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Apple Now Requiring iPhone Developers to Submit Retina Screenshots

Tuesday February 7, 2012 11:40 am PST by Eric Slivka
Apple today notified members of its iOS Developer Program of a new requirement that all screenshots being submitted for iPhone and iPod touch apps in the App Store must meet Retina resolution requirements, which come in at 960x640 on those devices. Any updates to existing apps must also include Retina screenshots, if they are not already present, before the updates will be approved by Apple.
Required iPhone & iPod touch Screenshot Upgrade for Retina Display

When you create or update your apps in iTunes Connect, you must upload screenshots that are high-resolution. We require your screenshots as high-resolution images so that your app is optimized for the Retina display.

The requirements for high-resolution images are 960 x 640, 960 x 600, 640 x 960, or 640 x 920 pixels. Images must be at least 72 dpi, in the RGB color space, and the file must be .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff, or .png. You can update your screenshot files at any time in iTunes Connect.
Apple has long supported the inclusion of Retina screenshots for iPhone and iPod touch apps but has not required them, instead allowing developers to continue using non-Retina 480x320 screenshots that are then scaled up for viewing up on Retina devices. But with Retina displays having been included in the iPhone and iPod touch since 2010, the company clearly feels that developers should have already moved to the higher resolution and will not allow developers to update their apps going forward without making the necessary screenshot changes.

The iPad 3 is expected to appear within the next few months carrying a higher-resolution display that will utilize the same ideas as with the iPhone and iPod touch, doubling the display resolution in each dimension to 2048x1536 to allow for sharper content while easily maintaining compatibility with lower-resolution apps using pixel doubling. Apple is of course not yet soliciting developers for high-resolution versions of their existing iPad app screenshots, but enforcement of higher-resolution iPhone and iPod touch screenshot requirements will also make those App Store images appear sharper on both current and future iPads.
[ 51 comments ]

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jent
Posted: 17 months ago
This is a tangential rant, but I wish Apple would enforce the fact that the Screenshots sections should feature screenshots and not "banners" that overlay a bunch of cheesy graphics advertising why the app is so great. There should be a separate section for banners/ads/promotional material.
Rating: 18 Positives
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Sneakz
Posted: 17 months ago
No excuse. They had over a year and a half to update. They should have known this date would come.
Rating: 16 Positives
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ArtOfWarfare
Posted: 17 months ago
Amazingly, I actually know some developers this will cause troubles for (they did their graphics entirely as bitmaps sized for the 320x480 screen.)

I, on the other hand, have been using retina graphics all along. (I actually had more of an issue when some non-retina users pointed out some things didn't look good scaled down.)
Rating: 7 Positives
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shurcooL
Posted: 17 months ago

[iPad 3] doubling the display resolution in each dimension to 2560x1920 to allow for sharper content while easily maintaining compatibility with lower-resolution apps using pixel doubling.

Wtf? Doubled is 2048x1536. The resolution of iPad 1/2 is not 1280x960, it's 1024x768.
Rating: 6 Positives
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acfusion29
Posted: 17 months ago
good.. about time! i store my non-retina apps in a folder. doesn't flow nice with the rest of the apps on the screen.
Rating: 6 Positives
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jayhawk11
Posted: 17 months ago
Fedirico Viticci over at MacStories posted this earlier, but I echo his sentiment. I think this is just house-cleaning to get ready to ditch the iPhone 3GS.
Rating: 5 Positives
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SiriusExcelsior
Posted: 17 months ago
Am I the only one who got an initial mental image of devs having to scan their eyes and submit that with their apps? :D
Rating: 4 Positives
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redscull
Posted: 17 months ago
Can't a dev just use any old paintshop program to increase image size by 2x in both dimensions? Even if the app just pixel-doubles, that'd still meet the requirement. Who's to say that's not precisely how your app is meant to look. This just seems like a silly requirement update since there's no real way to enforce that the screenshots actually look any better.
Rating: 4 Positives
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ArtOfWarfare
Posted: 17 months ago

This is a tangential rant, but I wish Apple would enforce the fact that the Screenshots sections should feature screenshots and not "banners" that overlay a bunch of cheesy graphics advertising why the app is so great. There should be a separate section for banners/ads/promotional material.


Screenshots work great for some apps, for others, not so much.

Example, Battery Status is a menubar app. What the heck do you want for a screenshot for that? I made my screen resolution as low as possible, picked a pleasant green backdrop, opened the menu, and took a picture of that. Then I labeled it with arrows and text to explain what each part was for.

Then there's the issue of taking a picture of a game. It's surprisingly really difficult to get five pictures that by themselves really show everything in a game. Often, a video would work better. Speaking of which, Apple aught to allow developers to include 30 or 60 second previews of their apps... that could often help for advertising games.
Rating: 3 Positives
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DESNOS
Posted: 17 months ago

Am I the only one who got an initial mental image of devs having to scan their eyes and submit that with their apps? :D


I did too. Fun stuff. :D
Rating: 2 Positives

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