About High Resolution for OS X

Guidelines for building an app to take advantage of the increased resolution for Retina displays.

At a Glance

The guidelines in this document describe how to optimize your app for high resolution. At the core of most guidelines in this document is that you should think in points most of the time, but understand the exceptions when you must be aware of pixels. You’ll need to free your code from relying on device coordinates, except in perhaps the most extreme edge cases. You’ll also need to increase the resolution of all the graphics resources your app uses.

Get Your App Ready for High Resolution

OS X does much of the work required to handle the different resolutions, but there are some tasks you must perform, such as providing specially named high-resolution images and updating icon assets. You’ll also need to update your code to use the most recent APIs, especially in cases where you are currently using deprecated APIs.

Relevant Chapters: High Resolution Explained: Features and Benefits , Optimizing for High Resolution , APIs for Supporting High Resolution

Tune Advanced Technologies for High Resolution

If your app uses pixel-based technologies (such as OpenGL, Quartz image patterns), needs low-level access to display information, must examine pixels directly, or supports other specialized tasks or technologies, you’ll need to perform some work to ensure your app works well in high resolution. At the very least, scan through the list of advanced techniques to see which ones, if any, apply to your app.

Relevant Chapter: Advanced Optimization Techniques

Make Sure Your App Works After Optimizing for High Resolution

You don’t need a high-resolution display to start optimizing your app and testing the code. Quartz Debug has features you can use to make sure your app is working as expected. When things don’t work as expected, the troubleshooting section can help you figure out the issue.

Relevant Chapter: Testing and Troubleshooting High-Resolution Content

Understand the User Experience If You Don’t Optimize Right Away

If you aren’t able to update your app immediately for high resolution, it’s important to understand how users will experience your app as they wait for you to release the optimized version.

Relevant Section: OS X Optimizes the High-Resolution User Experience for Existing Apps

About High Resolution for OS X

At a Glance

See Also