iPad App Store screenshots: dimensions, layout, and common traps
iPad screenshots have different dimensions, a different aspect ratio, and different composition rules than iPhone. Here's the complete 2026 guide.
iPad screenshots are where otherwise-polished App Store pages fall apart. Developers design a beautiful iPhone set, then either skip iPad entirely or stretch the iPhone designs into a squarer canvas and call it done. Both choices cost downloads — iPad users are a smaller but famously higher-spending audience, and the iPad tab of your product page is all they see.
The dimensions that matter in 2026
| Display | Portrait | Landscape | Devices | |---|---|---|---| | 13" | 2064 × 2752 | 2752 × 2064 | iPad Pro 13" (M4) | | 12.9" | 2048 × 2732 | 2732 × 2048 | Older iPad Pro 12.9" | | 11" | 1668 × 2388 | 2388 × 1668 | iPad Pro 11", iPad Air |
Upload the 13" set and Apple covers modern devices; keep an 11" set only if you want hand-tuned cropping for the smaller aspect ratio. (Full device matrix for every platform in the dimensions reference.)
Composition: the rules change on a squarer canvas
The iPhone playbook — big headline on top, device screen below — doesn't transfer directly, because the 3:4 canvas gives you width instead of height.
What works on iPad:
- Side-by-side layouts. Headline and supporting copy on the left third, UI on the right two-thirds. The width finally makes this possible.
- Landscape-oriented features first. If your app has a sidebar, multi-column view, or split view — that's your screenshot #1. It signals "real iPad app", which is the number-one thing iPad users check for.
- Show the keyboard/Pencil if you support them. Hardware context sells iPad-native intent instantly.
Do
- Design a separate composition for the 3:4 canvas
- Lead with split view, sidebars, or other iPad-native UI
- Show Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard workflows if supported
- Keep headlines to the same 6-word discipline as iPhone
Don't
- Stretch or letterbox your iPhone set
- Screenshot the iPhone layout running blown-up on iPad
- Hide that your app is just a scaled phone UI (users find out in reviews)
- Forget the iPad set exists after your first release
Do you even need iPad screenshots?
If your app runs on iPad — even just as a compatible iPhone app — the iPad tab of your product page shows something. The question is whether you control it. Auto-generated or missing screenshots on that tab quietly tank conversion for every iPad visitor. If iPad users matter to your revenue at all, budget one afternoon for a dedicated set.
If your app is iPhone-only, skip iPad screenshots entirely; you can't upload them anyway.
The "one design, two canvases" workflow
The efficient way to maintain both sets:
- Write the captions once — the message is identical across devices. (See the copywriting guide.)
- Design the iPhone set first at 1290×2796 — it's the higher-traffic surface.
- Recompose (don't scale) each frame for 2064×2752 — usually moving the caption from above the device to beside it.
- Keep the same background palette and typography so the brand reads consistently if a user sees both.
Tools like Screenshot Roast's redesign mode handle the recomposition automatically — upload the frame, pick the target platform, and get an App Store-ready PNG back at exact dimensions. The examples gallery shows output for both aspect ratios.
Mac deserves the same treatment
Everything in this post applies double to the Mac App Store, where the canvas goes fully landscape (1280×800 minimum) and desktop UI conventions apply — we wrote a dedicated Mac screenshots guide for that.