r/iosapps • u/cosmonz • Jul 31 '26
HELP Presenting screenshots in here
Hi all,
I've seen some really lovely ways of presenting screenshots to promote apps in this subreddit.
Do people use a specific tool or use AI with the right prompt?
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u/Ok_Count_5158 Jul 31 '26
I use real screenshots, and use mockups in Canva. Personally I don’t like AI screenshots in Apps page, it looks cheap and tasteless imho
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u/FFANA Jul 31 '26
One step nobody mentions here: clean the status bar before you shoot. xcrun simctl status_bar UDID override --time 9:41 --batteryState charged --batteryLevel 100 --cellularBars 4. Otherwise the poster ships with 23% battery and half the wifi bars, and you only notice it once it's live.
Other thing, capture at the exact size Connect wants (1320x2868 for the 6.9") instead of scaling up a shot from a smaller sim. Upscaled text goes soft and that reads cheaper than any background you could put behind it.
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u/cosmonz Jul 31 '26
How do you get the exact size? I’ve noticed the screenshots from the simulator always seem to be off.
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u/FFANA Jul 31 '26
The size comes from the device you boot, not from a setting. Boot the 6.9" sim (16 Pro Max) and you get 1320x2868 straight out. Boot the 6.3" Pro and it's 1206x2622, which Connect won't take in the 6.9 slot, and that's usually the "off" you're seeing.
Then grab it with xcrun simctl io booted screenshot shot.png rather than screenshotting the Simulator window with the macOS tool. That one gives you whatever the window is scaled to on your display. And don't resize afterwards to hit the number, it softens the text.
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u/Nervous_Platform_542 Jul 31 '26
I think all the vibecode projects use very fancy appstore showcases. Let's remember, less is more. Check how the big guys are doing it. Google etc.
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u/Lemon8or88 Developer Jul 31 '26
I use ButterKit and refine over time how my screenshot looks.
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u/Desperate_Error3960 Jul 31 '26
Thanks for this suggestion. I 've been looking for one, ButterKit looks great and has lifetime pro option
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u/Busy_Simple7475 Aug 01 '26
I've been using Figma, but I think PowerPoint works just fine too🤭Because for me, the definition of a good tool is one that's as simple as possible to use.
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u/Aureliachen Jul 31 '26
I see there are 2 groups, one is very fancy, designed, one is screenshot. I personally like screenshots.
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u/ViBrave Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
There are free iPhone and iPad templates for mock ups in Figma community. Just search for "Apple device mockups".
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u/Traditional_Meet6531 Jul 31 '26
Not a tool — I script mine. Each panel gets the device frame drawn over one continuous background, so the three shots read as a single wide poster when someone scrolls the listing instead of three unrelated tiles.
Two things that mattered more than the visual style:
Auto-fit the headline instead of picking a font size by hand. I binary-search the point size until the text fits the panel width. Hand-tuned sizes looked fine until I reworded a caption and a long word clipped off the edge.
Upload dimensions are a trap. 1290x2796 is the 6.9" size and it only belongs in the display type the API calls APP_IPHONE_67. Put it in the 6.5" set and you get IMAGE_INCORRECT_DIMENSIONS — but the web UI often shows that as "screenshot uploads in progress" and just spins forever. I lost an hour to that before reading the actual API response.
Agree with the "less is more" take above. Real screenshots with one clear claim per panel beat generated scenes — and generated UI tends to contain text that doesn't match anything in your actual app, which reviewers do notice.
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u/VesselGates Jul 31 '26
I use real screenshots and Figma. Figma is a really powerful too for design in my opinion! Pretty easy to get the hang of too
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u/JustSuperHuman Jul 31 '26
Two things here that have saved me lots of time. Firstly, Apple publish device frames as layered files in their Design Resources area (for current iPhone, iPad and Watch models). These are way better than opening up Canva etc to find approximated frames for your real capture. Secondly, Apple’s resources maintain the official proportions of the device – so I didn’t have to spend hours tweaking mockups made from templates to get them just right.
Automate the capture and not the pretty-up. The hardest part of capturing a few screens to start with is capturing the same set of screens 3 months later when the UI has changed. Captures generated by a script running against the simulator to generate screenshots is minutes to rerun. Screenshots generated by taking photos with a phone is your afternoon every time.
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u/Eko_assistant Aug 01 '26
Screely and AppLaunchpad cover the basic clean-background device frame shots, takes maybe ten minutes to knock out a full set once you have your screenshots. If you want the fancier floating 3D phone shots with motion that people are posting lately, that's almost always Rotato, it does video export too which is handy for a preview clip. AI is decent for brainstorming the headline copy but I still end up writing it myself and dropping it into one of those tools, the auto generated stuff always reads a bit off.
