A High Resolution Experience
There’s a new generation of devices really changing how we look at the web, Apple calls it Retina, others call it HiDPI (high dots per inch), but it’s been trickling its way up mostly through mobile phones and then in tablets with the iPad 3.
Basically the idea is that the pixels are so close together you can’t even see them, even if you put your nose right up to the screen. (Wipe off your screen now.) My mind was personally blown when I first saw the new Retina Macbook Pro — basically Apple took the clarity of the retina screen and brought it to full 15″ laptop (which also has amazing other specs) and the result is remarkable. So much so that it ruins you, like the first time you saw a HDTV and then had to look back at a regular one again.
The one disadvantage is that many apps, and most websites, don’t have high-resolution equivalents of all their graphics to take advantage of the new screen, so they get “doubled” and look fuzzy, they stand out like a sore thumb.
You may have noticed that we’ve been going bit by bit through the entire WordPress dashboard, the reader, and all of our sites updating them to take advantage of this new capability, often crafting new icons and graphics by hand. (Go by an Apple store and check out WordPress.com if you want to get a taste of it, but I warn you it’s hard to go back.)
But for you guys we can go a step further. All of your blog posts will now serve high-resolution images for users that can see them, at least the images that we host. Since we create all images dynamically on the fly, what we do is if you’ve uploaded a higher resolution photo and sized it down, we’ll serve a double-size so it looks super sharp to those visitors — they’ll think you’re ahead of the game.
We’ve also completely revamped Gravatar to be Retina-ready, and made it so that all Gravatars across WordPress.com are HiDPI as well.
Here’s how sharp things look on a HiDPI device compared to a regular display:
P.S. We just launched the same available for Jetpack users, our second simulaunch.
- August 2, 2012
- Features
This is beautiful. Thanks guys!
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That’s quite a nice difference!
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That’s absolutely great! Thanks a lot. You are faster than Apple with it’s own apps. Except the header image all bitmap images in my WordPress.com blogs look crisp sharp and Retina-ready right now (when I’ve uploaded them with length/width double-size before; btw it even works when the images are NOT hosted on the WordPress.com servers but simply referenced). Highly recommended for all blog authors!
And editor and dashboard are retinafyed as well! I am so excited on that so I wrote a little article on that topic (sorry it’s German-language but you’ll find some interesting hyperlinks):
http://retinamac.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/wordpress-com-unterstuetzt-retina-displays/
Keep up the good work! Hightech WordPress!
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cool, plus thanks for the tech lesson in your post
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Well done, the team!
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Oh, my gosh! I’d heard of retina resolution and wondered. The technology is beyond amazing. How great that WP is making this possible for us!
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Bravo! I’m truly pleased to see WP setting the same standards of excellence that brought me to switch to the Apple world several years back.
Thank you, Matt.
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More reason I should break the bank and buy the MacBook pro with retina. Thanks WordPress.
Lol
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And this is one of the reasons I chose WordPress over the others out there 🙂
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Reblogged this on pravinchn.
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This is really good! Thanks!
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Reblogged this on ichwan83.
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Can not wait for all websites to be hi-def.
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I knew i loved my MacBook pro for many many many reasons and now MORE! thx
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umm Eric Wareheim?? That’s great. Awesome Post, Great Job!
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If you view the post on a retina display, it’s actually animated. 🙂
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WordPress, you rock my world. This has got to be good for Apple stockholders, too 🙂
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Call it WPHD.. haha 🙂
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Its good news for all those viewers who really enjoy watching photography and nature clicks.
Wildlife and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC WEBSITE WILL ALSO LOOK BRILLIANT IN APPLE’S retina MacBook PRO.
Well done wordpress.com you are going with technology.
Wish you BRILLIANT BLOGGING AHEAD.
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Nice..
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Nice move.
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Thank you wordpress.
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Interesting article, I received in my e-mail but visit the website to see better and a little step review content of this website, no doubt wordpress ever surprises me most with new and improved features.
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This is fabulous, ”it just keeps getting better” !
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Interesting move. Keep up:)
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Oh, your pic on here looks nice and crisp.
Very clever animation!
