Replace Your Button’s Raster Icons for Font Icons

When we use raster icons on our buttons, such as a 16 x 16 PNG graphic of an Export icon, the size may be right for a small handheld device. But when the same page is viewed in a larger device that scales up the images, the icon will look less than its best. Of course, we can use larger icons to begin with and let them scale up or down, but there is a better way.

Our best bet is to use font icons. That is, fonts that are not letters, but come in the shape of familiar icons. Fonts resize to any size and still retain their sharpness. Their storage size is lighter than raster icons. If we use a font in place of a small icon, it will remain crisp no matter the resolution or size of the device. Who knows what larger resolutions and pixel densities are coming up in the future?

Here is how to add font icons to a button.

Building a PhoneGap Android App in Windows: Cordova 2.2.0 with Eclipse 4.2.1

Install Eclipse Juno IDE

Eclipse is an IDE (integrated development environment) for creating a variety of applications. Download Eclipse Classic 4.2.1, Windows 32-bit, from: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. 222MB download. It went into my Downloads folder. I unzipped it and put it in my C:/Program Files/eclipse folder. I right-dragged the eclipse.exe file to my desktop and designated it a Shortcut.

On startup, it asked me to set up a workspace:
C:\Documents and Settings\shusting\workspace
I opted for that location to be the default. After it started up, I exited.

Cordova 2.2 Android App Creation in Mountain Lion with Eclipse

I upgraded an Android app from Cordova 2.0 to 2.2. There were no plugins involved. These are the steps I followed. This article assumes you already have Eclipse (a software developement kit used to create Android apps; available for Windows and Mac) and its associated files installed.

If you are new to developing apps for an app store, I recommend reading the following:

Developing for the Amazon app store:
https://developer.amazon.com/help/faq.html
http://www.amazonappstoredev.com/

Developing for Google Play:
http://developer.andr oid.com/distribute/googleplay/publish/preparing.html