Why you need to be Retina Ready

Apple is at the heart of this new, technological development and when Apple products take on a new feature it becomes hot news. Being retina ready is something many of the most popular and successful websites have already adopted and it’s something that you, as web designers, should have at the forefront of your minds when developing and designing new projects for clients.

If you have any interest in ensuring your web design projects look their best then you need to be interested in retina readiness. It may not be common knowledge for non-Apple enthusiasts but we’re convinced it soon will be.

So, What is Being Retina Ready?

When you look at a screen from a web designer perspective, you will often notice the appearance of individual pixels. Pixilation may not be something that general web users notice but as designers, we do. Seeing the tiny squares and dots which make up an element of the design can be distracting and although it wasn’t a big problem in the past it has become more significant since the advent of responsive design.

Responsive web design has developed in response to the need for websites to fit into several browser sizes on different devices. Responsive design makes this easy and images can be resized with simple changes to the template of the website in question.

The problem lies in sites which were not designed to be retina ready and responsive. Pages and images will look pixelated and blurred on sites which haven’t been screened for retina readiness. Websites as well as devices which are retina ready give you the opportunity to see more pixels per inch². This in turn means images are smooth and high quality. Becoming retina ready requires some CSS and Javascript coding.

The Benefits of Being Retina Ready

If the above doesn’t provide enough information about why you need to be retina ready then consider these benefits too:

Better Aesthetic Feel for Responsive Design

Retina Ready websites provide better picture quality but they also allow for sharper fonts. Fonts will be smoothed over, whereas in a website which is not retina ready, they would be stretched and pixelated. Image quality is always maintained in retina ready websites.

Advanced Detail

Web designers in their nature are sticklers for technical detail and sites that are retina ready just look more impressive. Combined with flat or minimalist web design, sites remain clean, fresh-looking and straight to the point. Retina devices protect the quality of high-res images and also guaranteed consistent screen brightness.

Your Site is Already Unimpressive to Millions

Over 30 million people are already using retina ready Apple devices and therefore if you are designing websites that are not retina ready they won’t look all that great on these devices. 30 million people is a lot of potential customers and you want to ensure your clients are representing themselves in the best possible way digitally.

The world is only just getting used to the introduction of retina ready devices and websites so now is the time to learn. Staying ahead of the game will ensure your designs remain attractive and appealing to your customers and super high quality imagery is one way to guarantee this.