Common iPhone Application Icon Dimensions

iPhone apps – common icon dimensions

When I first started producing icons and graphic elements for iPhone or iPod apps I couldn’t seem to find a single place that listed all of the required icon sizes used throughout the standard GUI elements such as iPhone tab-bar icons and menu icons.

I hope you find the following list of sizes helpful:

Application icon: 57 x 57 pixels

This is the icon size we are most familiar with and is used to launch the app.

 

iTunes app icon: 512 x 512 pixels

This is the large icon size used in the iTunes app store.

 

Spotlight search results icon: 29 x 29 Pixels

This is used in the results from a spotlight search. If no specific icon is created for this purpose, the main app icon is automatically scaled down to this smaller icon size which can give mixed results, so it is worth doing this properly and providing an individual file.

These three icon should be as close to identical as possible, to maintain the brand you are trying to create.

Tips:

• Apple automatically adds the rounded corners to your iTunes and iPhone app icons so you don’t need to worry about that.
• Apple automatically adds the ‘gloss’ to the iTunes icon but you can prevent the gloss being added to the iPhone app icon by specifying ‘UIPrerenderedIcon’ in your applications ‘info.plist’. However you will need to make sure that the icon you submit still looks okay with the standard gloss applied in the iTunes store. If you have applied your own gloss or finish to the app icon you will need to add a ‘glossless’ version to the iTunes store icon.
• The 512 x 512 pixel iTunes icon needs to be submitted as a JPG, whilst the 57 x 57 pixel iPhone app icon should be a transparent PNG.

Common GUI icon sizes

Menu icons: 30 x 30 pixels

These are the icons, monochrome by default, used in some of the menus as seen below.

 

 

Tab-bar icons: 30 x 30 Pixels

These are the monochrome icons used in the black tab-bar at the bottom of iPhone applications.

 

Tips:

• You only need to submit a single icon for each tab in the tab-bar icons and Apple automatically applies the ‘selected’ affect (blue highlight and contrasting background).
• Use a transparent PNG file for both of the above icon types but do consider that the tab-icon will have an effect applied and what it might look like, so it is best to make the design as simple as possible.
• The tab-bar icon works on the transparency within the image so it doesn’t matter what colour the ‘solid’ are of the design is, only the transparency is affected by the various states.

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