Looking at this patent filing by Apple it appears that for Leopard 3D modeling will be used to generate interface elements. With all the talk of problems with huge bit maps and resolution-independence you would think there was a major crisis looming. I think otherwise. If you want an icon with a 3D look in Leopard, just give the OS a 3D model and a scene with lighting and it will build it for you when it is needed.

The problem with scaling 2D vector icons is that the vector data does not encode intent, just look. Fonts have the same problem: simply scaled vector fonts look awful because the scaling is applied without any knowledge of typography, visual cues, or alignment. Adobe and others solved this by adding hints to the vector data. For 3D icons, the shape encodes intent much better than for 2D, but hinting is almost certainly required for consistent quality. So I am predicting that Leopard will define a hinted 3D icon specification and provide tools that will give icon designers a clean resolution-independent environment.

Tags: Wild Guesses, Apple, User Interface