My universal apps come bundled with the following icons:
iphone-icon#2x (114x114)
iphone-icon (57x57)
ipad-icon#2x (144x144)
ipad-icon (72x72)
And using iTunes connect I submit another icon:
iTunes-icon (1024x1024)
Now my question is which of these icons gets displayed on each of the following: a)iPhone on-device App Store, b)iPad on-device App Store, c)iTunes on Mac/PC?
Apple's wording implies that the iTunes-icon will be used for all app stores, but that begs the question why Apple would use a 1024x1024 downsampled icon on-device when designers have spent hours designing the device icons specifically for each size?
As of iOS 6, all App Stores show the downsampled 1024x1024 icon. You can see this with apps that have a different icon in the App Store than on the home screen (e.g. the 1Password Pro icon has a red "Pro" sash in the App Store, but not when installed). I'm not sure if it was that way on the iPhone with iOS 5, I seem to remember that it showed the actual home screen icon, but I don't have an iOS 5 device here to check.
My understanding is that the 1024x1024 icon is used in place of the old 512x512 icon to display the icon on desktop monitors (1024x1024 is used on retina desktop displays; scaled-down 512x512 is used on normal displays). So, this is the icon used in iTunes on your Mac/PC or in your browser.
The other icons are used as appropriate to show the icon on each respective device.
The easy test for this is not providing one of the device specific icons: you will see then a jagged icon on that device for which you did not provide the optimized icon. But if you provide it, the icon will look as it should.
Related
Android requires 5 different resolution of images and ios requires 3 different resolution of images during development.
Does unity requires different resolutions of images while building for android or ios?
The short answer is NO. But it's way more complicated than that.
On unity, you can always submit your icon once and it will resize to each required size on each platform you'd like to publish your app. You can see that on player settings. Build Settings > Player Settings > Icon. You can also submit your own custom icon for each platform selecting the checkbox "Override for ...", there you can submit different sizes for each platform.
Now comes the tricky part. During the last four years, I've published 7 games and I ALWAYS had problems with icons on iOS and XCode. When publishing your game to iOS, I never tested the cloud build but whenever you build your game to iOS locally, you'll be prompt with a Xcode file that you have to edit before building for profiling and archiving which will allow you to publish your game to iTunes Connect. This is the part where I constantly have problems. I didn't test the new 2017 version but before that, some required icon sizes were not filled correctly so you had to go and drag from your computer. It's better to be ready to, MAYBE, fill some icon sizes yourself.
Another thing you might notice is that on store listing, you might have problems with icon sizes too. For example: For your google play listing, you'll require a 512x512 icon. For your iTunes Connect, you'll require a 1024x1024 icon and for Windows Phone, much like apple, you'll require all sorts of icon sizes. The same goes for screenshots.
But TL:DR: For Unity, you can always submit your icon once and Unity will resize it for each platform and required size you need. You can check that under Build Settings > Player Settings > Icon
I have developed and published one TVOS app. In my app project, I put icon images, launch image and top shelf image. I also put two screenshots in the app configuration part on the developer.apple.com.
Now the app is online. The top shelf image is fine when the app is in focus. But the top shelf image is not used as the background image in the App introduction part in the App Store. I want to get the full background like the game app. Where shall I configure that image and what is the dimension of the image? Thanks in advance! I attach images to make my questions more clear.
My app looks like this when it is focused on the Apple TV. I want to use this topshelf image for the app introduction background.
But it looks like this in the app store. I don't want to see the screenshot on the right side of the screen. There is no background image at the introduction part.
I want to get the full-background for the introduction page like this app.
You have no control over that. Only apps selected by Apple's App Store editors are given the privilege to have a customized App Store page.
Note, the standard background on the Apple TV App Store, is created automatically based on your app's icon. It's a large, blurred out version of your icon. So in your case, you see that red line, and a lot of white, which is exactly what you have in your icon.
When trying to upload a binary to App Store, I get the following response in an email:
"iPhone 5 Optimization Requirement - Your binary is not optimized for iPhone 5. As of May 1, all new iPhone apps and app updates submitted must support the 4-inch display on iPhone 5. All apps must include a launch image of the appropriate size. Learn more about iPhone 5 support by reviewing the iOS Human Interface Guidelines."
