WordPress Launches Retina Support for Gravatar
Matt Mullenweg has just announced that both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress websites will now enjoy being optimized for Retina displays such as the ones found on the new iPad. The update will be available through JetPack 1.6, which launched earlier this month.
The new retina displays are high dots-per-inch displays, and these displays have taken many web developers by surprise, but Mullenweg does not want to get left behind. Mullenweg says that most websites don’t bother with high-resolution versions of their graphics, and when they are displayed on the iPad or the new Retina MacBook Pro, those websites look fuzzy and the low clarity of their images becomes obvious.
WordPress.com will now identify people who are using HiDPI displays, and serve up high resolution images to those users. Images that users have uploaded will be downscaled to fit the theme of the website, and served at optimized resolutions depending on the quality of the display in use.
Even the control panel will have two versions, one for normal displays, and one for high density displays. Gravatar is now retina ready, and the retina images will be served up to people who view Gravatars from retina devices, regardless of what website Gravatar is running on.
Currently, the update is only available through JetPack. Self hosted users that want to play with the feature right now will have to enable the feature via that route. The features will be fully integrated soon, though, when the 3.5 Update for WordPress is released.
If you’re still on the fence: grab your favorite eaoprhnes, head down to a Best Buy and ask to plug them into a Zune then an iPod and see which one sounds better to you, and which interface makes you smile more. Then you’ll know which is right for you.