#ios app icon

App Icon Set Spec: Grid, Sizes, Platform Rules, and Don'ts

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.