About Those Vector Icons

In my hands-on with the new iPad, I foolishly posited that vector-based graphics would better suit iOS developers than bitmaps. Turns out I was wrong, at least in regards to icons – but I’m sure these arguments could carry over to other interface elements.

When each icon line, each icon stroke, each icon shape need to be hinted for precise rendering under small sizes, when you need to go well beyond each individual layer to make sure that they are hinted as one collective assembly, when you need to learn an extra set of tools that will undoubtedly go beyond the current instruction set of type engines as it’ll need to support lighting, gradients, collapsing and hiding detail – this is just not a tenable solution.

For further reading, be sure to visit the referenced links in the post.