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This is pretty nuts. Think I’ll wait a bit before investing in an HD screen until more of the internet population rolls over, though. Good to see WP is on the ball as always.
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waiting to see wordpress in retina display..great job…
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Amazing, I love this, stupendous!
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Excellent use of the word stupendous
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Reblogged this on Noke In The Cloud.
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Gnarly Dude!
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Love HD, Hate den Apfel
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Cool – I’ve got a MacAir, so I’m looking forward to this. Although my blogging experience is pretty good already.
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I hope this sort of thing doesn’t slow it all down for users who live in areas that can’t get high speed connections?
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Looking forward to seeing the difference on the tablet and the mobile devices. I dont like how the iOS on iPad has restricted functionality of wordpress.
Glad to see the higher display on the futuristic devices.
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Did you look at your tags? Am i the only user to notice this Apple advertising? Your post could have been interesting if it was not a barely disguised ad for the apple (two links to apple’s website, “my mind was blown”, etc.). You have about 8M follower for this blog, I am wondering if Apple paid for this post, or if it is only a fanboy post!
Anyway, you could have avoided such a poor article to give us so real content about a good improvement!
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Just a fanboy post, I wish Apple paid me for these things. 🙂
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That’s a good answer! +1 for you! 😉
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Matt – I love WordPress. The great values of common-source, but also just really, really good. I want to read the story now, properly, like in Moody’s Rebel Code or Eric Raymond’s ‘the cathedral and the bazaar”. WP: looks like a cathedral, works like the best bazaar! Off to look for the story now. — Carys
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Awesome
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Thanks. Have always loved WP. This does not make me love y’all more, but it is an example of why.
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Thank you! As a proud new owner of a Retina 15 inch, I am delighted that you are doing this.
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What’s a PC girl to do?
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Reblogged this on Seriozitate.
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That’s absolutely great! Thanks a lot. I love it but I want to slideshow on my header image can I do that? please write something .
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What happens if one zooms in on one of these images? Does one see pixels at all? If not, I wonder if my digital restoration work is doomed (or enhanced)?
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If you zoom eventually you will see a pixel.
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For my photoblog http://www.kaldirimlar.com I usually embed my photography from my flickr account. Does these images be also upscaled for the retina display? Or do you suggest any method for my posts?
Appreciate this work!
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We can’t do it with images we don’t host, so we can only upscale them if they’re uploaded to WP.com.
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WordPress is really the Best 🙂
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You guys are rock stars! Well done!
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This is an awesome update! It will do wonders especially for photobloggers like me.
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Thanks for sharing!
I’ve gone so far, as getting an android phone!
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Amazing Expression.!:)
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This is so cool! I’m trying to think of something profound to say, but I’m just speechless…wow!
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It’s good to keep up with progress, well done…
However…
It’s a shame that wordpress for iPad remains a very frustrating experience, a lot worse than WordPress for iPhone, the most irritating being that you still cannot access those blogs that you are following… When is that going to be updated?
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It’s going to be updated very soon.
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I would upload Retina-ready images on my own but not until free storage space is considerably increased to accommodate that.
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great job, got a feel more of a professional writer with retina, have to catch up with the beat
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Yes, i like WordPress . and i’m started posting my beautiful project and it gives a good result fast and realiable. 🙂
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Nice job Automattic team 😉
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Thank you! At first I was worried when I saw our photos could look bad for Retina users, but you’re ahead of the curve on everything for us! This is especially important for photo-heavy blogs. Much appreciated.
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I like that WordPress is ahead of the game here, but what happens if I upload photos that are 72dpi and the exact pixel width as used by my theme? That doesn’t give you much to “upscale” then, or am I maybe missing something? Any suggestions?
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Correct, we wouldn’t have anything to upscale to.
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Thanks once more. Works really good. I have my both WP blogs pretty Retina-ready (at least the newest postings).
Only one thing is missing: The header image. I tried to upload it with double size of width and length (pixels), and the upload seemed to work, but the WP controls insist on “crop and publish”. So the only thing in my blogs being not retina remains the important header image.
Please tell us how to make the header image retina (without custom CSS). Thanks in advance!
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that’s why i love wordpress. keep rockin people!
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