Download my free Illustrator iOS template.

Since moving into iOS development, I try to do as much of my artwork in vector so that it’s easy to scale, usually moving in to Photoshop to add effects and pretty it up.

To speed up my workflow and to remind me not to forget any of the numerous icons you’re supposed to provide for apps, I’ve created an Illustrator template to help get me started, which works in conjunction with a Photoshop template that I’m still developing (but, thanks to Jon Hicks, now has very precise Vector masks with the correct corner radii).

Using the Illustrator iOS Template

All of the artboards in this illustrator iOS template have been sized and named according to Apple’s interface guidelines should you decide to go direct from Illustrator to Xcode (although Bjango’s Marc Edwards doesn’t recommend it).

However, by default, Illustrator exports the files as “documentName_artboardName.png”, which would usually mean having to tediously remove the “documentName_” bit from each of the exported files but, thankfully, Matthew Ericson has created a super useful script that solves this particular problem.

This script overrides the naming default and allows you to save everything out using just the artboard name, which means everything comes out ready to drop in to Xcode.

I would also recommend switching on Pixel Preview (Cmd + Alt + y on Mac) so that you can line up your vector shapes to the nearest pixel. This will make it easier to get pixel perfect pasting when moving between Illustrator and Photoshop.

See this excellent article, again by Marc Edwards of Bjango for more about this.

License

I’m releasing this illustrator iOS template as Freeware, so feel free to download it and use it however you like. You can use it for any of your projects without restriction and you don’t have to give me credit (though it’s always appreciated).