It's shown very small
Your 1024 px design is mostly seen far smaller.
| Where | Size (px) | Points |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone home screen | 120, 180 | 60 pt @2x, @3x |
| iPhone Settings | 58, 87 | 29 pt @2x, @3x |
| iPhone notifications | 40, 60 | 20 pt @2x, @3x |
| Android launcher | 48 dp | About 144 px on most phones |
At 60 px, one pixel is about 17 pixels of your original. Anything smaller than that simply can't be shown.
Lines that are too thin
A 12 px line at 1024 px is about 1 px at 87 px, and less than that in notifications. It gets blended into its neighbours and the icon looks out of focus.
- Keep important lines at 20 px or more at 1024 px.
- Cut small details that don't help recognition: texture, fine highlights, small text.
- Aim for one clear shape. Squint at your icon: if the shape disappears, simplify.
Edges without contrast
Two similar colours side by side merge when shrunk. A mid-green shape on a mid-blue background reads as one blob. Give the main shape clear contrast with its background, in brightness and not just in hue, so it also holds up in tinted mode and on dark home screens.
A weak source image
- Upscaled: a 512 px image stretched to 1024 px is soft at every size. Start from 1024 px or a vector.
- JPEG: compression adds noise around edges. Use PNG or SVG.
- Poor resizing: some tools shrink images with a fast, rough method. Xcode and a good exporter use high-quality resampling.
An old cached icon
If a fixed icon still looks wrong on your test device, it may be the old one. Delete the app, restart the device and install again. On a Mac, the Dock can also hold on to an old icon until you log out and back in.
Check yours
The free App Icon Score shows your icon at the real small sizes, on light and dark home screens and in tinted mode, and gives it a score out of 5 with a tip for each check.