{"id":88038,"date":"2024-02-21T17:23:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T23:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=88038"},"modified":"2024-02-21T17:23:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T23:23:38","slug":"image2icon-makes-it-easy-to-create-custom-mac-icons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/88038-image2icon-makes-it-easy-to-create-custom-mac-icons\/","title":{"rendered":"Image2icon Makes it Easy to Create Custom Mac Icons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Personalizing one’s computer is a rite of passage, and one that I have fully embraced in my 35+ years as an Apple user. While some people like to adorn their Macs with stickers on the case, I prefer customizations that are a bit less obtrusive: changing my Mac’s icons. (Yes, I am a nerd.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was first introduced to the notion of customizing icons in the late 80’s, back when I rocked an Apple IIGS. Changing the stock hard drive icon to something else (like the Starfleet insignia, as one does) brought a wave of delight to my 15 year old self. Customizing my computer’s icons was empowering for me, since I could modify my computer’s look and feel, without having to resort to writing esoteric code. I’ll go so far as to state that changing my computer’s icons was the<\/em> catalyst that turned me from a mere computer user to a full-blown computing enthusiast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Black and white icons from classic Mac OS System 7.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I moved from the IIGS through various iterations of the Mac, my tradition of customizing icons carried on. With MacOS 7, I was introduced to sytem tools like ResEdit<\/a>, which enabled me to make my own<\/em> custom Mac icons. With Mac OS X, icons received a significant overhaul. First and foremost, they were no longer represented by blocky-pixels, they could now be rendered as near photo-realistic representations. And second of all, icons could now scale up to a whopping 512 x 512 pixels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two reasons why most people customize their Mac’s icons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. It’s a helpful visual tool to quickly find what you’re looking for on your Mac.<\/li>
  2. It’s fun.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    For me, it’s both of the above, but mostly the latter. Customizing icons doesn’t require any specific software. Apple’s own website has a step-by-step approach<\/a> that works. But if you want even more flexibility and power, you’ll need something more heavy duty, like Image2icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Image2icon<\/a> version 2 is a free application (available from the Mac App Store<\/a>) that lets you create and personalize your Mac’s icons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The main interface you’ll see when you launch Image2icon 2.0 for Mac.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Image2icon<\/a> is very simple to use. When the application launches, you are presented with a single window. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Drop an image into the circle, and you’ll see previews of your image on a wide variety of icon categories.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Turn your image into a custom drive icon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Drop your image into the circle, and Image2icon<\/a> will give you a myriad of custom icon types to choose from. Some of the custom icon types you can select from include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n