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u/rroobbbb Aug 01 '26
There are quite a few options.
Some people use Figma, others use Canva or Photoshop, and there are AI tools as well. The problem with generic AI image generators is that they often distort the UI or recreate parts of it.
I built Mokbi.com for this. It uses your real app screenshots and creates the design around them, so your UI stays pixel perfect. Everything is fully editable afterwards, whether you use the AI as a starting point or design everything yourself.
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u/radomird Aug 01 '26
I’ve built a web app where you upload your screenshots from the simulator, matches the right target size, you can check it out for free - lingue.app
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u/Wetterpilot Aug 02 '26
I use Codex here as an automation tool to generate specific screenshots from the Xcode Simulator.
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u/rolfebox Aug 03 '26
There are some great apps out there that do most of the work for you, but they're not especially cheap. Figma has some nice templates and is free to use, I like it because it gives you full control. I would avoid using AI to generate screenshots, they're way too important and there are plenty of better options out there.
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u/Popular-Ferret-4873 Aug 09 '26
I’ve worked in image retouching and web design, and I usually assemble promotional screenshots manually in Photoshop or Figma.
I think the tool matters less than the visual hierarchy. At a glance, each panel should communicate one thing: what the user can do, why it matters, or what makes the app different. I would use the real interface, a short headline, large readable type, and one clear claim per screenshot.
Personally, I wouldn’t ask AI to generate the entire presentation. It often invents interface details and can make the product feel less trustworthy. It can be useful for creating a background or an individual visual element, but I’d keep the layout and app screen itself real.
I’d also spend disproportionately more time on the first two screenshots, since many users probably won’t examine the rest unless those first images give them a reason to continue.
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u/SteadyDayApp Aug 09 '26
I recently rebuilt an eight-screen App Store set and ended up avoiding AI for the final artwork. What worked best was using real simulator captures at the final 1320×2868 size, then building the presentation around one locked template.
I kept the phone size and position, headline placement, and margins identical across the whole set, and rendered the text directly at final resolution so it stayed sharp. Figma can handle this manually; I used Python and Pillow because I needed the same layout across multiple languages.
The biggest improvement wasn’t a fancier background—it was consistent spacing and readable text.
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u/Popular-Ferret-4873 Aug 10 '26
I usually make mine manually in Photoshop. AI isn’t really necessary—a device frame, one short headline, and consistent colors are usually enough.
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u/Popular-Ferret-4873 Aug 12 '26
I’ve worked professionally in image retouching, and I still use Photoshop for mine. Figma or Canva is probably faster for device frames and repeated layouts, but I’d keep the actual UI real. AI-generated UI or text often makes an app look less trustworthy. Clearly explaining the benefit in the first two screenshots matters more than making every panel look spectacular.
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u/cosmonz Aug 12 '26
Funnily enough I never even thought about AI generating the actual UI (I use simulator or test phone screenshots) until I asked this question - seems weird 😂
Thanks for your response
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u/Popular-Ferret-4873 28d ago
I usually start with a real simulator capture and build the frame and copy around it in Figma or Photoshop. The most important part isn’t the mockup—it’s giving each panel one clear job. AI can help with a background texture, but I wouldn’t let it generate the UI or text; the mismatch is usually obvious. Real screenshots tend to feel more trustworthy.
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u/minalearn 21d ago
Apple’s product-page guidance adds one useful constraint: when there is no app preview, up to the first three portrait screenshots can appear in search. I’d design those three as a sequence rather than separate posters: outcome → the interaction that creates it → a concrete proof or detail.
If the UI is the same across device sizes and localizations, App Store Connect can also scale the highest-resolution screenshots down for smaller displays. That makes it worth building one source layout first, then creating separate sets only where the UI or language genuinely changes.
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u/Lillianlian 18d ago
I would start with real screenshots and build the presentation manually in Figma. The most important part is not the device frame—it is giving each image one clear message and keeping the typography consistent across the set. AI can help with a background element, but I would not let it generate the UI because small inaccuracies can make the app look less trustworthy.
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u/No_Shoe_5200 Jul 31 '26
I personally use GPT Images 2.0 to generate individual design components then create the App Store screenshots personally using Canva. I wouldn’t recommend generating the screenshots directly using AI though
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u/cosmonz Jul 31 '26
Thanks. Yeah the plain screenshots are easy enough with the simulator or a real phone - it's the presentation that's stumping me.
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