Resolution Independence Support in Snow Leopard? [Update]
One of the more interesting possibilities includes the introduction of full Resolution Independence. The groundwork for this feature was included in Leopard, but full implementation was not expected until a later release. The author speculates that the dramatic size reductions in the application sizes could be, in part, due to resolution independence. Besides file-size reductions by eliminating large bitmaps, Apple's research into resolution independence opens the door to ultra-high resolution displays. This could pave the way for Apple's previously rumored high resolution Cinema displays.
The benefit of resolution independence would be the ability for the operating system to scale its user interface smoothly to accommodate higher resolution displays. At present, most displays are around 100 dots-per-inch (dpi), meaning 100 pixels for every inch of screen display. If Apple were to introduce an ultra-high resolution display, it could have a dpi of 200 or 300. The same image viewed on these higher resolution screens would appear 2x to 3x smaller. Simply scaling up bitmapped images to fit the display would result in blocky/jagged images. If instead, they are described as vectors, as Apple is proposing, larger displays could smoothly scale the user interface to the size of the display.
The article also suggests that 3rd party support for the multi-touch trackpads, expanded data detectors, auto activation of fonts, and ZFS support (which is listed in features for Snow Leopard Server) are also coming.
Update Some have suggested that the reduction in Snow Leopard's filesize is simply related to languages and interface builder (nib) files, and that resolution independence does not play a role. Pipian demonstrates this effect.
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Roughly Drafted claims to have knowledge of some of the possible new features coming in Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, the article appears to include some degree of speculation making it difficult to tease out what might be actual features.
One of the more interesting possibilities includes the introduction of full Resolution Independence. The groundwork for this feature was included in Leopard, but full implementation was not expected until a later release. The author speculates that the dramatic size reductions in the application sizes could be, in part, due to resolution independence. Besides file-size reductions by eliminating large bitmaps, Apple's research into resolution independence opens the door to ultra-high resolution displays. This could pave the way for Apple's previously rumored high resolution Cinema displays.
The article also suggests that 3rd party support for the multi-touch trackpads, expanded data detectors, auto activation of fonts, and ZFS support (which is listed in features for Snow Leopard Server) are also coming.
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Bring it on!
I've tried looking at some articles and wiki's about resolution independence but can someone explain in simple terms what it is and what are benefits/negatives of it? Hopefully with some examples of how it could be used because I think I know what it is but I'm not entirely sure I get why it's important or how it will be used.
i think this would help a lot of people (myself included)
I've tried looking at some articles and wiki's about resolution independence but can someone explain in simple terms what it is and what are benefits/negatives of it? Hopefully with some examples of how it could be used because I think I know what it is but I'm not entirely sure I get why it's important or how it will be used.
Very basically, applications are currently made up of bitmap images which means they contain pixels and are of a certain size. As the pixel density of displays increases these objects get smaller. Resolution independence effectively means that objects aren't defined in pixels and have the ability to increase or shrink in size without losing quality and without multiple versions of the file being necessary.
Font Auto Activation exists now in 10.5, but it is wonky for some.
Leopard should've had this feature standard. Apple is sure greedy for money. :rolleyes:
I've tried looking at some articles and wiki's about resolution independence but can someone explain in simple terms what it is and what are benefits/negatives of it? Hopefully with some examples of how it could be used because I think I know what it is but I'm not entirely sure I get why it's important or how it will be used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolution_independenceIn short, compared to current 100 dpi Cinema displays, a 200 dpi display would have menubar only half as high as the menubar is defined in pixels not millimeters. This would make it very hard to read it and that is the reason why we don't have 200 dpi displays yet.
With resolution independence all these elements which are today defined in pixels will be defined in millimeters (or whatever unit you prefer).
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