How to draw pictures for the G2 glasses

The screen is light on glass

The glasses show green light in front of the eye. There is no white paper behind it.

Black is not a color. Black means "no light". The person sees the real world through the black parts.

So: always draw light shapes on a black background. You cannot draw a dark shape on a light background.

Everything is small

The full screen is 576 × 288 pixels. It is wide and short, like a letterbox.

One picture can be at most 288 × 144 pixels. That is one quarter of the screen.

Small icons inside an app are 24 × 24 pixels.

Important: the file must be exactly the same size as the box it goes in. If the size is wrong, the picture repeats like wallpaper.

Draw in grey. It becomes green.

Work in greyscale: black, white, and greys. No color.

The glasses can show only 16 tones. White becomes bright green. Dark grey becomes dark green. Black becomes nothing.

No gradients. No soft shadows. 16 steps is not enough for smooth fades. Use flat fills.

Do not add dots or grain to fake more tones. The software converts the picture itself, and it does a cleaner job. Hand-made dots look like green noise.

Make it bold and simple

Lines must be at least 2 pixels thick. Thin lines disappear.

One subject per picture. No busy background. No small details.

Good idea: draw big in any tool you like. Then shrink it to the real size and look at it. What you can still see is what the wearer will see.

Only four pictures on one screen

One screen can show at most 4 pictures, plus text and simple lines.

Plan for a few strong pictures. Not many small ones.

Icons are even stricter

App icon: 24 × 24 pixels. Fill it edge to edge. No empty border around it.

Store icon: every pixel is fully on or fully off. No greys. No soft edges. It is built from 2 × 2 blocks, so you really have only 12 × 12 of detail.

At this size you draw a symbol, not a picture.