How Retina is Shaping the Future of Web Design

I just got a Retina Macbook Pro, and only a few days in it’s clear that this display is the future.

Not just Apple’s display, but ultra high resolution displays in general. It won’t be long before other manufacturers release similar displays, and websites are going to have to adapt quickly.

The problem with the Retina display is similar to that of an HD TV several years ago. Everything that’s Retina compatible is amazingly crisp, but everything that’s not looks even worse than it did before. It’s like watching a non-HD channel on a very good HD TV.

You may have seen a Retina display in the Apple store, or on your iPhone, and maybe you think it looks pretty good. Let me tell you, once you’ve been staring at this thing for a few days, non-Retina screens are almost unreadable. I pop open my old (2008) Macbook Pro and I squint at the blurry text. Even on my iPad 2, which has a fairly hi-res display, the type looks pixelated.

The problem is only going to get worse, because we haven’t yet reached the limits of human vision.

Here’s what needs to change (and quickly) to accomodate our extra pixel friends.
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