Mac App Store Screenshots: Sizes, Rules and Design Tips

Mac App Store screenshots must be one of four 16:10 landscape sizes: 1280 × 800, 1440 × 900, 2560 × 1600 or 2880 × 1800 pixels. App Store Connect requires at least one screenshot for a Mac app and accepts up to ten, as JPEG or PNG without transparency. If you only make one size, make it 2880 × 1800.

The rules are simpler than iPhone's. Getting a clean capture at exactly the right size is harder, because most Macs don't have a 16:10 screen any more. Here's how to handle both, and how a Mac set should differ from an iPhone one.

Mac App Store screenshot sizes

Apple's screenshot specifications list one Mac slot, required for Mac apps, with four accepted sizes:

The rest of the rules match the other Apple platforms:

• At least 1 and up to 10 screenshots.
• .jpeg, .jpg or .png, with no alpha channel or transparency.
• Landscape only. There are no portrait Mac sizes.

Content rules are the same too. Apple's App Review Guideline 2.3.3 says screenshots should show the app in use, not merely the title art, login page or splash screen. Our breakdown of why Apple rejects screenshots applies to Mac as much as iPhone. For iPhone, iPad and Android sizes, see the screenshot size reference.

How many Mac screenshots should you upload?

Apple requires one and allows ten. There's no published guidance on the ideal number, so it comes down to how much your app has to show. A single-purpose utility can make its case in three; a pro app with several workspaces may want all ten.

Whatever the count, the first screenshot does the most work, because it's the one most people see. The same principles from our post on the first App Store screenshot apply: lead with the outcome, show the app doing its main job, and make the headline readable at a glance.

Window or full-screen captures?

Both are allowed, as long as the final file is an accepted size. In practice, window captures are easier to get right.

Why full-screen captures are awkward

A full-screen capture is only usable as-is if the display is 16:10 at an accepted resolution. Many current Macs aren't: MacBook models with a notch have a taller-than-16:10 panel, and most external monitors are 16:9. A full-screen capture also brings along the menu bar clock, your other menu bar icons and whatever notifications arrive.

Capturing a single window cleanly

macOS's screencapture command handles this. These flags come from its built-in usage text:

# Click a window to capture it, without its drop shadow, and no shutter sound
screencapture -w -o -x ~/Desktop/01-main.png

# Same, after a 5-second delay (time to open a menu or hover state)
screencapture -w -o -x -T 5 ~/Desktop/02-menu.png

# Capture an exact screen rectangle (x,y,width,height)
screencapture -x -R 0,25,1440,900 ~/Desktop/03-rect.png

-w limits the interactive capture to window selection, -o drops the window shadow, -x silences the sound and -T sets a delay. Keep the shadow if the window will sit on a background in your design; drop it if you plan to add your own.

Getting exactly 2880 × 1800

On a Retina Mac, one point is two pixels. Resize your app's window to 1440 × 900 points and a shadowless window capture comes out at 2880 × 1800 pixels, ready to upload with no resizing. You can set the size from your app in a debug build, or with AppleScript (Terminal needs Accessibility permission in System Settings for this):

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "MyApp" to set size of front window to {1440, 900}'

Check the result with sips -g pixelWidth -g pixelHeight 01-main.png before uploading. If the PNG carries an alpha channel, convert it with sips -s format jpeg 01-main.png --out 01-main.jpg.

Clean up the desktop first

• Turn on Do Not Disturb so no notification banners land in a shot.
• Hide desktop icons if any of the desktop will show. In recent macOS versions that's in System Settings under Desktop & Dock; from Terminal, defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false && killall Finder (set it back to true afterwards).
• Use a neutral wallpaper, or a solid colour, so translucent sidebars and toolbars don't pick up a busy photo behind them.
• Load realistic data. Real-looking documents, projects or messages, not "Untitled 3". Our guide to clean simulator screenshots has ideas for seeding demo data that carry over to Mac.
• Pick an appearance and stick to it. Light or dark, but consistent across the set unless you're deliberately showing both.

If you're automating captures, fastlane can help on Mac too. Our post on fastlane snapshot and frameit covers the setup, including how frameit handles Mac screenshots with a background image and an offset rather than a device frame.

Mac Catalyst and iPad apps on the Mac

There are two ways an iOS codebase reaches the Mac App Store, and they treat screenshots differently.

Apple's App Store Connect help notes one thing worth knowing: if an iOS app is on the Mac App Store this way and you later release a macOS app on the same record, the macOS app replaces it there. That's the point where you'll need a Mac screenshot set.

For a Catalyst app, don't reuse your iPad screenshots resized to 16:10. The Mac version has a menu bar, resizable windows and pointer interactions, and the screenshots should show the app as Mac users will see it. Our iPad screenshot guide covers the iPad set separately.

How a Mac set differs from an iPhone set

An iPhone screenshot is a tall canvas with a phone in the middle and a headline on top. A Mac screenshot is wide, and the thing inside it is a window full of small UI. A few adjustments tend to work:

• Put the headline beside the window, or above a cropped one. On a 16:10 canvas, a headline in the left third with the window bleeding off the right edge often reads better than a small window under a strip of text.
• Crop in. A full app window at thumbnail size is mostly unreadable. Zoom into the part that matters, such as an inspector panel, a timeline or a single document, and let the rest fall off the edge.
• Show Mac-only strengths. Multiple windows, keyboard shortcuts, a menu bar extra, drag and drop between apps, a large canvas. These are reasons someone wants the Mac version specifically.
• Skip iPhone frames. If you use a device at all, use a Mac one. Showing a phone on a Mac listing confuses what the person is downloading.
• Keep headlines short. The canvas is bigger, but the screenshot is still seen small in search results and on the product page. The same copywriting rules apply.

Localizing Mac screenshots

Mac screenshots are localized per language in App Store Connect, the same as iPhone ones. If your app is translated, capture the localized UI as well as translating the headlines. A German headline over an English window looks unfinished. Two Mac-specific details:

• Switch the app's language without changing your Mac. macOS lets you set a per-app language in System Settings under General, then Language & Region, so you can capture each language without touching your own system language.
• Watch window widths. Translated labels in toolbars and sidebars are often longer, and a window sized for English can truncate them. Check every language at the 1440 × 900 point window size before capturing.

Our guide to localizing App Store screenshots covers which languages to prioritize and what to adapt beyond the words.

Designing the set

You can lay out a Mac set in any design tool: create 2880 × 1800 frames, drop in your window captures and export at 1x. Our guide to App Store screenshots in Figma walks through the component setup, and it carries over directly to Mac sizes.

In Launch Shots, the editor includes MacBook Pro and MacBook Air device frames, and you can type any canvas width and height, so a 2880 × 1800 Mac canvas works. The built-in size presets are iPhone, iPad and Android, though, so for Mac you set the size yourself.

Mac App Store screenshot checklist

• Every file is 1280 × 800, 1440 × 900, 2560 × 1600 or 2880 × 1800 pixels; 2880 × 1800 preferred.
• Between 1 and 10 screenshots, JPEG or PNG, no transparency.
• Window captures with screencapture -w -o -x, from a 1440 × 900 point window on a Retina Mac.
• Do Not Disturb on, desktop icons hidden, neutral wallpaper, realistic data, one appearance throughout.
• Catalyst app: its own Mac set. iPad app on Apple silicon: no separate Mac set needed.
• Headlines short and beside the window; crop into the UI; show what only the Mac version does.