MacTips reader Bret wrote in and asked how to modify the folder icons in OS X. The default icons look great, but change is always nice.
There are two basic ways to modify your icons, the long hard manual way and the super easy way.
Hard Way: Manually Changing Your Icons
Manually changing your icons is as simple as copying and pasting icons from one Get Info window to another.
- Press Command+I while selecting an application/folder you’d like to duplicate an icon for
- In the top left corner, click the icon so the edges become blue
- Press Command+C to copy the icon
- Now press Command+I while selecting an application/folder you’d like to change
- Press Command+V to paste the new icon
- You should see the icon appear quickly in both the icon and preview spots
This method has a couple problems. First I found issues copying a plain icon file, so using a new icon can be tricky.
If you want to customize a single folder or application, this is a great method.
However, if you wanted to modify all of your icons system-wide, this would be extremely slow.
Thankfully, there is a better way.
Easy Icon Replacement with LiteIcon
LiteIcon is from the creator of AppCleaner, an application for cleaning up abandoned application files.
LiteIcon has two methods of changing icons–manually with drag-and-drop and automatically with iContainers.
Drag-and-drop makes it possible to replace individual icons as you see fit. This method is much easier than the method listed above and works nearly every time.
Simply drag an icon onto the icon you wish to replace. That’s it!
The other method is using iContainers. These are icon sets that can be applied to all system icons. This makes updating all system icons much easier.
iContainers are a little more difficult to find than straight icons. There are however, a couple of sites that offer these: IconFactory, DeviantART, Pixelgirl or Google.
To make your icons live click Apply changes and enter your password when prompted.
The last step is clicking Relaunch Finder. You may have to log-out and back in to see the effects.
A side note is by Control+Clicking an icon or using File -> Restore all icons you can restore your icons back to default–so don’t be afraid of messing anything up.
Modifying my icons wasn’t high on my list of things to-do, but it’s extremely refreshing having a new set of icons. Especially a gorgeous set like Float by Corey Marion (a few shown below).
The best part is LiteIcon is free. There is both a Tiger and Leopard version available–enjoy!
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MacTipper
MacTipper April 24th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Brad Jasper
After I wrote the tip I found LiteIcon which is free and accomplishes nearly everything CandBar does.
That being said I really like the new icon sets. My only issue is finding iContainers. There are a couple--but not many. April 24th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Don
Macupdate.com and versiontracker.com has it there for download. It's easy to use and fun as well! April 24th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Concetta
Create a jpeg you want to use as an icon. When you name it, put a space at the beginning.
Drop the jpeg into the dock folder.
In finder view, choose "arrange by name".
The jpeg file jumps to the top, and is displayed as your dock icon.
Yeah, I know, this is a workaround, but 10.5.x will come around and fix this. (?)
Another note: if you drag a folder into the right side of your dock, you get a generic-looking (not easily distinguishable) blue icon for the folder. If you want the folder to retain its original icon, control-click, and choose "display as folder". This returns your original icon to you.
You can use your home folder as an example. If you display it as a stack, you get a blue folder with an "A" on it. If you display it as a folder, you get your familiar Mac OS house icon.
Both of these options are from within the OS itself. April 24th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Travis
PleanBean
Gary Lee