Ok, first, I apologize if this is a glaringly obvious issue because after an hour of searching on the internet, I am still at a loss. This isn’t the first time I have run into this issue, but it doesn’t seem like anyone talks about it online, in the capacity I am trying to at least.
Ill preface with this: I have used Adobe products since Photoshop 7.0. I fully understand resolution, pixel dimensions and DPI/PPI – and I also understand high resolution screen scaling – for example, how iOS scales based on their high DPI displays (2x or 3x for the new X and Plus size phones)
Here is my beef. I create a layout intended for iPad – which we all know has a lower DPI than the phones do. Why – WHY does Adobe insist on pixel dimension presets for these devices? I spend hours creating paragraph styles, using recommended practices and font sizes. If I am creating a design, or document, for a certain device, I should be able to choose 17pt font and have it show up the same way it would relative to scale. I don’t want to choose size 34pt, nor do I want to go and revamp all of my paragraph styles. Size 17 on my iPhone 8 Plus is the same size on my girlfriend’s iPhone 7, which is the same size as on my iPad Air.
Does doubling all of the measured attributes – (leading, font size, space above/below, etc…) for 2X or 3X scale work? Is there a way to globally scale all styles?
What I can say, without a doubt, is that when I use inDesigns preset for iPhone 8, vs. a custom size document that I create using point size – the point size wins the day. When I use inDesign’s preset, I get miniscule, unreadable font at 100%. When I use point size for dimensions, I can keep all of my font sizes, and they appear appropriately on the iPhone…and I was able to make 17pt text actually mean 17pt text regarding design. I am using this website for pt reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/DeviceInformation/Reference/iOSDeviceCompatibility/Displays/Displays.html
Any advice on this issue would be welcome – because I am certainly feeling late to the party and quite ignorant as to how other people deal with this.
– Tyler
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