[ios] How to develop or migrate apps for iPhone 5 screen resolution?

The new iPhone 5 display has a new aspect ratio and a new resolution (640 x 1136 pixels).

What is required to develop new or transition already existing applications to the new screen size?

What should we keep in mind to make applications "universal" for both the older displays and the new widescreen aspect ratio?

Checking bounds with 568 will fail in landscape mode. iPhone 5 launches only in portrait mode but if you want to support rotations then the iPhone 5 "check" will need to handle this scenario as well.

Here's a macro which handles orientation state:

#define IS_IPHONE_5 (CGSizeEqualToSize([[UIScreen mainScreen] preferredMode].size, CGSizeMake(640, 1136)))

The use of the 'preferredMode' call is from another posting I read a few hours ago so I did not come up with this idea.

According to me the best way of dealing with such problems and avoiding couple of condition required for checking the the height of device, is using the relative frame for views or any UI element which you are adding to you view for example: if you are adding some UI element which you want should at the bottom of view or just above tab bar then you should take the y origin with respect to your view's height or with respect to tab bar (if present) and we have auto resizing property as well. I hope this will work for you

Peter, you should really take a look at Canappi, it does all that for you, all you have to do is specify the layout as such:

button mySubmitButton 'Sumbit' (100,100,100,30 + 0,88,0,0) { ... }

From there Canappi will generate the correct objective-c code that detects the device the app is running on and will use:

(100,100,100,30) for iPhone4
(100,**188**,100,30) for iPhone 5

Canappi works like Interface Builder and Story Board combined, except that it is in a textual form. If you already have XIB files, you can convert them so you don't have to recreate the entire UI from scratch.

I had added the new default launch image and (in checking out several other SE answers...) made sure my storyboards all auto-sized themselves and subviews but the retina 4 inches still letterboxed.

Then I noticed that my info plist had a line item for "Launch image" set to "Default.png", which I thusly removed and magically letterboxing no longer appeared. Hopefully, that saves someone else the same craziness I endured.

This is a real universal code, you can create 3 different story board:

Set your project Universal mode, and set your main story iPhone with the iPhone5 storyboard and the ipad main with iPad target storyboard, now add new storyboard target for iphone and modify the resolution for iphone 4s or less now implement your AppDelegate.m

iPhone4/4s (is the same for 3/3Gs) one for iPhone5 and make the project universal, with a new Storyboard target for iPad, now in to AppDelegate.m under the didFinishLaunching add this code:

    if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone){
        UIStoryboard *storyBoard;

        CGSize result = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;
        CGFloat scale = [UIScreen mainScreen].scale;
        result = CGSizeMake(result.width *scale, result.height *scale);

//----------------HERE WE SETUP FOR IPHONE4/4s/iPod----------------------

        if(result.height == 960){
            storyBoard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"iPhone4_Storyboard" bundle:nil];
            UIViewController *initViewController = [storyBoard instantiateInitialViewController];
            [self.window setRootViewController:initViewController];
        }

//----------------HERE WE SETUP FOR IPHONE3/3s/iPod----------------------

        if(result.height == 480){
            storyBoard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"iPhone4_Storyboard" bundle:nil];
            UIViewController *initViewController = [storyBoard instantiateInitialViewController];
            [self.window setRootViewController:initViewController];
        }
    }

        return YES;
 }

So you have created a Universal app for iPhone 3/3Gs/4/4s/5 All gen of iPod, and All type of iPad

Remember to integrate all IMG with myImage.png and [email protected]

First show this image. In that image you show warning for Retina 4 support so click on this warning and click on add so your Retina 4 splash screen automatically add in your project.

and after you use this code :

if([[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 568)
    {
        // For iphone 5
    }
    else
    {
        // For iphone 4 or less
    }

If you have an app built for iPhone 4S or earlier, it'll run letterboxed on iPhone 5.

To adapt your app to the new taller screen, the first thing you do is to change the launch image to: [email protected]. Its size should be 1136x640 (HxW). Yep, having the default image in the new screen size is the key to let your app take the whole of new iPhone 5's screen.

