How to create App Store screenshots in Pixelmator Pro
Last updated
Last updated
For a developer publishing apps in the App Store, the app screenshots on your product page are like your digital storefront — they're one of the first things people notice when they come across your app. Pixelmator Pro makes it easy to make a great first impression with a collection of beautiful templates specifically built for showcasing apps in the App Store.
Pixelmator Pro templates are designed closely following App Store’s technical requirements and using the best design practices, so all you need to do to get a template ready for upload, is replace the placeholder images with the screenshots of your app and update the texts. You also have all the creative freedom to easily customize the templates by modifying the layouts, colors, or fonts to best reflect your app or brand identity.
In this guide, you will learn how you can use Pixelmator Pro templates to create stunning App Store screenshots quickly and easily, saving you time to perfect your app. The guide focuses on creating screenshots for iPhone apps, but the same techniques can be applied to apps running on different platforms.
Before you start creating your App Store screenshots, it can be really useful to set up a clear system for organizing all the assets you’ll be using for your project. This keeps everything neat and easy to find, which can be especially helpful when you're preparing screenshots for apps that run on a few different platforms, or apps that you plan to localize in several languages.
To make sure your assets are neatly organized, we recommend the following folder structure for your project:
Original app assets folder. This is where you'll store the original, unedited screenshots of your app.
Pixelmator Pro projects folder. This folder is for the working files — Pixelmator Pro documents you create when creating screenshots.
Exported designs folder. Here, you'll save the final versions of your App Store screenshots, ready for publishing.
You can download a ready-made template of this folder structure below:
In each folder, you can add additional sub-folders for the specific devices and screen sizes you’ll be using in your project.
When checking out upload requirements for screenshots on the App Store, you may notice that certain screenshot sizes are mandatory while others are optional. This essentially means you can publish an app by providing only the required screenshots and App Store will automatically generate and scale the optional ones to the necessary size.
For apps that run on iPhone devices, there are currently two required sizes: 6.5-inch display and 5.5-inch display screenshots. All Pixelmator Pro templates are created using the required screenshot sizes.
To find technical requirements for creating optional screenshot sizes, see Apple’s documentation on Screenshot specifications.
When you’ve got everything prepared for the project, you can start taking screenshots of your app. You can begin by identifying the most exciting features about your app that you want to show your users, then take the necessary screenshots in required display sizes. You can upload a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 10 screenshots in the App Store.
To showcase a single feature, two screenshots (i.e. two display sizes) will be necessary. In this case, we used the following devices to create the necessary screenshots:
iPhone 15 Pro was used for 6.5-inch display screenshots. Alternatively, you can use iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 11, iPhone XS Max, or iPhone XR.
iPhone SE was used for 5.5-inch display screenshots. Alternatively, you can use most models with the Home button, including iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, or iPhone 6.
You can take your app screenshots manually, using the Simulator in Xcode, or using automation services like fastlane.
In your original app assets folder, sort your app screenshots into the appropriate sub-folders you’ve created.
(Optional) If you plan to localize your app in several languages, add a sub-folder for each required localization and add app screenshots of that language to each one.
See Apple’s documentation on App Store localizations for a list of supported languages and locales.
Once you’ve gathered all your assets and arranged them into folders, it’s time to create your first App Store screenshot design. This initial design will work as a reference for any additional screenshots you create for your project, so you can maintain a consistent style throughout.
To begin designing your first screenshot, first open a new template of the required size:
Choose a template layout Open Pixelmator Pro, then click Create New Document, or choose File > New in the menu bar to open the templates browser. Next, choose the App Store templates collection from the list on the left, and select the iPhone template layout you want.
Choose a template size From the list of available template sizes, choose the “6.5-in. Display” option.
To personalize a template, you’ll need to replace its different elements — images, text, and colors — with your custom assets. There is no specific order for doing this, but we recommend replacing the placeholder image with your app screenshot first. To do this, simply click the Replace Image on-canvas icon, select one of the 6.5-inch app screenshots, then click Replace.
A status bar appears at the top of the iPhone screen, displaying the device's current status. Depending on how you took the screenshots, each screenshot may show a different time, battery level, or cellular network information.
To apply the same, default status bar across all screenshots, make the layer named "Status Bar" visible in the Layers sidebar. If you’ve taken your screenshots in Dark Mode, you can reveal the "White Fill for Dark Mode" layer to switch to a white status bar.
To hide the original status bar, you can use the Repair tool in Pixelmator Pro. Press “R” on your keyboard to activate it.
Brief descriptions in your App Store screenshots give you the opportunity to provide users with more context and information about your app in a quick and concise way.
To start editing text in a template, double-click the text placeholder on the canvas. If double-clicking the text box doesn’t work, make sure you have Auto Select turned on in the Arrange tool settings (press “V” on your keyboard to activate it).
Also, if you’re pasting in text from a different app or a web browser, use Paste and Match Style from the Edit menu to keep the original text formatting.
You can additionally format your text in the Type tool (T) options pane, by selecting a different font, size, color, alignment, spacing, etc. Or you can also use the Style tool (S) to add a variety of different styles to your text, like shadows, gradient fills, and more.
