See all the guidelines and recommendations of the most suitable icon formats for each OS in one place.

It might seem overwhelming to consider all the requirements that mobile, desktop, and wearable device operation systems have for the icon formats and sizes. We gathered all popular OS guides in one article to ensure your interface meets the official guidelines. Pin this tab and use it as a reminder.

List of OS platforms

Mobile

iOS

See the full guidelines on the Apple official website.

Interface icons

Basically, there are no strict regulations about the size of the interface icon in iOS. You just need to adjust it to your app interface hierarchy and keep it consistent throughout the entire app. Here is a list of common sizes:

  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
  • 128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
  • 32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
  • 16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x
iOS system icons size guidelines

You can find all the basics about interface icons for iOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

@2x (pixels)@3x (pixels) iPhone onlyUsage
120×120180×180Home Screen
80×80120×120Spotlight
58×5887×87Settings
76×76114×114Notifications
iOS system iconsinterface preview

App icon

Note: don’t put any additional border or overlay on your Settings icon. iOS automatically adds a 1-pixel stroke to all icons to look good on Settings’ white background.

iPadOS

iPadOS has similar requirements to iOS. See general Apple guidelines here.

Interface icons

Interface icon sizes used in iPadOS are also similar to iOS ones. To make sure, keep this list in mind:

  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
  • 128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
  • 32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
  • 16px x 16px @1x, 32×32 px @2x

Before creating your own icons, check this 10K+ icons catalog from Icons8 made by Apple guidelines.

App icon

Like iOS, here is the general tip: don’t add any border or overlay to the Settings icon cause the system will automatically add a stroke 1-pixel thickness around it. Use a standardized one from the SF Symbols list, or design yours with these sizes in mind:

@2x (pixels)Usage
167×167Home Screen on iPad Pro
152×152Home Screen on iPad, iPad mini
80×80Spotlight on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini
58×58Settings on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini
76×76Notifications on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini

Android

Android is a mobile OS made by Google. The UI design is based on the Material Design System. Here, you can check the full guidelines for the latest version, Material 3. The following works with both smartphones and tablets operating on Android.

Interface icons

Google uses dp to measure the size of icons. 1dp is basically equal to 1px on the 160dpi screen. If, for example, your interface is viewed on a 320dpi screen, 1px will be equal here to 2dp, and so on.

Icon sizePurpose
24dpPixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dpAdditional small-scale visuals
40dp and 48dpFor display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

App icons

Quick format check to follow in your Android app icon design:

  • Final artwork size: 512px x 512px
  • Format: 32-bit PNG
  • Color space: sRGB
  • Max file size: 1024KB

Google Play automatically applies a 20% squared corner radius to your app icon. Ensure that all important parts of your design fit 384px x 384px, and nothing will be cut. A shadow mask will also be applied automatically, so upload your artwork without it.

Other than that, Google doesn’t allow you to use additional text or graphic elements on your app icon that:

  • indicate your app ranking
  • promote deals or incentivize installs
  • indicate participation in a Play program
  • can mislead users.

For more information, check Google Play icon design specifications.

HarmonyOS

HarmonyOS is the operating system developed by Huawei. The main idea is based on full adaptivity. This means that using the same system capabilities, you can apply it to all kinds of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, PCs, smart TVs, wearables, smart speakers, head units, earphones, and AR/VR glasses. This makes a bit of a difference in the interface design. All elements are measured not in pixels but in vp (virtual pixels) to ensure that all interface elements have a consistent visual volume on devices with different densities. But keep in mind that you need specific icon maker software to produce elements of this type.

Interface icons

The final size of the system icon in HarmonyOS is 24vp with 1vp of space reserved around the drawing area. The drawing area depends on the shape of your graphics, which is:

ShapeSizing
Square20vp x 20vp
Circle⌀ 22vp
Horizontal rectangle22vp x 18vp
Vertical rectangle18vp x 22vp

See the full guide for the interface icons on the official HarmonyOS portal.

App icon

HarmonyOS app icons adopt the neumorphism design approach, so using a semi-transparent blur effect and layered design techniques is preferable. The system automatically applies an adaptive mask to unify icons.

