OSX Lion: Resolution Independence, the Easy Way

Chris Foresman at Ars Technica:

Lion also has support for high pixel density monitors using a limited form of resolution independence. Apple has attempted to graft resolution independence onto Mac OS X as far back as 10.4, though the feature was never fully implemented. Lion will reportedly allow developers to use the same “2x” resolution method used in iOS to simultaneously support older 480 x 320 displays as well as the latest generation 960 x 640 Retina displays. Dubbed “HiDPI display modes,” displays that have sufficiently high pixel densities will use the higher quality 2x images for UI elements like buttons and icons. Doing so prevent these elements from shrinking to an impossibly small size as pixel densities increase.

What amazes me about these 10.7 Lion features is that it’s starting to look like the release that defines Mac OS X as a next-generation laptop/desktop OS. Before, you could argue - though it might result in a flame war - that Windows was the equal to OS X in features that mattered to people. This time around, a smooth app-fetching experience and sharp graphics (that people can navigate without a magnifying glass) matter to people, and either Microsoft has dropped the ball catastrophically or we haven’t heard a peep about what they’ve been up to. It’ll be really interesting to see how Microsoft counters this, because they’ve still got serious development muscle that they can utilize if they can figure out a good way to use it.