(Note that the naming convention works only for the default image. Naming another image "[email protected]" will not cause it to be loaded in place of "[email protected]". If you need to load different images for different screen sizes, you'll have to do it programmatically.)

If you're very very lucky, that might be it... but in all likelihood, you'll have to take a few more steps.

• Make sure, your Xibs/Views use auto-layout to resize themselves.
• Use springs and struts to resize views.
• If this is not good enough for your app, design your xib/storyboard for one specific screen size and reposition programmatically for the other.

In the extreme case (when none of the above suffices), design the two Xibs and load the appropriate one in the view controller.

To detect screen size:

if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone)
{
    CGSize result = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;
    if(result.height == 480)
    {
        // iPhone Classic
    }
    if(result.height == 568)
    {
        // iPhone 5
    }
}

It's easy for migrating iPhone5 and iPhone4 through XIBs.........

UIViewController *viewController3;
if ([[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 568)
{
    UIViewController *viewController3 = [[[mainscreenview alloc] initWithNibName:@"iphone5screen" bundle:nil] autorelease];               
}    
else
{
     UIViewController *viewController3 = [[[mainscreenview alloc] initWithNibName:@"iphone4screen" bundle:nil] autorelease];
}

I guess, it is not going to work in all cases, but in my particular project it avoided me from duplication of NIB-files:

Somewhere in common.h you can make these defines based off of screen height:

#define HEIGHT_IPHONE_5 568
#define IS_IPHONE   ([[UIDevice currentDevice] userInterfaceIdiom] == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone)
#define IS_IPHONE_5 ([[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds ].size.height == HEIGHT_IPHONE_5)

In your base controller:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    if (IS_IPHONE_5) {
        CGRect r = self.view.frame;
        r.size.height = HEIGHT_IPHONE_5 - 20;
        self.view.frame = r;
    }
    // now the view is stretched properly and not pushed to the bottom
    // it is pushed to the top instead...

    // other code goes here...
}

Sometimes (for pre-storyboard apps), if the layout is going to be sufficiently different, it's worth specifying a different xib according to device (see this question - you'll need to modify the code to deal with iPhone 5) in the viewController init, as no amount of twiddling with autoresizing masks will work if you need different graphics.

-(id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil

    NSString *myNibName;
    if ([MyDeviceInfoUtility isiPhone5]) myNibName = @"MyNibIP5";
    else myNibName = @"MyNib";

    if ((self = [super initWithNibName:myNibName bundle:nibBundleOrNil])) {


...

This is useful for apps which are targeting older iOS versions.

You could add this code:

if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone){
        if ([[UIScreen mainScreen] respondsToSelector: @selector(scale)]) {
            CGSize result = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;
            CGFloat scale = [UIScreen mainScreen].scale;
            result = CGSizeMake(result.width * scale, result.height * scale);

            if(result.height == 960) {
                NSLog(@"iPhone 4 Resolution");
            }
            if(result.height == 1136) {
              NSLog(@"iPhone 5 Resolution");
            }
        }
        else{
            NSLog(@"Standard Resolution");
        }
    }

To determine if your app can support iPhone 5 Retina use this: (This could be more robust to return the type of display, 4S Retina, etc., but as it is written below, it just returns if the iPhone supports iOS5 Retina as a YES or NO)

In a common ".h" file add:

BOOL IS_IPHONE5_RETINA(void);

In a common ".m" file add:

BOOL IS_IPHONE5_RETINA(void) {
    BOOL isiPhone5Retina = NO;
    if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone) {
        if ([UIScreen mainScreen].scale == 2.0f) {
            CGSize result = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;
            CGFloat scale = [UIScreen mainScreen].scale;
            result = CGSizeMake(result.width * scale, result.height * scale);

            if(result.height == 960){
                //NSLog(@"iPhone 4, 4s Retina Resolution");
            }
            if(result.height == 1136){
                //NSLog(@"iPhone 5 Resolution");
                isiPhone5Retina = YES;
            }
        } else {
            //NSLog(@"iPhone Standard Resolution");
        }
    }
    return isiPhone5Retina;
}

The only really required thing to do is to add a launch image named "[email protected]" to the app resources, and in general case (if you're lucky enough) the app will work correctly.

