Screenshot style breakdown
Sampled from 5 of Scientific American's App Store screenshots — background, accent and theme, measured by LaunchShots (not something Apple publishes).
#F4F4F4 bg
#D6D6D6
#4C84D4 accent
#111111 text
Reading the caption text from the screenshots in your browser…
Screenshots
iPad screenshots
Icon palette
About this app
Founded in 1845, Scientific American provides expert insights on the most important and awe-inspiring advances in science and technology. With news and commentary about current events and in-depth features by experts, including more than 200 Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Scientific American is the essential guide to the modern world. Support Science Journalism. Become a Subscriber. A subscription to Scientific American is available through iTunes for $49.99 annually and is renewed automatically at the end of the subscription term, until canceled. Individual issues are $9.99 each. Payment for all purchases will be charged to your iTunes account. For more information, please visit iTunes Terms and Conditions: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/volume/us/terms.html Founded in 1845, Scientific American provides expert insights on the most important and awe-inspiring…
App details
What you can learn from Scientific American
Every shipping app on the App Store has gone through the same decisions you're working through right now: which screenshot goes first, what caption sits over it, which device frame to show, what color the background should be. The 10 screenshots above are Scientific American's answers to those questions — they're public, they're real, and they made it through Apple's review.
What the numbers say: Scientific American runs a light set with one background colour (#F4F4F4) carried across every screenshot — the listing reads as a single poster when the shots sit side by side in search results. The accent colour we picked up, #4C84D4, is the one to reuse for badges, arrows and highlighted words if you borrow this look. Hit Use this style to open the editor with these exact colours and drop your own screenshot in.
Notice the first screenshot in particular. It's the one users see in search results and on the product page, and it's where most apps spend their best caption and tightest design. Look at the proportion of background to phone, where the text sits, what one thing the image is trying to communicate.
Want to see how other News apps approach the same problem? Browse more News apps in the showcase.
Take what works into your own screenshots
Open LaunchShots and design your App Store & Google Play screenshots — pick a device frame, drop captions, ship in minutes. Free, in your browser.
Open the screenshot editor →Apps with a similar look
Closest background + accent colours among the listings we've analysed — useful when you want to see the same palette handled by a different team.