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What exactly do you ask for from your graphical designer for your iphone apps?

I asked my designer exact measurements of images in Photoshop, which turned out to be not such great idea because I need to ask for new images to support the new iphone 5, and if I want add ad-support I'd need new images as well.

What do you ask from your graphical designer to avoid these common scenarios?

I talked with my graphical designer and she said that it's possible to make high resolution images - higher than let's say bigger than iphone's 5 resolution, which is 1136x640. Then I could scale down the images size using Photoshop/GIMP as needed.

Another solution was to create the image in Illustrator, which from what I could understand, one can always change the resolution without altering image quality.

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In photoshop you can use smart object that acts as a container for whatever you put into it. When something is made into a smart object, you can pretty much resize it up and down all you want as long as you don't go above the original dimensions. Also one great thing about smart objects is that you can make one smart object and duplicate it once or multiple times and resize each smart object to specific sizes. Now when you edit one smart object, the changes would occur in each cope of the smart object. Of course There are Shapes in photoshop which can be resized as much as you want. – Joonas Sep 30 '12 at 9:34
Thank you for the reply! Please add this as an answer to the question. I'll talk to my designer regarding smart objects, sounds exactly what I need. – kernix Sep 30 '12 at 9:45
I think you may need to provide more for which parts you're after. Bitmap scaling and vector scaling can really reduce the quality of the results. You need to build with specific resolution targets in mind. – Marc Edwards Sep 30 '12 at 11:51
@Joonas Smart Objects created within Photoshop bitmap scale, using the original object's bitmap dimensions as the starting point. Some caution needs to be taken if you want to avoid scaling artefacts. – Marc Edwards Sep 30 '12 at 11:52
@MarcEdwards I assume I'm after Bitmap scaling, as my designer works with Photoshop. Why do I need to build with specific resolution? How can I avoid scaling artefact? – kernix Sep 30 '12 at 12:52

2 Answers

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Well you've got that right there as a graphic designer you can ether use 'pixels' or 'vector' images. Pixeled images get choppy or blocked when scaled very large. Vector images are mathematical vector shapes which will scale perfectly into any size. Perfect for supporting mobile apps or webapps. Since size is important for mobile webapps to support big ipad screens or even small phone screens.

And since the question is "What Do You Ask From Your Graphical Designer for Your Iphone Apps?": Now as someone directing a graphic designer I wouldn't ask questions about the size let them figure it our but just make sure to them that this would support multiple devices. Since this would be a better business view for someone who directs a graphic designer to worry about. You can ether create webapps which are basicly websites who will scale along any device it's viewed from, if it's a pc or a mobile phone. But these don't have as much capabilities as mobile apps which are installers exclusively for mobile devices but can't be viewed by pc users.

mobile apps = exclusively for mobile -->more capabilities like 3D and local storage

web apps = for all web connected devices --> basicly a smart website, storage online

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Thank you very much for your reply. I still don't fully understand what I should ask for my desinger - should she give me large image-size images which might be "choppy or blocked" - or should I ask her to work with Illustrator, which support mathematical vectors which resize easily? She does understand the need for diffrent size for each image, now it's my time to tell her which road to take - Photoshop/Illustrator. Also should note that she told me she is more trained with Photoshop, which means the images will look better in it. – kernix Sep 29 '12 at 22:19
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Illustrator is typically used for icon/ logo design work, display ads or anything which you might want in very large sizes, like displays outside shop-fronts. In case of an iphone app, Photoshop is what you need. The reason is, its easier to work with Photoshop than illustrator and not every element needs to be blown up to huge sizes. The iphone 5 screen dimensions are perfectly within the domain of Photoshop, and your designer would spend a lot less time designing it.

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OK, great. So now, what do I need to tell her in order to give me an image that can be resizeable in Photoshop? Can I tell her to give me large resolution image and then I resize it using GIMP to my changing needs? Will it deteriorate the quality of the image? – kernix Sep 30 '12 at 6:56

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