Specifications for Windows Phone application icons and tiles

Link: http://windowsphonegeek.com/articles/Windows-Phone-Application-Icons-and-Tiles

 

This article describes the icon specifications required for publishing applications to the Windows Phone application store.

These are not secrets. (You can also access msdn to get: msdn application artwork.) But every time you submit an application, you must understand the meaning of the icon again. The name of the icon file is not mandatory, so it is easy to understand. We recommend that you follow the rules.

 

1. Use Porcelain Tiles (must be included in the project)

Tiles used are the most important icons. They are displayed in the list of installed apps on the mobile phone.

The Icon size must follow the rules. The transparent background can adapt to the color changes of the mobile phone subject.

 

Applicationicon.png

Image Size: 62X62 pixels

File Type: PNG

Recommended file name: application_iconimage_62x62.png

Property build action: Content

This icon is displayed in the list of installed apps on your mobile phone.

 

You can replace the default icon on the properties page of the project.

You can also change the icon file name in wmappmanifest. xml. Setting project properties is actually editing this file.

Background.png

Image Size: 173x173 pixels

File Type: PNG

Recommended file name: application_tileimage_173x173.png

Property build action: Content

This icon is displayed on the start page.

The transparent background will be replaced by the system subject color (Red here), and some text information will be displayed on the icon. Reserve space.

You can also replace the default icon on the project properties page.

Or wmappmanifest. xml

Ii. Porcelain Tiles used in the market (may not be included in the project)

They showed in the mobile phone or PC market that this is the most important point of your application because customer see this icons when browsing the catalog before buying it.

You must set the icons size to the predefined size. However, transparent background may not be a good choice.

These must be provided when you submit applications to the marketplace.

Smallapptile.png

Image Size: 99x99 pixels

File Type: PNG

Recommended file name: marketplace_device_99x99.png

Largeapptile.png

Image Size: 173x173 pixels

Recommended file name: marketplace_device_173x173.png

File Type: PNG

Marketplacetile.png

Image Size: 200x200

Recommended file name: marketplace_shorttop_200x200.png

File Type: PNG

The marketplace test suite can check these icons. Open the marketplace test kit (in release configuration) and on the application details page upload the icons to the test kit.

Click run tests to automatically start image detection, including the image size and format (PNG), and prompt the results.

3. Application screenshot

To make it easier for consumers to browse and understand applications, at least one request must be submitted.

The simplest way is to use the simulator for screenshots.

Image Size: 480x800

File Type: PNG

Save up to eight screens. You can upload up to eight images.

4. Splash Screen Image (must be included in the project)

This image is not required, but if it is provided, it will take more time to initialize the program when the program starts, if it is not provided, it will be faster.

Because the system uses this image before the program starts, the file name must be 'splashscreenimage.jpg '. This file must also be included in the generated xap package.

Splashscreenimage.jpg

Image Size: 480x800

File Type: JPEG

Property build action: Content

There are other techniques to make animated splash screen but it's more difficult and need more CPU time on the phone.

V. Build

After all you build the application and the xap package file contains the application icons.

6. Some suggestions

You may also want to mention that the screenshots cannot include any transparent areas or be altered from what wocould appear on the application's screen. either of these things wowould cause an application to fail marketplace certification and wowould require a submission update.

The application screenshot image cannot contain a transparent area or be modified. Otherwise, the submission fails.

Having the testing information (the numbers that run down the side) on your Screenshots will also cause an application to fail marketplace certification and wowould require a submission update.

The image contains the test information (such as the framerate of the edge), which causes the submission to fail.

The best way to get an application screenshot is to use the emulator, running your application not in debug mode. this is most easily done by simply starting your last test version directly from the emulator (with emulator size set to 100% for best effect) and using the excellent screenshot capture functionality provided within the emulator. the image shoshould then be submitted without any further editing.