Mac App Store Screenshots: How to Design Them Well

Quick answer: Mac App Store screenshots must be 16:10 landscape, and 2880 × 1800 pixels gives the sharpest result. Design them around your real app window: place it on a calm branded background or inside a MacBook frame, add a short headline, and zoom into small UI details so they're readable. Capture windows without their transparent shadow and export flattened JPEG or PNG.

Mac apps need at least one screenshot and can have up to 10 per localization. Every screenshot must be landscape with a 16:10 aspect ratio, in one of four sizes: 2880 × 1800, 2560 × 1600, 1440 × 900 or 1280 × 800 pixels. Use 2880 × 1800 so your images stay crisp on Retina displays. The Mac screenshot size guide has the details, including Apple TV and Vision Pro sizes.

Mac app previews follow the same orientation rule: Apple accepts macOS previews in landscape only.

The rest of this guide is about design. Mac screenshots work differently from iPhone ones because the canvas is wide, the UI is dense and shoppers often browse on a large display where details are visible.

Most Mac screenshots use one of these patterns. Pick one and use it consistently across the set.

The window-on-background layout is the most flexible. It shows authentic macOS chrome, including the traffic-light buttons and toolbar, without the visual noise of a cluttered desktop. A MacBook frame adds context but shrinks your UI, so use it for simpler interfaces.

Mac shoppers want to see that your app feels at home on the desktop. Choose screens that highlight Mac-specific strengths your app actually supports:

• Rich windows. Sidebars, toolbars, inspectors and multi-pane layouts.
• Keyboard power. Command palettes, shortcuts and text-heavy workflows.
• Menu bar presence. Quick access from the menu bar, if your app lives there.
• Multiple windows. Side-by-side documents, detachable panels or picture-in-picture.
• Drag and drop. Files, images or text moving into and out of your app.
• Dark and light appearance. Show the appearance that suits your app best, and consider one screen with the other.

Avoid putting other platforms' devices or names in your Mac screenshots. Apple's Guideline 2.3.10 asks that metadata stay focused on the Apple platforms your app supports.

Desktop interfaces use small text, and a full-screen 2880 × 1800 capture scaled down to a product page thumbnail turns menus and labels into noise. Fix that in three ways:

1. Capture a smaller window. A window around 1200 × 750 points captured on a Retina Mac is about 2400 × 1500 pixels, which sits on a 2880 × 1800 canvas with room for a headline and margins, at nearly native resolution.
2. Magnify what matters. Add a zoomed callout or lens over the button, chart or field the headline talks about. The full window proves authenticity; the zoom delivers the message.
3. Use large headlines. On a 2880 px wide canvas, headlines around 150–200 px tall stay legible when the screenshot is scaled down. Keep them to one or two lines, placed above the window or in the left third.

Increase content density only where it helps. A realistic, well-populated document or dashboard looks credible; an overloaded one looks like work.

1. Prepare demo data. Use fictional names, files and accounts. Apple's Guideline 2.3.9 asks for fictional account information instead of a real person's data.
2. Tidy the desktop and menu bar. Hide unrelated menu bar icons, close other apps and turn on Do Not Disturb so no notifications appear.
3. Capture the window. Press Shift-Command-4, then Space, then click the window. Hold Option while you click to exclude the window shadow.
4. Mind the transparency. Window captures are PNGs with transparent corners (and a transparent shadow if you keep it). Place them on a background and export a flattened image, because App Store screenshots can't include alpha channels. Our guide to removing the alpha channel shows how.
5. Pick SDR on recent macOS. On supported Macs, the Screenshot app (Shift-Command-5) can capture HDR images in HEIF format. Choose the SDR PNG option instead, since App Store Connect accepts JPEG and PNG.
6. Export at an accepted size. Compose on a 2880 × 1800 canvas and export JPEG or PNG without transparency. The free screenshot size checker confirms the slot and flags alpha.

• Full-screen captures of a busy desktop. Personal files, wallpapers and unrelated windows distract and may include content you don't have rights to.
• iPad screens presented as Mac. If you ship a native Mac version, show the Mac interface with its real window chrome.
• Unreadable UI with no zoom. If a shopper can't see what the headline describes, add a callout.
• Wrong aspect ratio. A 16:9 export won't upload; Mac screenshots must be 16:10.
• Headlines in tiny type. Mac screenshots are wide but still shrink in listings. Use the sizing rules from our fonts for App Store screenshots guide.

For the overall process of planning a screenshot story, writing headlines and exporting, see how to make App Store screenshots. If you also want product shots for your website, the free device mockup generator exports a MacBook frame as a transparent PNG.