Also, the status of the app is "Illegal binary".
I've read that I must include a launch image called "Default-568h#2x.png". Question is: My app was not intending to have a launch image at all. Am I really required to have a launch image now?
Yes you must include one. Not only does the launch image give the hint to the OS about the app's iPhone 5 (4" screen) support, but launch images in general are required:
From Apple's Interface Guidelines
To enhance the user’s experience at app launch, you must provide at least one launch image. A launch image looks very similar to the first screen your app displays. iOS displays this image instantly when the user starts your app and until the app is fully ready to use. As soon as your app is ready for use, your app displays its first screen, replacing the launch placeholder image.
Furthermore:
Generally, design a launch image that is identical to the first screen of the app.
So really, making a launch image that is about the same as the first screen of your app (e.g. if the first screen is a UITableViewController with a toolbar and navigation bar, perhaps the screen looks like an empty navigation bar, an empty toolbar, and an empty table view, which then suddenly all become populated as soon as your app really gets going), is the way to go for the best user experience.
If really you don't want or need this, then make the default images just be black.
Yes, as stated, as of May 1, 2013, all new apps and app updates must provide support for the new iPhone 5 4-inch display.
The way to indicate that your app supports (has been tested with) the new iPhone 5 resolution is to simply include the launch image for that device.
You can simply create a black .png image (which is what your other default launch images are anyway) that is 640 x 1136 pixels and use that as the launch image for that device.
Simply including the new splash screen image (Default-568h#2x.png) is not enough
You must re-build your project with the iOS 6.0 SDK (or newer) - which supports iPhone 5
So if you're still using an older SDK, update your XCode in the App Store first
Yes. from 1st May, you can't upload application with out including Default-568h#2x.png in your application.
It's crazy, but I can't find it. The HIG seems to talk only about system icons like "favorites", "search", etc.
Is there a special document that talks about this? Also, how must these icons be called and where must they be added?
Have you checked iTunes Connect Developer Guide? It describes submission related things.
I've only been able to kind of distill it from the HIG, but here's a blog post that's very helpful:
http://kgutteridge.co.uk/blog/2010/07/04/icon-sizes-filenames-for-ios-devices/
iTunesArtwork – Icon for iTunes AdHoc distribution (512×512)
Icon#2x.png – Home screen icon for iPhone 4 (114×114)
Icon-72.png – Home screen icon for iPad (72×72)
Icon-Small#2x.png – Settings/Spotlight icon for iPhone 4 (58×58)
Icon.png – Home screen icon for iPhone 3 (57×57)
Icon-Small-50.png – Spotlight icon for iPad (50×50)
Icon-Small.png - Settings/Spotlight icon for iPhone 3 (29×29)
Might also check this out too for a bit more crucial info:
mrgan.tumblr.com/post/708404794/ios-app-icon-sizes
This is detailed in Apple's Technical Q&A QA1686: App Icons on iPad and iPhone.
Since this is one of the first questions that comes up when searching for the necessary icon sizes for iOS Apps, and in the meantime, things have changed again with the appearance the new iPad ("3"), I'd like to add the currently relevant information here:
Apple has conveniently collected all the details about custom icons and images in one place now. Here goes: iOS Human Interface Guidelines: Custom Icon and Image Creation Guidelines
Our CEO wants our iPhone app's icons to look correct (ie not scaled) on both the iPad and iPhone. He does not want to actually create separate versions, or a universal version of the app. The app will remain iPhone only, but the icon would need to show up proper on both devices.
This is a "business decision", and I think its rather silly but regardless - is this possible? OR would we have to create a universal version?
No. You have to create all the 72x72 (iPad), 57x57 (iPhone) and 29x29 (Settings, if you have one) icons, if you(r boss) don't want scaling.
And you need to create a 512x512 version to submit to AppStore anyway, so I don't see a reason to avoid an extra image.
To use the 72x72 icon for iPad, see How do I specify both icons for a universal iPhone/iPad app?.