supporting multiple mobile device resolutions

[Chris Sheffield]

I know this topic has come up before. About a year or so ago Tom McGrath posted some very useful info. So now that some time has passed, I'm curious as to how most of you are developing apps when you need to support multiple device resolutions. I've been working on an iPad app. We've all heard the rumors, I'm sure, that a new iPad is on the way and will most likely sport a fancy new retina display. We (Read Naturally) would like to support the new device, but I'm still a little unclear on what all is involved with doing so.

What's the best method? Two separate stacks, one for each resolution? Or a single stack with code to handle positioning of controls? And speaking of controls, is it necessary to have two sets of everything, one for lower res and one for higher res displays? Or does it work to have one set of higher res controls? Would they display okay on the lower res display? I'm assuming they would display alright, but they would appear larger. Is that correct? Also, in the case of images, which this app makes use of extensively, is it necessary to worry about dpi/ppi when sizing them, or does that really matter? Is it okay to just leave all images set at a fairly standard 72 dpi and just make sure the dimensions in pixels are correct? So if I have an image that's 100x100 on a non-retina display, I would need an image that's 200x200 for a retina display in order for it to appear the same size? Is that correct? Sorry for all the questions. I'm just not sure how to really test this out myself. Maybe I need to just fire up the different simulators to see how things are affected.

This particular app consists of several steps (cards) that the user moves through in progression. So having two separate stacks with all the same cards duplicated might not be what we not. On the other hand, I can imagine that trying to write the code to handle hiding/showing controls and repositioning them could get out of hand. One advantage I have going for me is that this app is portrait only. So no having to deal with rotation in my case.

Any help or suggestions would be most welcome.

Thanks,
Chris

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Chris Sheffield
Read Naturally, Inc.
www.readnaturally.com