Problem:        How To use High Density Icons for your PalmOS applications

Solution:        Starting with Satellite Forms 7.0, your application can now include high density icons.  You can add high density icons for both the standard and small (list view) sizes of your application icon.  High density icons look much sharper on the Palm application launcher screen, because they use four times as many pixels as the standard density icons.

As described in the KB article How To use High Density Bitmaps in PalmOS applications, many newer generation Palm Powered devices have higher density 320x320 pixel screens compared to the older generation PalmOS devices that had 160x160 pixel screens.  In addition to supporting higher density bitmaps and sharper fonts, high density capable PalmOS devices can also support high density application icons in the launcher screen.  Satellite Forms 7.0 now enables you to use both standard and high density application icons.

The sample images below demonstrate standard density and high density versions of the HotSync icon:

Standard     High density

  

To add high density icons for your application, simply name your large color icon with the -Color-HD.bmp file suffix, and place it in the same folder as your -Color.bmp standard density icon bitmap file.  To add an HD version of your small (list view) icon, simply name your icon bitmap with the -Small-Color-HD.bmp file suffix.

The HD versions of your icon bitmaps need to be exactly twice as wide and twice as tall as the standard density versions.  Therefore, the high density version of your large size icon needs to be 62x42 pixels, compared to the standard density color icon bitmap size of 31x21 pixels.  The high density small color icon needs to be 30x18 pixels, compared to the 15x9 size of the standard density version.

TIP: To make icon creation for your PalmOS application easier, we recommend using the icon templates provided in the \Templates subfolder of your Satellite Forms program folder.  Templates are provided for the standard and high density large icons, and standard and high density small icons.  The use of the template file also ensures that the correct PalmOS color palette is used for your icons, resulting in the best possible image.

NOTE: If you do not include high density versions of your application icons, Satellite Forms will automatically insert default high density icons.  on devices with high density screens, these default icons will be displayed instead of your standard density icons.  The default high density icon appear as a red circle with a pen, like these:

 

Keywords:      icon, high density, HD, color, red circle

KB ID: 10035 

Updated: 2010-06-22

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