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Dec 22, 2012

How to create and apply custom Mac icons

by Stephen Ashby

Customise the icons for your files, folders, apps and more on your Mac with this handy tutorial

How to create and apply custom Mac iconsHow to create and apply custom Mac iconsMac owners might well be fortunate enough to use one of the most beautifully designed user interfaces, but every now and then a sea of blue folders and standard document icons makes it a little hard to see exactly what file or folder you’re looking for. Fortunately, following the four steps below will allow you to create your own custom icons for your files, folders and apps, enabling you to easily find what you’re looking for (or disguise that hideous-looking app icon). You’ll need an icon-like source image (you can either create your own or find some online) and all the tools you need are part of OS X itself. Once you’ve got that, it’s time to get creative…How to create and apply custom Mac icons

How to create and apply custom Mac icons1: Find an icon

Find your replacement icon (transparent PNG files work best) and copy the image itself using the Edit menu or Command+C on your keyboard.

How to create and apply custom Mac icons2: Get the info

Click on the file, folder or app whose icon you want to replace, head into the File menu and choose Get Info or hit Command+I.

How to create and apply custom Mac icons3: Highlight the old

In the Get Info window that appears, click on the existing icon in the top-left corner and ensure that it’s highlighted with a blue glow.

How to create and apply custom Mac icons4: Paste in the new

With the old icon highlighted, head into the Edit menu and paste in the new icon image you copied earlier on to finish things off.

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    2 Comments »

    • John Tamplin said:

      1. You can also just click, drag and drop the new icon image onto the old icon image, once it’s glowing.
      2. To revert to the standard Mac icon, get the icon glowing as per the instructions in this article, then hit the delete key.

    • Alex said:

      I tried the steps listed in this article, but I could not. Then I went to the App Store to find a program that could do it. There are many programs that can do this. One of the best in my opinion – is IconFly.

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