appshots

Compose App Store marketing screenshots from raw captures, background images, and localized captions — declaratively, from one config.json.

Raw capture	Composed screenshot

One Python file, one dependency (Pillow), one CLI. Change a caption or swap a screenshot, re-run one command, and every device size and every language regenerates — no Figma, no per-locale hand editing.

• Localized captions — "caption": {"en": ..., "ru": ...} renders a full per-locale screenshot set, laid out the way fastlane deliver uploads it
• Device presets — "iphone-6.9" instead of memorizing pixel sizes; warns when a custom size isn't one App Store Connect accepts
• Auto-fitting text — long translations shrink to fit instead of overflowing
• Glyph safety — a Latin-only font with a Cyrillic caption fails loudly with the missing characters listed, instead of rendering an empty title
• Composition — background cover, vignette, device-corner rounding and bezel, drop shadows, caption stroke/shadow, pixel-art-safe nearest scaling

Install

pipx install git+https://github.com/DmitryKhryukin/appshots
# or run straight from a checkout:
pip install Pillow && python appshots.py --config CONFIG.json

Quick start

The repo ships a self-contained example (fake lorem-ipsum app, generated assets, EN + RU captions):

appshots --config example/config.json
open example/output/en/iphone-6.9-feed.png

Per-app folder layout

Each app keeps its own config and assets in its own folder (typically inside the app's repo):

my-app-screenshots/
├── config.json
├── fonts/MyFont.ttf
├── backgrounds/
│   ├── feature1.png
│   └── feature2.png
├── input/
│   ├── feature1.png
│   └── feature2.png
└── output/                    # tool writes here

appshots --config /path/to/my-app-screenshots/config.json

Render a single screenshot, device, or locale:

appshots --config CONFIG.json --filter feature1
appshots --config CONFIG.json --device iphone-6.9
appshots --config CONFIG.json --locale ru

Config schema

{
  "devices": ["iphone-6.9", "ipad-13"],
  "output_dir": "./output",
  "missing_background_color": "#1a1a1a",
  "font": {
    "path": "./fonts/MyFont.ttf",
    "size": 140,
    "color": "#FFFFFFFF",
    "shadow": { "color": "#000000AA", "offset": [4, 6], "blur": 0 }
  },
  "layout": {
    "screenshot_scale": 0.78,
    "screenshot_max_height": 0.78,
    "screenshot_offset_y": 0.04,
    "screenshot_shadow": { "color": "#00000080", "offset": [0, 20], "blur": 30 },
    "caption_position_y": 0.10,
    "caption_max_width": 0.92,
    "background_resample": "nearest",
    "screenshot_resample": "nearest"
  },
  "screenshots": [
    {
      "id": "feature1",
      "screenshot": "./input/feature1.png",
      "background": "./backgrounds/feature1.png",
      "caption": "DEFEND YOUR CASTLE!"
    }
  ]
}

Devices

A device is a preset id or a custom {id, width, height} dict:

Custom dicts still work ({ "id": "my-device", "width": 2778, "height": 1284 }); a warning is printed when the size isn't one App Store Connect accepts.

Per-device screenshots

When iPhone and iPad screenshots differ, pass a dict keyed by device id:

{
  "screenshot": {
    "iphone-6.9": "./input/iphone/feature1.png",
    "ipad-13":    "./input/ipad/feature1.png"
  }
}

Localized captions

A caption can be a plain string (same text for every locale) or a dict keyed by locale:

{
  "caption": {
    "en": "DEFEND YOUR CASTLE!",
    "ru": "ЗАЩИТИ СВОЙ ЗАМОК!",
    "de": "VERTEIDIGE DEINE BURG!"
  }
}

As soon as any caption is a dict, output goes to per-locale subfolders — output/{locale}/{device.id}-{screenshot.id}.png — the layout fastlane deliver uploads from. Locales are the union of keys across all captions; a dict caption missing one of those locales fails that render loudly. String captions still work per locale (rendered identically into each folder).

Long translations are handled automatically: the font size shrinks until the caption fits layout.caption_max_width (fraction of canvas width, default 0.92).

If the font lacks glyphs for a locale's script (e.g. a Latin-only font with a Cyrillic caption), the render fails with the list of missing characters instead of silently drawing an empty title. Fix it with a per-locale font — font.path as a dict with a default fallback:

{
  "font": {
    "path": {
      "default": "./fonts/PatrickHand-Regular.ttf",
      "ru":      "./fonts/Neucha-Regular.ttf"
    },
    "size": 140
  }
}

Notes

• All paths in config.json are relative to the config file's directory (or absolute).
• Resample defaults to nearest — preserves pixel art. Use lanczos for smooth photographic backgrounds.
• If a background file is missing, the tool falls back to a solid color so layout work can continue.

Development

python tests/smoke.py                    # render the example, verify output
python example/make_fake_screenshot.py   # regenerate the example's fake assets

License

MIT. The bundled example font (Neucha) is licensed under the SIL Open Font License — see example/fonts/OFL.txt.