So far Ive been using pshotoshop4 for all my graphics and it has worked out great, Ive put the app icons off till now and I created one that I really like, but the obvious has happened and when I resize it, it looks like garbage lol.
Ive looked at hundreds if different icons in the app store and the larger ones look Exactly the same as the smaller ones... Im guessing they are all vector work?
I have extremely limited vector skills... Is there any other quality solution? Or am I better off just making each size individually?
Another question I had was about the rules of icon content, I have heard from some that they must all be exactly the same, and I have heard from others that they can vary but only ever so slightly. This is my first app submission.
as for me, what i did is zoom out the 512 image till about the same as 57x57. then I screen capture it. then i copy that image and resize it to 57x57. after that, i enhance that small image with sharpen tool and edge enhance...
still not great as vector graphics, but for me is good enough.
the 512 icon and 57 icon should be similar. slight varying is ok.. for eg, if the big one have some words on it, the small one u deleted but the main feature of icon is still there, u should be ok with it.
So far Ive been using pshotoshop4 for all my graphics and it has worked out great, Ive put the app icons off till now and I created one that I really like, but the obvious has happened and when I resize it, it looks like garbage lol.
Ive looked at hundreds if different icons in the app store and the larger ones look Exactly the same as the smaller ones... Im guessing they are all vector work?
I have extremely limited vector skills... Is there any other quality solution? Or am I better off just making each size individually?
Another question I had was about the rules of icon content, I have heard from some that they must all be exactly the same, and I have heard from others that they can vary but only ever so slightly. This is my first app submission.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Robert
Its always better to start big and work your way down. On the last app I worked on I started at the 512 x 512 size and did my design there. I then shrunk it down and did cleanup by hand to make it look good at the tiny 57 x 57 size you need for the springboard. Don't forget that you need a really small size (29x29?) in your app to, for search results. Also, the iPad uses slightly larger icon sizes (I want to say 72x72)
In hindsight, I wish I had created an even bigger size like 1024x1024 (as the other poster suggested) to start with. I developed an iPad version of the app, and wanted a splash screen (what Apple calls default.png) based on the icon, and my 512 x 512 was too small to be useable at the full 1024 x 768 size of the iPad screen.
what i did for mine was to make the large (512x512) icon in illustrator (for outlines and as a "sketch") and photoshop (for finishing details and texture).
after finishing the large icon, i just turned off the text layers and whatnot and shrunk the image size down to 57x57 in photoshop. saved that for web, and now, i've got my two similar icons of different sizes.
well, i can't answer you directly, but the easy way to get that answer as far as i'm concerned is to bring up an app page in itunes and screen cap the icon...then look at it in a paint program: problem solved!
Best way to make app icons?
Linear Mode
