iPad App Store Screenshots: A Design Guide for Bigger Screens

Quick answer: iPad App Store screenshots should show your real iPad interface, such as sidebars, multi-column layouts, Apple Pencil or keyboard use, rather than an iPhone layout stretched to fit. If your app supports iPad, App Store Connect requires at least one 13-inch screenshot (2064 × 2752 or 2048 × 2732 pixels), and smaller iPads are scaled from it. Design for the wider 3:4 canvas.

If your app supports iPad, App Store Connect requires at least one screenshot for the iPad 13-inch display. The accepted sizes are 2064 × 2752 or 2048 × 2732 pixels in portrait, or the same sizes rotated for landscape. 11-inch and older iPad sizes are optional and scaled from your 13-inch set if you don't upload them.

If your build targets iPhone only, App Store Connect doesn't ask for iPad screenshots. For every accepted iPad size and device list, see the iPad screenshot size guide. This article focuses on the design side: what to show and how to lay it out.

The biggest difference is shape. An iPhone screenshot is roughly 9:19.5, while an iPad screenshot is 3:4, so it's much wider relative to its height. Reusing a phone design creates three common problems:

• Empty space. A phone-shaped device centered on a wide iPad canvas leaves big blank margins.
• Tiny text. Scaling a phone layout to fill the width can make headlines and UI oversized in one direction and cramped in the other.
• The wrong product. An iPhone UI inside an iPad frame tells shoppers they're getting a blown-up phone app.

That last point is also a review risk. Apple's Guideline 2.3.3 asks that screenshots show the app in use, and a stretched or modified iPhone image presented as iPad is a commonly reported reason for metadata rejections. Capture your iPad screens on an iPad or the iPad simulator.

iPad shoppers want proof that your app takes advantage of the big screen. Pick screens that a phone couldn't show:

1. Multi-column layouts. A sidebar, list and detail view at once shows the extra space at work.
2. Apple Pencil. Drawing, handwriting, annotating PDFs or marking up photos. Apple's guidelines explicitly allow overlays that demonstrate input such as Apple Pencil.
3. Keyboard and trackpad use. Writing, coding, spreadsheets or shortcuts, ideally in landscape.
4. Multitasking. Your app side by side with content, or drag and drop between views, if your app supports it.
5. Large canvases. Maps, timelines, boards, dashboards or documents that benefit from size.
6. Content consumption. Reading, video and photo browsing at a size that feels immersive.

Your iPad order doesn't have to match your iPhone order. If iPad users mostly come for the editor or the dashboard, lead with that, even if the iPhone set opens with a quick capture feature.

Because the canvas is wide, you have more layout options than on iPhone:

• Headline above, device below. The classic layout, but give the device most of the width so the UI stays readable.
• Side-by-side (landscape). Headline and subtitle on the left third, a landscape iPad on the right. This suits productivity and creative apps.
• Frameless full-bleed. Skip the device and show the UI edge to edge with a headline band on top. It gives you the most UI per pixel.
• Zoomed detail. Show the full iPad screen small and a magnified callout of the key control, which helps when iPad UI text is too small to read.
• Device plus accessory. An iPad Pro frame with an Apple Pencil or keyboard tells the input story instantly.

Whichever layout you choose, keep it consistent across the set and keep headlines large. The 13-inch canvas is 2064 px wide in portrait, so headline sizes that look big on iPhone may need to scale up proportionally. Our guide to fonts for App Store screenshots explains how to size text for thumbnails.

Choose the orientation people actually use. Many iPad apps are used in landscape with a keyboard, while reading, social and kids apps are often portrait.

• Landscape suits note-taking with a keyboard, video editing, spreadsheets, dashboards, games and drawing apps with wide canvases.
• Portrait suits reading, recipes, magazines, chat and anything held in the hand.

Your iPad set can use a different orientation from your iPhone set, because each device size has its own gallery. Read landscape vs portrait App Store screenshots for how each orientation appears in search results.

1. Use the right simulator. In Xcode, run an iPad Pro 13-inch or iPad Air 13-inch simulator so your captures match the required size. Our guide to Xcode simulator screenshots covers the shortcuts and commands.
2. Clean the status bar. Set the time, battery and signal before capturing, for example with xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --time 9:41 --batteryState charged --batteryLevel 100.
3. Fill it with realistic demo content. Wide layouts expose empty states quickly, so populate lists, boards and documents with believable, fictional data.
4. Capture both orientations if you'll use them. Rotate the simulator rather than rotating a portrait image later.
5. Export without transparency. iPad screenshots follow the same rules as iPhone: JPEG or PNG, flattened, no alpha channel.

For the full end-to-end process, from story to export, see how to make App Store screenshots.