appearance of the physical device, you can marry these screen snapshots with the "Apple Product Images" on the Marketing Resources page (you need Photoshop to do this).

Ultimately, though, you're limited to the resolution of the digital assets in your app. For example, if you don't have retina-quality digital assets (e.g. only 320x480 resolution images), then it will look horribly pixelated when you print it.

And even full retina resolution screen snapshots will look a little pixelated when you print. If you scale your 640px wide screen snapshot in print, if it's much more than 2-3 inches wide when you print, you'll start to notice the pixelation and there's not a lot you can do about that (without cheating in Photoshop and replacing images with higher resolution assets).

Rob
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  • By the way, if you are proficient in Photoshop, you could enlarge the image size in Photoshop (e.g. use a percentage that is multiple of 100%, e.g. 400%) using the appropriate resample setting, and thereby mitigate pixelation, though it's replaced with image softening. But you could then apply smart sharpen to that. It's no longer a faithful representation of the app and isn't perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it does diminish the distracting pixelation. – Rob Sep 01 '13 at 04:00
  • this is exactly what I was looking for - thank you! I need to brush up on my photoshop as well, but the hardware settings are definitely helping me along. thanks again! – pikovayadama Sep 01 '13 at 13:14