The final artwork should be uploaded in *.png. Here is the sizing:

Icon sizeUsage scenario
512px x 512pxApp main page preview in AppGallery
216px x 216pxApp preview in the list in AppGallery
40vp x 40vp (120px x 120px, @3x)Settings screen
16vp x 16vp (48px x 48px, @3x)Notification

Check out the comprehensive app icon official guide here.

Desktop

MacOS

Here is Apple’s guide for designing macOS apps.

Interface icons

Standard sizes for all system icons in the Apple ecosystem are the following:

  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512×512 px @2x
  • 128×128 px @1x, 256×256 px @2x
  • 32×32 px @1x, 64×64 px @2x
  • 16×16 px @1x, 32×32 px @2x

You can find all the basics about interface icons for macOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

App icon

Use the drop shadow in the icon-design template. The app-icon template includes the system-defined drop shadow that helps your app icon coordinate with other macOS icons.

Create a 1024px x 1024px version of your macOS app icon for the App Store. In addition, you also need to supply the icon in the following sizes.

@1x (pixels)@2x (pixels)
512×5121024×1024
256×256512×512
128×128256×256
32×3264×64
16×1632×32
This is what our MacOS app, Pichon, looks like.

Learn more about the design guide for macOS app icons here.

Document icons

If your macOS app can use a custom document type, you can create a document icon to represent it. It looks like a piece of paper with its top-right corner folded down. This helps people distinguish documents from apps and other content, even when icon sizes are small.

You can supply a combination of background fill, center image, and text to create a custom document icon.

Sizes for the background fill image:

  • 512px x 512px @1x, 1024px x 1024px @2x
  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
  • 128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
  • 32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
  • 16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x

Center images (pictogram) sizes:

  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
  • 128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
  • 32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
  • 16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x

Define a margin that measures about 10% of the image canvas and keep most of the image within it. Although parts of the image can extend into this margin for optical alignment, it’s best when the image occupies about 80% of the image canvas. For example, most of the center image in a 256px x 256px canvas would fit in an area that measures 205px x 205px.

You can use minimalistic icons from the Icons8 pack designed by Apple’s guidelines for your center image. The complete guide for macOS custom document icon design is here.

Windows

The complete info about icons used in Windows OS apps is on the official Microsoft page.

Interface icons

Windows 11 introduces a new system icon font, Segoe Fluent Icons. All glyphs in Segoe Fluent Icons are drawn in a monoline style. That means they’re created through a single stroke of 1epx.

For easier usage, the size of the icon complements the font size around it. For example, if you use 16pt font, put a 16epx *.svg icon next to it.

You can check these colored Windows 11 icons that fit with Microsoft guidelines.

App icon

When Windows displays your app’s icon, it will first look for an exact size match. If there is no match, it will look for the next size above and scale down. Including more icon sizes with your app means Windows will more often have a pixel-perfect match and reduce the amount of scaling applied to scaled icons.

Windows 11 scale factor100%125%150%200%250%300%400%
Context menu, title bar, system tray16px20px24px32px40px48px64px
Taskbar, search results,
Start all apps list		24px30px36px48px60px72px96px
Start pins32px40px48px64px80px96px256px

Here is the complete list of icons and variations for Windows OS.

Linux

Being an open-source OS made by developers, Linux doesn’t have its own human interface. Several significant contributors provide Linux users with an interface. In this article, we will cover the most popular.

GNOME

The largest human interface contributor to Linux. You can find GNOME Human Interface Guidelines here.

Interface icons

GNOME UI icons use the “symbolic” style. This is simple and monochrome and is designed to work well in smaller sizes. As an example of such minimalistic icons, you can use this pack by Icons8, which is designed for small interfaces and is not overloaded by too many details.

This is a list of all preferable sizes of symbolics:

  • 16px x 16px
  • 32px x 32px
  • 64px x 64px
  • 128px x 128px

The GNOME team strongly recommends using these sizes only and *.svg format to prevent fuzzy rendering.

See the main UI icons guide on the GNOME website.

