How to Make the 6.9" and 6.5" iPhone Sets from One Design

The problem

Apple asks for more than one iPhone screenshot size. Designing the 6.9” set and then rebuilding the 6.5” one doubles the work, and the two drift apart the first time you edit a caption in one and forget the other. Two designs for what is basically the same phone shape is waste.

Why it can be one design

The 6.5” and 6.9” screens are almost the same shape, differing by about 0.5%. A design for one can be scaled to cover the other with no visible change. AppShots uses that: in Export, the sibling size appears as an extra option, and each page is rendered at the other size’s exact pixels, “cover-scaled”.

The same applies to iPhone Duo’s inner and outer screens, which differ by about 2.4%.

Steps

1. Design your set at one size, whichever is your master.
2. Open Export and tick the sibling size (shown with “cover-scaled”).
3. Export. You get both sets, each validated against its exact dimensions.
4. Spot-check the scaled set. With a 0.5% difference, only a hairline at the edges changes.

When it isn’t enough

• iPhone to iPad, or any other jump in shape, isn’t offered, since scaling would crop the design. Use Duplicate on the project to choose a new device, and AppShots re-flows the layout. See designing for another device.
• Don’t put critical content at the extreme edges, so a cover-scale never trims it.
• Edit the master, then re-export. The sibling follows.

FAQ

Which sizes can be exported together? iPhone 6.5” with 6.9”, and iPhone Duo inner with outer.

Why not iPhone and iPad? Their proportions differ too much, so scaling would crop the design. Duplicate the project for the other device and lay it out again.

What are the exact sizes? 6.5” is 1284×2778 and 6.9” is 1320×2868.