Any visual benefit to using source images beyond 2x resolution for HiDPI sites?

[michaelh60423317]

Hello,

In the adobe muse tutorials it states that when designing HiDPI websites, to provide source images that are "at least" 2x the design resolution, so that they display properly when the site is viewed on HiDPi screens.  My question is about the phrasing "at least".  Does additional resolution beyond 2x, (ie: 3x or 4x resoltuion) provide better visual quality on current high end displays made by apple and other manufacturers, or is resolution beyond 2x simply excess data that provides no quality improvement and simply adds to page load times?    

Similary, if I am looking to "future proof" a site, if better displays are manufactured, will 3x & 4x resolution, help with this, even if it makes zero difference with current display technology?

Thank you.

Mike

using: Adobe Muse 2018.1

[Günter Heißenbüttel]

You will not get better quality, when you use 2x or higher resolution. Why? In order to reduce page loading times, Muse reduces file sizes to the necessary size. If you build a HiDPI site, Muse will shrink large image file sizes to exactly the double pixel size of your layout requirements. In this case, image quality may be not best possible, because Muse – although doing a really good job – is no specialist for image editing. 
Best practice for HiDPI sites: Build your layout, look, which pixel size has your image container, and use Photoshop or a similar application to "rightsize" the images (optimize it for double pixel size).

[michaelh60423317]

Thank you very much Gunter.  I appreciate the information.

Mike

[Nancy OShea]

If you want to "future proof" your sites, for gosh sakes DON'T USE MUSE!  That's no joke.

End of Service for Adobe Muse

So while all modern browsers forge ahead with support for the latest web technologies, Muse doesn't support them now and never will.  It's the end of the road for Muse generated sites.  

To answer your question about web images, there are quality and bandwidth advantages in using images exported from Photoshop @1x, @2x, @3x and @4x when used with the image SRCSET attribute or <picture> element.  Unfortunately Muse was never programmed to support them.  A switch to different site building software like Dreamweaver or Pinegrow is required to take advantages of the latest web standards.    SRCSET and <picture> are described on MDN

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/HTML/Multimedia_and_embedding/Responsive_images
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/picture

[Günter Heißenbüttel]

Nancy, would you please try to answer questions and not repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat your annoying msntra!

We know that muse is end of life! We are no fools, that there is an ever lasting necessity to tell us this a hundred times a day!

Please respect our intelligence – finally!

[Nancy OShea]

Yes.  You and I know that Muse is ending soon.  But people like Mike who use Muse tutorials and ask how to "future proof" their sites are probably not as well informed about it.

[michaelh60423317]

Thank you very much, Nancy.

Mike

[michaelh60423317]

As a follow up, I just did a test on my iphone with exact 2x images and then images that are around 3x & 4x.  I actually do notice a significant difference when I load the site.  The 3x & 4x images are better/cleaner/sharper.  The images were sized in Preview (mac).