When choosing a background color for your screenshot, you can select a color combination from one of the pre-made color palettes in the Document Colors pane. You can also customize individual colors by double-clicking the color you want to change in the palette and choosing a new color using the color picker.
The device mockups in Pixelmator Pro come with a variety of gorgeous, true-to-life shadows. To add one to your design, click the Alternative Elements button on the canvas and select a shadow style you like.
For the final step of creating your first screenshot design, you’ll want to save it to your pre-made Pixelmator Pro project folder. To do so, choose File > Save and make sure Pixelmator Pro Document is selected in the Format pop-up menu, then name it and save to the appropriate project folder.
When publishing your app on the App Store, you can upload up to 10 screenshots to display your app's features. You can easily create additional screenshots by duplicating your reference template or use it to transfer styles and colors to a new template with a different layout.
If you’re looking to create some additional screenshots using your reference template, you can easily do so in three simple steps:
Duplicate the document Open your reference template, then choose File > Duplicate. Give the template a new name and save it by choosing File > Save.
Customize the template As the initial design of your reference template is ready, all you need to do to customize it is replace the screenshot, update the text, and adjust the status bar, if needed (see step 2 to learn how.)
If you’re copying and pasting text from another template, app, or web browser, always use the Paste and Match Style option from the Edit menu to keep the original text formatting.
Save the Pixelmator Pro document Choose File > Save and make sure Pixelmator Pro Document is selected in the Format pop-up menu, then save it to the appropriate Pixelmator Pro project folder.
In this section, we’ll explain how you can transfer your original template design to a different template layout. This will let you create more varied designs while keeping visual consistency throughout.
Choose a new template Choose File > New in the menu bar to open the templates browser, and this time, choose a different template using the same 6.5-in. Display size.
Customize the template Replace the placeholder screenshot, type or paste your custom text, and adjust the status bar if needed (see step 2 to learn how.)
Match the text style Open the Pixelmator Pro document with the template design you want to replicate and in the Layers sidebar select the “Headline” layer. Then, choose the Type tool (T), and in the Text Styles menu, click + to create a new text style. Next, open the new template again, select the “Headline” layer, and apply the custom text style you’ve just created.
For consistent design across all app screenshots, choose one font size that fits both longer and shorter texts in a text box without them shrinking.
Match background colors Match the background colors of two templates by simply copying the “Background Color” layer from the reference template and pasting it to the new template. Once you do that, you can then delete the original “Background Color” layer in your new template.
Save the Pixelmator Pro document Choose File > Save and make sure Pixelmator Pro Document is selected in the Format pop-up menu, then name it and save to the appropriate Pixelmator Pro project folder.
After you've made your first set of App Store screenshots for the 6.5-inch display, you'll now need to recreate the same screenshots using the 5.5-inch display size. This means you'll need to match the text styles and background colors, just like we did in step 3.2, ensuring a uniform look across all your screenshots, regardless of their size.
Choose a template and size Choose File > New in the menu bar to open the templates browser and choose any of the layouts you used to create screenshots for the 6.5-inch display, and this time, select the “5.5-in. Display” option.
Customize the template Replace the screenshot (choose one of the 5.5-inch screenshots from your original app assets folder), adjust the status bar, and match the device shadow style, if needed (see step 2 to learn how.)
Match the text style Open an equivalent 6.5-inch template from your Pixelmator Pro projects folder, and copy the “Headline” layer from the Layers sidebar. Then, paste the text layer to the Layers sidebar in the 5.5-inch template and delete the original “Headline” layer. If needed, align the pasted text using guides.
Match the background colors Open the Pixelmator Pro document with the equivalent 6.5-inch template, then copy and paste the “Background Color” layer to the 5.5-inch template. Delete the original “Background Color” layer.
Save the Pixelmator Pro document Choose File > Save and make sure Pixelmator Pro Document is selected in the Format pop-up menu, then save the document to the appropriate Pixelmator Pro project folder for the 5.5-inch display screenshots.
Once you have finished creating screenshots for all the display sizes, you will need to export them to the PNG file format and upload to the App Store. Depending on the size of your project, there could be a considerable number of screenshots that need exporting, which can be time-consuming. To make the process quick and easy, we have created a dedicated Shortcuts workflow that lets you export all your screenshots in just a few simple steps:
Download and add the Shortcut to your Shortcuts library:
In the Shortcuts app, choose Shortcuts > Settings > Advanced and make sure “Allow Deleting Without Confirmation” is selected there.
To convert your App Store project files from Pixelmator Pro document format to PNG, these files need to be duplicated and later deleted. Step 2 is necessary to avoid repeated file deletion confirmations. No important data will be lost.
In your your main project folder, Control-click the Project folder with your PXD designs, and run the "Export All Screenshots" shortcut. When prompted, select the Export folder in your main project folder.
When you run the export shortcut for the first time, you will need to grant it a few privacy permissions to access and manage files in your export folders. Choose “Always Allow” in each permission dialog. After this initial setup, no further permissions will be required when exporting.
Upload the exported screenshot to the App Store manually, or using automated upload services such as fastlane.