In case the app does not handle touch events, then make sure that the key window has the proper size. The workaround is to set the proper frame:

[window setFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]]

There are other issues not related to screen size when migrating to iOS 6. Read iOS 6.0 Release Notes for details.

I would suggest to use Autoresizing Mask in your applications according to your UI interface, it saves a lot of trouble and is better than making different UI for iPhone 4 and 5 screens.

There is a slight problem when testing on both iOS device and iOS Simulator. It appears that simulator (XCode 6.0.1) gives switched values for width and height in [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size depending on a device orientation.

So this might be a problem when determinating the right physical screen size. This code helps also to distinct all 2014. iPhone model generations:

• iPhone4s
• iPhone5 (and iPhone5s)
• iPhone6 (and iPhone6+)

It can also be easily changed to make the distinction between e.g. iPhone6 from iPhone6+.

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions {

    CGSize iOSDeviceScreenSize = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;

    if ([UIDevice currentDevice].userInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone)
    {
        if (iOSDeviceScreenSize.width > 568 || // for iOS devices
            iOSDeviceScreenSize.height > 568) // for iOS simulator
        {   // iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+

            // Instantiate a new storyboard object using the storyboard file named Storyboard_iPhone6
            storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard_iPhone6" bundle:nil];

            NSLog(@"loaded iPhone6 Storyboard");
        }
        else if (iOSDeviceScreenSize.width == 568 || // for iOS devices
                 iOSDeviceScreenSize.height == 568) // for iOS simulator
        {   // iPhone 5 and iPod Touch 5th generation: 4 inch screen (diagonally measured)

            // Instantiate a new storyboard object using the storyboard file named Storyboard_iPhone5
            storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard_iPhone5" bundle:nil];

            NSLog(@"loaded iPhone5 Storyboard");
        }
        else
        {   // iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S and iPod Touch 3rd and 4th generation: 3.5 inch screen (diagonally measured)

                // Instantiate a new storyboard object using the storyboard file named Storyboard_iPhone4
            storyboard = [UIStoryboard story    boardWithName:@"MainStoryboard_iPhone" bundle:nil];

                NSLog(@"loaded iPhone4 Storyboard");
        }
    }
    else if ([UIDevice currentDevice].userInterfaceIdiom == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad)
    {   // The iOS device = iPad

        storyboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard_iPadnew" bundle:nil];

        NSLog(@"loaded iPad Storyboard");
    }

    // rest my code
}

Rather than using a set of conditionals you can resize your view automatically using the screen size.

int h = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height;
int w = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.width;
self.imageView.frame = CGRectMake(20, 80, (h-200), (w-100));

In my case I want a view that fills the space between some input fields at the top and some buttons at the bottom, so fixed top left corner and variable bottom right based on screen size. My app fills the image view with the photo taken by the camera so I want all the space I can get.

You can use the Auto Layout feature and create the design using iPhone 5 screen resolution and it will work for the both 4" and 3.5" devices, but in this case you should have a enough knowledge of layout manager.

Here you can find a nice tutorial (for MonoTouch, but you can use the information for Non-MonoTouch-projects, too):
http://redth.info/get-your-monotouch-apps-ready-for-iphone-5-ios-6-today/

