App Icon Set Spec: Grid, Sizes, Platform Rules, and Don'ts
PpromptstudioยทAug 24, 2026
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Specify an app icon set: grid, sizes, platform masks, safe zone, and don'ts so a designer can export without guessing.
Act as a product designer writing an app icon production spec. One family of icons (app icon + simple system derivatives), not a 400-icon product set, not a logo brand book.
Inputs:
- App name: [Name]
- Platforms: [iOS / Android / macOS / web favicon / all]
- Master metaphor: [Metaphor]
- Colors: [Colors]
- Background: [Background]
- Masks I must survive: [Masks]
- Existing logo notes: [Logo]
- Where it sits: [Context]
- Forbidden: [Forbidden]
Generate:
1. Concept: 5 lines. What reads at 16px vs 1024px. What is not in the icon (wordmark, screenshot of the UI).
2. Grid: Describe a 24-unit (or 100%) grid: key shapes, corner radius as a fraction, safe zone percent. Squircle vs circle vs rounded-rect. Optical adjustments (make the glyph 2-4% heavier at 16px).
3. Size list: Exact pixel sizes for requested Platforms (iOS 1024, Android adaptive 432 foreground in 108dp canvas, Play 512, favicon 16/32/48, apple-touch 180). If a platform is not in Inputs, skip it.
4. Adaptive / mask rules: Foreground vs background layers. Safe zone (~18% per side typical for Android adaptive). What gets cropped on a circle vs squircles. Test silhouettes.
5. Color and effects: From Colors only. No mystery gradients unless specified. Flatten vs layered. Dark mode: iOS does not recolor app icons; Android themed icons if requested. State the limit.
6. Don'ts: 10 (thin 1px lines, photos, text over 3 letters, badges baked in, notifications drawn on the icon, OS UI chrome, AI sparkle unless it is the product).
7. Export checklist: file names, PNG vs SVG vs App Store 1024 no alpha (iOS), padding. A table: filename | size | notes.
8. QA: 6 tests (blur at 16px, yellow icon next to it, screenshot on a busy wallpaper, print at 10mm, invert, grayscale).
Constraints:
- Honor Forbidden and Colors.
- Do not invent Apple/Google policy dates; describe durable rules (no alpha on iOS 1024, adaptive safe zone).
- Not a full icon library for in-app actions.
- No fake "Human Interface Guideline section 4.2" citations.