App icons

GNOME’s app icon’s standard size is 128px × 128px. But the icon itself shouldn’t fill this space entirely. Follow the guides in the app icon template, and ensure your icon has a similar visual weight to other app icons.

App icons are defined at 128px × 128px but are typically viewed at 64px × 64px and can be scaled down to 32px × 32px. Therefore, avoid adding too much detail, as this will be lost at small sizes.

The official guideline is here.

KDE

Unlike any other guidelines in this article, the KDE design system divides icons into colorful and monochromatic types. Each has a separate design guide.

Interface icons

The size of the icon depends on the purpose:

Icons typeSize in pixelsPurpose
Monochromatic16×16Menu items
Tabs
Buttons
22×22ToolButtons
Colorful32×32Category
Preferences
Places icons
64×64MIME-type
Devices
Status icons

Application icons

Application icons always use the colorful icon style. Their baseline size is 48 pixels.
Learn more about app icon design guidelines on the KDE website.

Elementary OS

Probably, the Linux contributor with the richest design environment.

Interface icons

Design each icon for the size it’s meant to be viewed at. So the Elementary team recommends you design icons in each size individually. Here is Dustin Curtis’ article, Pixel-fitting, that can help you with that.

The main system sizes for icons in Elementary OS are:

  • 16px x 16px
  • 24px x 24px
  • 32px x 32px
  • 48px x 48px
  • 64px x 64px
  • 128px x 128px

This sizing is also applied to the app icons. Note: only the colored icon can be used as the application pic. For more information, check the complete guide here.

Wearable gadgets

Watch OS

Apple doesn’t have any additional considerations for the watchOS since it uses iOS icon guidelines.

Interface icons

Here is a list of standard sizes:

  • 256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
  • 128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
  • 32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
  • 16px x 16px @1x, 32ps x 32px @2x

You can find all the basics about interface icons for iOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

App icons

A watchOS app icon is circular and displays no accompanying text. Sizes in pixels:

38mm40mm41mm42mm44mm45mm49mmUsage
80×8088×8892×9280×80100×100102×102108×108Home Screen
48×4855×5558×5855×5558×5866×6666×66Notification Center
172×172196×196196×196196×196216×216234×234258×258Short look

If you have a companion iPhone app, you must also supply your watchOS app icon in the following sizes.

@2x (pixels)@3x (pixels)
58×5887×87

You can find the official guidelines here.

Wear OS

Wear OS follows Material Design principles for iconography.

Interface icons

Interface icons for Wear OS are the same size as the main Android UI icons.

Icon sizePurpose
24dpPixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dpAdditional small-scale visuals
40d and 48dpFor display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

App icons

Since applications for Wear OS are available at the main Google Play app store, the sizing and format for the app icons here are the same as for Android.

  • Final artwork size: 512px x 512px
  • Format: 32-bit PNG
  • Color space: sRGB
  • Max file size: 1024KB

Google Play automatically applies a 20% squared corner radius to your app icon. Ensure that all important parts of your design fit 384px x 384px, and nothing will be cut. A shadow mask will also be applied automatically, so upload your artwork without it.

For more, check Google Play icon design specifications.

HarmonyOS for watch

Since the most important feature of this OS is about full adaptivity of the interface, HarmonyOS for watch icons guidelines is no different from HarmonyOS for other devices.

Interface icons

The final size of the system icon in HarmonyOS is 24vp with 1vp of space reserved around the drawing area. The drawing area depends on the shape of your graphics, which is:

ShapeSizing
Square20vp x 20vp
Circle⌀ 22vp
Horizontal rectangle22vp x 18vp
Vertical rectangle18vp x 22vp
Basic line width1.5vp

See the full guide for the interface icons on the official HarmonyOS portal.

App icon

This icon type is consistent with that on the mobile phone home screen. Use round backdrops.

  • Backdrop (slice) size: 76vp (transparent blank area around the backdrop)
  • Icon size: 60vp.

