Very relevant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPPXbo87ds Probably use BSplines
AFAIK Alias (which the article say is in use at Apple) uses non-rational uniform B-splines (or NURBS). Covered at 1:02:35 in the awesome video you linked.
Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
31–40 of 94 posts
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#32I can finally put some words on this. Tangentially (no pun intended) in CSS, the poor rendering you get out of an ambitiously border-radius'ed button has been driving me mad for years; time to get down the rabbit hole to see how to replicate that look on the web.
This blog post is from 5 years ago, but it explains how you can use CSS Houdini to make smooth corners. It's quite a lot of work, though.
https://iamvdo.me/en/blog/smooth-corners-with-css-houdini
I would love it to be built into browsers as standard.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#33I guess I have really bad eyes but I can’t tell the difference at all. They both look like rounded corners to me. I don’t think the aesthetic effect is that pronounced. I’d like to see the author do a blind taste test and be able to identify this magical “curvature comb” without seeing the brands.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#34I wish they would put in at least some basic effort into smoothing that sharp edge where wrists often rest when using the MacBook, rather than just the curvature of the corner. Any cheap laptop is nicer to my wrists than a MacBook.
But then you would have a rounded surface matched up with a sharp one (the top of the display) when you close the lid and that wouldn't look sexy at all. Two rounded edges would be even worse.
The marks in my wrists look worse, to me.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#35The curvature combs are confusing to me. Is this equivalent to saying that Apple’s rounded corners have a continuous second derivative while naïve rounded corners only have a continuous first derivative but a discontinuous second derivative? Or am I misunderstanding this?
thats pretty much it yes. the reason they dont just say 2nd derivative is that the derivative isnt a geometry property. you can have two curves with the same shape but different derivatives.
curvature only depends on the shape of the object.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#36I wish they would put in at least some basic effort into smoothing that sharp edge where wrists often rest when using the MacBook, rather than just the curvature of the corner. Any cheap laptop is nicer to my wrists than a MacBook.
Also: if they could create a gap between the screen and the keys, so the screen is not always smudged after closing the MacBook. Aka, if you use your MacBook as a laptop, the screen will be dirty even if you are careful to never mistakenly touch it.
I always put something between the screen and the keys when I close it - not only finger grease, but eventually you get damage on the screen from grit on the keys or the hard edge by the track pad. A sheet of A4 paper was the thing for a while, but then I got some of the material you get in new laptops and use that now (it's made from recycled PET, and black).
Bad design, imo.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
My apple cables are consistently the first to wear out. I must be using them wrong.
It's always weird to read things like that because I definitely mistreat my cables, and I've had lots die, but my Apple ones hold up very well. I have just one Lighthing cable that recently broke and that one was from 2013 IIRC so I guess that's ok. Everything else seems to hold up about as well as expensive Anker cables, if not better, including Macbook chargers going back to 2005 or so. I'm in the EU though, maybe…
> It's always weird to read things like that because I definitely mistreat my cables, and I've had lots die, but my Apple ones hold up very well.
Just wanted to say, you aren’t alone. I don’t do anything special with mine, I’m sure I mistreat them as much as the next person, but like never have the kind of damage I’ve seen others have or complain about.
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#38> Apple doesn’t have the patent on this.
But they do: D558,757 and D670,286. Don't people remember Apple v. Samsung case?
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#39I can finally put some words on this. Tangentially (no pun intended) in CSS, the poor rendering you get out of an ambitiously border-radius'ed button has been driving me mad for years; time to get down the rabbit hole to see how to replicate that look on the web.
I had the exact same thought: How to do this in CSS? Please follow-up on this thread with any discoveries or learnings, would be interesting and cool to learn how to replicate the nice soft curve for web assets. Depending on how many different semi-reasonable approaches exist, this subject and analysis would also make for a compelling and blog article. Edit: Thank you Charles - wow you're so quick to have unearthed a…
I really appreciate the kind words. Happy holidays to you and yours!
Re: Curvature consistency in Apple hardware and software products (2017)
#40The curvature combs are confusing to me. Is this equivalent to saying that Apple’s rounded corners have a continuous second derivative while naïve rounded corners only have a continuous first derivative but a discontinuous second derivative? Or am I misunderstanding this?
Isn't this sort of thing common in the automotive industry?
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