Which screenshot sets Apple scales for you

Leaving a display class empty is not the same as leaving it blank. Apple fills several of them from a larger set — but only along a chain, and only downwards.

Published: 9 September 2026

The chain, written out

Read from Apple's screenshot specifications on 1 September 2026.

What this means for how much you produce

For an iPhone-only app: one set. Produce the 6.9″ one and every smaller class is served. For an app that also runs on iPad: two sets, 6.9″ and 13″.

That is the entire answer to « do I need to make eight versions », and it is worth knowing before you start, because producing eight sets by hand is a day of work that buys nothing.

Where the chain leaks

The iPad chain has two hops: 10.5″ comes from 12.9″, and 9.7″ from 10.5″. Neither is fed directly by the 13″ set you uploaded. In practice the images that reach those classes have been scaled twice, and it shows on fine type.

If those devices matter to your audience, the fix is to upload the 12.9″ set explicitly — it costs one export and shortens the chain for everything below it.

Scaling is not free, it is just cheap

A reduction from a larger, correctly rendered image is sharp. What it cannot do is re-compose: type sized for a 6.9″ canvas becomes small type on a 6.1″ one. If your captions are already near the limit of what fits, check them at the smallest class you actually care about rather than assuming the scaler will save them.

Questions

Which screenshot sets does Apple fill for me?

Apple scales downwards along a chain: the iPhone 6.3-inch and 6.1-inch classes are filled from 6.5-inch, and the iPad 12.9-inch and 11-inch classes from the 13-inch set.

Does that mean I only need one set per platform?

In practice yes, provided you supply the largest one in the chain. Supplying a smaller set leaves the larger classes empty.