1. Create a new image for your splash/default screen (640 x 1136 pixel) with the name "[email protected]"

2. In the iOS Simulator, go to the Hardware -> Device menu, and select "iPhone (Retina 4-inch)"

3. Create other images, e.g. background images

4. Detect iPhone 5 to load your new images:

public static bool IsTall
{
    get {
        return UIDevice.currentDevice.userInterfaceIdiom
                    == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone
                && UIScreen.mainScreen.bounds.size.height
                    * UIScreen.mainScreen.scale >= 1136;
    }
}

private static string tallMagic = "-568h@2x";
public static UIImage FromBundle16x9(string path)
{
    //adopt the -568h@2x naming convention
    if(IsTall())
    {
        var imagePath = Path.GetDirectoryName(path.ToString());
        var imageFile = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(path.ToString());
        var imageExt = Path.GetExtension(path.ToString());
        imageFile = imageFile + tallMagic + imageExt;
        return UIImage.FromFile(Path.Combine(imagePath,imageFile));
    }
    else
    {
        return UIImage.FromBundle(path.ToString());
    }
}

Point worth notice - in new Xcode you have to add this image file [email protected] to assets

You can use this define to calculate if you are using the iPhone 5 based on screen size:

#define IS_IPHONE_5 ( fabs( ( double )[ [ UIScreen mainScreen ] bounds ].size.height - ( double )568 ) < DBL_EPSILON )

then use a simple if statement :

    if (IS_IPHONE_5) {

    // What ever changes
    }

First of all create two xibs and attach all delegates,main class to the xib and then u can put in this condition mentioned below in your appdelegate.m file in

- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions 

    if ([[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 568)
        {

        self.ViewController = [[ViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"ViewControlleriphone5" bundle:nil];
        }

        else
        {
             self.ViewController = [[ViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"ViewControlleriphone4" bundle:nil];

        }

you can use it any where in the program depending upon your requirements even in your ViewController classes. What matters the most is that you have created two xib files separate for iphone 4(320*480) and iphone 5(320*568)

In a constants.h file you can add these define statements:

 #define IS_IPAD UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPad 
 #define IS_IPHONE UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone
 #define IS_WIDESCREEN (fabs((double)[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height - (double)568) < DBL_EPSILON) 
 #define IS_IPHONE_5 (!IS_IPAD && IS_WIDESCREEN)

I solve this problem here. Just add ~568h@2x suffix to images and ~568h to xib's. No needs more runtime checks or code changes.

Using xCode 5, select "Migrate to Asset Catalog" on Project>General.

Then use "Show in finder" to find your launch image, you can dummy-edit it to be 640x1136, then drag it into the asset catalog as shown in the image below.

Make sure that both iOS7 and iOS6 R4 section has an image that is 640x1136. Next time you launch the app, the black bars will disappear, and your app will use 4 inch screen

You can manually check the screen size to determine which device you're on:

#define DEVICE_IS_IPHONE5 ([[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size.height == 568)

float height = DEVICE_IS_IPHONE5?568:480;
if (height == 568) {
    // 4"

} else {

    // 3"

}

Try the below method in a singleton class:

-(NSString *)typeOfDevice
    {
        if(UI_USER_INTERFACE_IDIOM() == UIUserInterfaceIdiomPhone)
        {
            CGSize result = [[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds].size;
            if(result.height == 480)
            {
                return @"Iphone";
            }
            if(result.height == 568)
            {
                return @"Iphone 5";
            }
        }
        else{
            return @"Ipad";;
        }


        return @"Iphone";
    }

If you need to convert an already existing app to universal, you need to select corresponding xib file->show Utilities-> Show Size inspector.

In Size inspector you can see Autosizing, by using this tool you can convert to existing iOS App.

I never faced such an issue with any device as I've had one codebase for all, without any hardcoded values. What I do is to have the maximum sized image as resource instead of one for each device. For example, I would have one for retina display and show it as aspect fit so it will be views as is on every device. Coming to deciding the frame of button, for instance, at run time. For this I use the % value of the patent view, example , if I want the width to be half of parent view take 50 % of parent and same applies for height and center.

With this I don't even need the xibs.

Use the Auto Layout feature for views. It will adjust automatically to all resolutions.

Create two xibs for a controller having controller name with suffix either ~iphone or ~ipad. At compile time, Xcode will take the right xib based on the device.

Use size classes, if you want to create a single xib for both iPhone and iPad, if the view is simple enough to port to iPhone and iPad.