The final artwork should be uploaded in *.png. Here is the sizing:

Icon sizeUsage scenario
512px x 512pxMessage notification on the locked screen
104px x 104pxLauncher icon
92px x 92pxMessage notification details
56px x 56pxMessage notification level-2 list
40px x 40pxMessage notification level-1 list

Check out the comprehensive app icon official guide here.

visionOS

Apple Vision Pro is all about new, multi-dimensional experiences, so its apps should also fit this new concept of “Spatial user interface.” Check Apple’s introduction video to learn the basics about this concept.

Interface icons

For the UI icons in visionOS use the standard list of sizing requirements that is general for all OS’s in the Apple ecosystem:


@2x (pixels)		Usage
120×120Home Screen
80×80Spotlight
58×58Settings
76×76Notifications

More about it here.

App icons

A visionOS app icon is circular. It includes up to three layers:

  • background layer
  • one or two layers on top

Altogether, it produces the 3D effect. All layers should be provided separately as flat, squared images. Apple recommends designing mostly center-oriented layers for the best volume effect. More about this on Apple’s website.

Create an app icon that measures 1024px x 1024px for display in the Home View.

TV

tvOS

Here are the main guidelines from Apple about designing for tvOS.

Interface icons

TvOS uses the list of sizing requirements that are standard for most OS’s in the Apple ecosystem:


@2x (pixels)		Usage
120×120Home Screen
80×80Spotlight
58×58Settings
76×76Notifications

More about it here.

App icons

App icons use the PNG format and support the following color spaces:

  • sRGB (color)
  • Gray Gamma 2.2 (grayscale)

In addition, app icons in tvOS support Display P3 (wide-gamut color).

The sizing is the following:

@1x (pixels)@2x (pixels)Usage
400×240800×480Home Screen

Android TV

Like for Android for smartphones, for Android TV, Google uses Material 3 as the main guidelines.

Interface icons

System icons are measured in dp. 1dp is basically equal to 1px on the 160dpi screen. If, for example, your interface is viewed on a 320dpi screen, 1px will be equal here to 2dp, and so on.

Icon sizePurpose
24dpPixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dpAdditional small-scale visuals
40d and 48dpFor display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

App icons

There are two formats to consider: banners and launcher icons for Android TV.

Banner

The Banner logo is a 16×9 aspect ratio logo used in Android TV OS to show your app launcher. You can also provide xhdpi resources with the size of 320px x 180px when using API level 25 or lower.

DensityMin SizePixel Ratio
mdpi160px x 90px1
hdpi240px x 135px1.5
xhdpi320px x 180px2
xxhdpi480px x 270px3
xxxhdpi640px x 360px4

Launcher icon

The Launcher icon is a 1×1 aspect ratio resource used in multiple places, such as Settings and Media session integrations (Now playing card) on Android TV. The launcher icon can also be used in the Your Apps row on Google TV.

DensityMin SizePixel Ratio
mdpi80×80 px1
hdpi120×120 px1.5
xhdpi160×160 px2
xxhdpi240×240 px3
xxxhdpi320×320 px4

A full guide on creating app icons for Android TV is here.

Tizen OS

Most of the Samsung Smaty TVs use Tizen OS. This open-source operational system allows you to customize your app for it freely.

Interface icons

There are no strict rules about interface icon sizing in Tizen Os for smart TVs. Here is the list of the most common sizes used depending on the screen type:

ResolutionIcon asset size (pixels)
HD118 x 118
WQHD236×236
WVGA81×81

Check full guides on the main developer’s website.

App icons

The main icon should have the following properties:

  • File format: PNG file with a transparent background
  • Size for a WVGA-screen device: 82px x 82px
  • Size for the Tizen Store: 512px x 512px

NOTE: Always surround each icon with 2 pixels of transparent free space.

An application icon for Samsung Smart TV for 2016 model groups and later has two images. To correctly display your application icon on 2016 Samsung Smart TVs and later, you must comply with the conditions:

Required FileImage Size (px)Image Format
Logo Image1920×108032-bit PNG (RGBA)
Background Image1920×108024-bit PNG (RGB)

Summary

When designing the app, always check the requirements of each OS since they sometimes can be tricky.

For an easier way, you can always choose icons from the main OS’s catalog:

You also can use these custom-made icons:

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