Question 1

What size should an app icon be?

Accepted Answer

Start from a 1024×1024px source image. iOS requires a 1024×1024 App Store icon, Android requires a 512×512 Play Store icon, and every smaller size is derived from the master. Designing at 1024 and letting a generator scale down guarantees crisp icons at every density.

Question 2

What are Android adaptive icons?

Accepted Answer

Since Android 8.0, launcher icons are made of separate layers: a foreground (your logo), a background (a solid color or pattern), and an optional monochrome layer for themed icons on Android 13+. The system masks these layers into different shapes depending on the device. IconForge exports all three layers.

Question 3

What iOS app icon sizes do I need?

Accepted Answer

Modern Xcode (14+) accepts a single 1024×1024 image and generates the rest. For older projects or manual asset catalogs you still need the full set: 120 and 180px for iPhone, 152 and 167px for iPad, 1024px for the App Store, plus the smaller settings, spotlight, and notification sizes. IconForge produces all of them with a ready Contents.json.

Question 4

What is a maskable icon?

Accepted Answer

A maskable icon is a PWA icon with extra padding (a safe zone) so it can be cropped into any shape by the operating system without cutting off your logo. The web app manifest references both regular and maskable 192px and 512px icons. IconForge generates the maskable variants automatically.

Question 5

Do I need a favicon and an apple-touch-icon?

Accepted Answer

Yes. favicon.ico (typically 32px) shows in browser tabs and bookmarks, while apple-touch-icon (180px) is used when someone adds your site to their iOS home screen. A complete web icon set also includes 192px and 512px PNGs for installable PWAs.

Question 6

Is IconForge free? Are my images uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

IconForge is completely free with no signup. All image processing happens locally in your browser using the Canvas API — your image is never uploaded to a server, so it stays private.