Choosing the right icon size for various operating systems (iOS, Microsoft, Android) is important, but it may also cause headaches, depression, and other unpleasant side effects. This may negatively affect the cost of design and quality of a product as a whole. So, we decided to help you and make this summary.

You can scroll down the page to a specific operating system by clicking the links.

iOS 9	58×58, 80×80, 120×120, 152×152, 180×180, 1024×1024
Windows 10	16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 256×256
Android Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo	24×24, 48×48, 192×192
macOS X	16×16, 32×32, 64×64, 128×128, 256×256, 512×512, 1024×1024
Unix operating systems	16×16, 24×24, 48×48, 96×96
Windows Phone	62×62, 99×99, 173×173, 200×200

iOS 9

iOS Human Interface Guidelines are clear and quite brief. They recommend the PNG format and the following sizes for icons:

Application Icon

	Required Sizes
iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus	180×180
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, and iPhone SE	120×120
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s	120×120
iPad Pro	167×167
iPad and iPad mini	152×152

Application Icon for the App Store

Required size:

• 1024×1024

Spotlight search results icon

	Required Sizes
iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus	120×120
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, and iPhone SE	80×80
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s	80×80
iPad Pro	80×80
iPad and iPad mini	80×80

Settings icon

	Required Sizes
iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus	87×87
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, and iPhone SE	58×58
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s	58×58
iPad Pro	58×58
iPad and iPad mini	58×58

Toolbar and navigation bar icon

	Required Sizes
iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus	About 66×66
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, and iPhone SE	About 44×44
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s	About 44×44
iPad Pro	About 44×44
iPad and iPad mini	About 44×44

Tab bar icon

	Required Sizes
iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus	About 75×75
iPhone 6s, iPhone 6, and iPhone SE	About 50×50
iPhone 5 and iPhone 4s	About 50×50
iPad Pro	About 50×50
iPad and iPad mini	About 50×50

[link_button link=”https://icons8.com/free-ios-7-icons-in-vector/#/web” text=”Download iOS 9 Icons” align=”middle”]

macOS X

Application Icons

Required sizes:

• 16×16
• 32×32
• 64×64
• 128×128
• 256×256
• 512×512
• 1024×1024

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Toolbar icon PNG (recommended)

Required sizes:

• 32×32
• 32×32@2x (64×64)

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Sidebar icon in PDF (recommended)

Required sizes:

• 16×16
• 18×18
• 32×32

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Sidebar icon in PNG

Required sizes:

• 16×16
• 16×16@2x
• 18×18
• 18×18@2x
• 32×32
• 32×32@2x

Windows 10

Microsoft didn’t publish any guidelines, so we had to read it in tea leaves follow the icon examples in the beta versions of the Windows OS and icon font introduced by Microsoft.

We have even created our own style guide for Windows 10 icons. Here’s what we found out:

Application Icons and Control Panel Items

The icons should be in .ico file format. 
The full set should include the following icon sizes:

• 16×16
• 32×32
• 48×48
• 256×256

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Toolbar Icons

Note that toolbar icons should always be flat. 

• Windows 10: 32×32
• Windows 8: 16×16, 24×24, 32×32

Dialogs and Wizards

Required Sizes: 

• 32×32
• 48×48

[link_button link=”https://icons8.com/windows-8-icons/#/web” text=”Download Windows 8 Icons”]

[link_button link=”https://icons8.com/download-huge-windows8-set/#/web” text=”Download Windows 10 Icons”]

Windows Phone

These are the sizes for required icons in the XAP package and for Windows Phone Store. 

Application icon	62×62
Application tile image	173×173
Device application icon for Windows Phone Store catalog (small)	99×99
Device application icon for Windows Phone Store catalog (large)	173×173
Desktop application icon for Windows Phone Store catalog	200×200

 

Android Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat, Oreo

Android starting with version 5 Lollipop uses the Material design specifications for icons.

And the prize for the most detailed icon style guide goes to… Google! They have patiently described everything: from corner shapes to shadow sizes and opacity. Here are just a few of the main ideas.

Application Icons

Android expects product icons to be provided at 48dp, with edges at 1dp. When you create the icon, maintain the 48-unit measure, but scale it to 400% at 192x192dp (the edge becomes 4dp).

System icons

These icons symbolize a command, file, device, directory, or common action like trash, print, and save.

System icons are displayed at 24dp. When creating icons, it’s important to design at 100% scale for pixel-accuracy, while zooming in for precision.

[link_button link=”https://icons8.com/android-icons/” text=”Download Material Icons”]

Unix-like Operating Systems

It’s worth mentioning icon specifications from the work environments of Unix-like operating systems: GNOME and KDE. These apply to Linux, FreeBSD, and others.

GNOME Icons

GNOME uses a soft, three-dimensional look. This style is achieved by using antialiasing, shading and highlighting techniques. The supported image file formats are PNG, XPM, and SVG. If your file’s format is not listed here, you can use an image converter to transform it into a proper format.

Bold denotes the primary size for Linux icons.

Object and document icon	24×24, 48×48, 96×96
Application icon	24×24, 48×48
Toolbar icon	24×24, 48×48
Menu icon	16×16

KDE Icons

KDE is the default work environment on many Linux distributions. They have no official guidelines for icons, but here’s what we found on various KDE forums.

Desktop icon	16×16,22×22,32×32,48×48,64×64,128×128,256×256
Toolbar icon	16×16,22×22,32×32,48×48
Main toolbar icon	16×16,22×22,32×32,48×48
Panel icon	16×16,22×22,32×32,48×48,64×64,128×128,256×256
Dialog icon	16×16,22×22,32×32,48×48,64×64,128×128,256×256

 

To use these icons elsewhere, like on a website or email, maximize them to no bigger than 400 × 100 pixels.

If you’re anything like us, all these dimensions are making you dizzy. Fortunately, we can use this list now, too.