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    Better Image Quality of Cursor Icons

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Implemented Features
    12 Posts 4 Posters 14.5k Views 1 Watching
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    • V Offline
      Vector-Rock @VectorStyler
      last edited by

      @vectoradmin said in Better Image Quality of Cursor Icons:

      @Vector-Rock I add this to the backlog. Is this on Windows or Mac?

      @vectoradmin,

      This is on macOS (Intel).

      VectorStylerV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • VectorStylerV Offline
        VectorStyler @Vector-Rock
        last edited by

        @Vector-Rock A bit of (technical) explanation:
        VS cursors are defined as vector shapes. This has some advantages like easy to customize size and rotation. And of course, these are all done in VS.

        For example the rotate cursor (when hovering just outside of the transform tool box corner) changes its angle to the current box rotation. This is a single cursor, shown with varying rotation.

        But, creating small images from vectors (at the required cursor size of the OS) can be challenging. This is why fonts need hinting at small size. But there is no hinting for these cursor.

        Of course for each cursor there is a cursor drawing and then a mask drawing which most of the time is just the expanded version of the cursor. I will try to use larger expansion.

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        • V Offline
          Vector-Rock @VectorStyler
          last edited by

          @vectoradmin

          Thanks for the information.

          Of course I knew that that size was a challenging factor.

          I guess a combination of know-how and trial and error is the required recipe to find the best solution.

          It would be interesting to know how the CorelDRAW engineer handled this.

          VectorStylerV 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • VectorStylerV Offline
            VectorStyler @Vector-Rock
            last edited by

            @Vector-Rock To my understanding, most (if not all) application cursors are drawn as image resources (basic bitmaps).
            All software frameworks (both on Mac and Windows, but also others) require that cursors are given as images.
            This means that each cursor can be handcrafted to the detail to look good.

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            • b77B Offline
              b77 @VectorStyler
              last edited by

              @vectoradmin MacOS has a default display resolution of 72 ppi. Maybe the vector-based resources for these cursors don't snap correctly to a 72-ppi-based grid? Maybe the black line is less than 2 pixels (say, 1.7 px) and the white contour is again somewhere in between integer values.

              MacBook Pro (Intel) running Monterey 12.6.4

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              • F Offline
                fde101 Global Moderator @b77
                last edited by

                @b77 said in Better Image Quality of Cursor Icons:

                @vectoradmin MacOS has a default display resolution of 72 ppi. Maybe the vector-based resources for these cursors don't snap correctly to a 72-ppi-based grid? Maybe the black line is less than 2 pixels (say, 1.7 px) and the white contour is again somewhere in between integer values.

                The 72ppi assumption dates back to the pre-Retina days. No longer a safe assumption.

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                • b77B Offline
                  b77 @fde101
                  last edited by

                  @fde101 Sure, but 144 is still "compatible" with 72, so to speak. It's not 90 or 96 or whatever other ppi value.

                  MacBook Pro (Intel) running Monterey 12.6.4

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                  • F Offline
                    fde101 Global Moderator
                    last edited by

                    144 is not safe either:

                    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5153667
                    https://www.scantips.com/no72dpib.html

                    Also, note that there are "scaling" options available in display preferences for some retina monitors, effectively making the display DPI calculations variable.

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                    • VectorStylerV Offline
                      VectorStyler
                      last edited by

                      Cursor quality has been improved in build 1.0.045

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                      • b77B Offline
                        b77 @VectorStyler
                        last edited by

                        @vectoradmin Indeed it has. Great! 👍

                        MacBook Pro (Intel) running Monterey 12.6.4

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