Things you have to provide for your iOS apps, Icons and Launch images

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

I’ve spent some time tonight trying to figure out what exactly you should provide for icons and launch images when creating a iOS application especially if it will run on multiple devices such as IPad, IPhone, IPhone 4 and iPad touch. Here is what I have come up with. I will be creating a similar list for the Android OS devices.

ICONS

When iOS displays your application icon on the Home screen of a device, it automatically adds the following visual effects:
Rounded corners
Drop shadow
Reflective shine (unless you prevent the shine effect)

Ensure your icon is eligible for the visual enhancements iOS provides. You should produce an image that:
Has 90° corners (have all pixels filled in)
Does not have any shine or gloss (unless you’ve chosen to prevent the addition of the reflective shine)
Does not use alpha transparency (have all pixels filled in)

AppIcon_ipad.png - The icon used on the ipad 72x72
AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch.png - The icon used on iPhone and iPodTouch 57x57
AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch@2x.png - The icon used on iPhone and iPodTouch with retina displays 114x114
SettingsSearchIcon.png - The icon displayed in conjunction with search results on iPhone and iPod touch. This icon is also used by the Settings

application on all devices. 29x29
SettingsSearchIcon@2x.png - The icon displayed in conjunction with search results on iPhone and iPod touch with retina displays. This icon is

also used by the Settings application on all devices (not supported on iPad). 58x58
SearchIcon_ipad.png - This is the icon displayed in conjunction with search results on iPad. 50x50 don’t draw in the outter 1 pixel of the edges.

for the Info.plist of apps running under iOS 3.2 or later use:

CFBundleIconFiles=
{
AppIcon_ipad,
AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch,
AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch@2x,
SettingsSearchIcon,
SettingsSearchIcon@2x,
SearchIcon_ipad
}

for running under iOS 3.1.3 or ealier the app looks for specific named files:

Icon.png - The icon used on iPhone and iPodTouch 57x57
Icon-72.png - The icon used on the ipad 72x72
Icon-Small.png - The icon displayed in conjunction with search results on iPhone and iPod touch. This icon is also used by the Settings

application on all devices. 29x29
Icon-Small-50.png - This is the icon displayed in conjunction with search results on iPad. 50x50 don’t draw in the outter 1 pixel of the edges.

The use of fixed filenames for your application icons is for compatibility with earlier versions of iOS only. Even if you use these fixed icon

filenames, your application should continue to include the CFBundleIconFiles key in its Info.plist if it is able to run in iOS 3.2 and later. In

iOS 3.2 and earlier, the system looks for icons with the fixed filenames first. In iOS 4 and later, the system looks for icons in the

CFBundleIconFiles key first.
LAUNCH IMAGES

When it launches an application, the system temporarily displays a static launch image on the screen. Your application provides this image, with

the image contents usually containing a prerendered version of your application’s default user interface. The purpose of this image is to give

the user immediate feedback that the application launched but it also gives your application time to initialize itself and prepare its initial

set of views for display. Once your application is ready to run, the system removes the image and displays your application’s windows and views.

Default.png - Launch image for iPhone and iPod touch 320x480
Default@2x.png - Launch image for iPhone and iPod touch with retina displays 640x960
Default-Landscape.png - Launch image for iPad landscape mode 1024x748
Default-Portrait.png - Launch image for iPad portrait mode 768x1004
[import]uid: 26874 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 305585[/import]

#2

Brilliant! Thank you for posting this. Now I’ve got a checklist! Looking forward to the Android version.

Cheers! [import]uid: 20687 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 18973[/import]

#3

Thanks for the info, perhaps this could be tidied up a bit and add to the Corona docs.

You might also like to mention the iTunesArtwork graphic 512*512, PNG format but NO extension if you want the application to show correctly in iTunes during development. [import]uid: 9371 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 18986[/import]

#4

@dweezil - ah yes I thought I had that in there I’ll add it to the first post [import]uid: 26874 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 19043[/import]

#5

Well I guess I’ll add it here since the forum software is broken for editing existing posts.

More Icon requirements:

iTunesArtwork - used in iTunes 512x512 note that there is NO file extension
iTunesArtwork.png - used in the app store, you provide this for the app store image 512x512 [import]uid: 26874 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 19044[/import]

#6

@chrisbryantguitar - Yeah I was getting confused so I decided to give myself a check list. I made blank versions of all of the files so I can just copy them in to any new projects. [import]uid: 26874 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 19045[/import]

#7

Is there a tidied version of your doc? Really useful, but a bit tricky to read.

Thanks,

Matt. [import]uid: 8271 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 25111[/import]

#8

Btw, this page is useful, too:

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/IconsImages/IconsImages.html [import]uid: 8271 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 25374[/import]

#9

Might be worth mentioning that the CFBundleIconFiles block in @zparticle 's post should have it’s entries wrapped in double quotes or the build will fail immediately. Eg:

[lua]settings =
{
orientation =
{
default = “portrait”,
supported = { “portrait”, “portraitUpsideDown”, }
},
iphone =
{
plist =
{
UIApplicationExitsOnSuspend = true,
CFBundleIconFiles = {
“AppIcon_ipad”,
“AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch”,
“AppIcon_iphone_ipodtouch@2x”,
“SettingsSearchIcon”,
“SettingsSearchIcon@2x”,
“SearchIcon_ipad”
},
}
},
}[/lua] [import]uid: 8271 topic_id: 5585 reply_id: 28542[/import]