iPad 3 Display Resolution

This is a nice microscopic shot of the iPad 2 screen compared with what is purported to be coming next week with the iPad 3. As you can see, the amount of detail provided by the higher resolution pixel depth is quite astounding in comparison, with four times as many bits of information in the same amount of space.



I've talked about the implications and importance of this in posts before (in my fixed layout tutorial here, and two discussions in December here and here), but this image provides a really solid visual depiction of what is about to occur. For those of us who create graphic content for use on this device, it's akin to the difference between Space Invaders and Super Mario. Okay, it's not that extreme, but you get my point. In fact, it's much more like the difference between DVD and Blu-Ray, or what is about to happen with 4K televisions. It will produce truly crisp and crystal clear imagery on a portable device large enough to actually be able to see the details (smartphone screens are just too small for my poor eyes).



While individual pixels are discernible on the iPad 2, this next generation display is nearing the limits of what the human eye can differentiate, rendering images more photo-realistic and vastly more nuanced with fine and subtle detail. Just as importantly, it will allow images to be zoomed to larger sizes while retaining clarity and focus. This is critical for digital artwork, whose every pixel is created and colored by hand. But it also presents some problems for images created for the early lower-resolution screens. See my prior posts for more on that, but if you're an artist or content creator, just be aware that images at 1024x768 will pixelate and/or appear at half their previous size on the newer screens. Unless, of course, you've taken my advice and made them larger than the iPad 2 display already.