Comments on: OS X: Convert Any Application Icon to 512 x 512 Image File

By: MacKat

MacKat — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:03:11 +0000

I’ve seen a couple already list this, but hey, what the heck. =)

1) Find the Application you want the icon from.
2) Right click, click “Show Package Contents…”
3) Go into Contents>Resources
4) Locate the image you want.
5) While pressing Option, drag it to your desktop.
6) Double click it.
7) You’ll see many variations of the image, the smaller versions. Drag the largest (normally the 512×512, not always the case) to your Desktop, it should be a TIFF.
8) Double click the TIFF.
9) In Preview, go to File>Save as… Or press CMD+SHIFT+S.
10) Make sure you have the file format as PNG, with Alpha checked.

This is also a brilliant way to manipulate applications, you can use others that you have to pay for, like CandyBar, or you can change the icons manually. All you’ve got to do is copy the new application icon into the Contents>Resources folder, and rename the new icon to match the old one. Keeping the old icon, under a different name won’t do a thing, it’s a good backup practice.

The same applies to Menu Bar apps. A few I’ve changed are SimpleTask, Notify, Growl, XMenu, and ClpMenu. You just have to open the application’s resources, find and edit/remove/replace the icon you want to change. Restart the app, and marvel your handiwork.

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:56:42 +0000

You can just…
1 Copy the application
2 Open Preview
3 Press cmd + N
4 Save as PNG
… Much easier

By: iWantiPhone

iWantiPhone — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:18:54 +0000

Brilliant tip. I downloaded a load of icons which I thought were PNG’s so this is just the ticket to change them.

By: Gene

Gene — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:31:44 +0000

Can this icon from the Mac OS can be used as part of a commercial design

By: Gio

Gio — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:02:30 +0000

Img2icns can do that directly, is an application to create icons from images or images from icons

http://www.img2icnsapp.com

By: Kratos

Kratos — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:43:40 +0000

And here’s how you can get the .icn for every app:

1. go to your applications folder
2. locate the app you want to get the .icn
3. ctrl+click and select “show package content”
4. in the new window, double click on “Content”
5. locate the “Resources” folder under “Content” and that’s it, there is a lot of stuff so becareful of deleting app files, here you can get the .icn at 512×512 px, copy to another folder and open it in preview to save them as png, psd, gif, jpg, and other formats.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:04:02 +0000

Sorry “Anthony’s Ghost” . Re-reading my post I could have clarified what separtates my post.

My point is for most items you don’t even have to “get-info”. Just copy the application itself and do the rest as stated in preview.

By: Anthony's Ghost

Anthony's Ghost — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:33:19 +0000

Anthony, this is the ghost of Christmas past. You need to stop writing what’s been said thrice already.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:55:11 +0000

The absolute simplest way to do this. Go to the location of the icon (Applications folder, unless you put it elsewhere). Copy it. Open Preview. If you go under the File menu, you’ll see it says “Make New from Clipboard”. The application is there, full-size, transparency, the whole works!!

To save yourself a trip to the App folder, do this. If the app is in your dock, just command click on it, and it’ll bring it up in a new Finder window.

By: Vagelis

Vagelis — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:11:37 +0000

I am using preview.app to do the same thing.
Open the original icon in Preview and then save as PNG wherever you want it.

For those of us that prefer the mouse, plus you avoid the duplication. :)

By: Victor

Victor — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:52:32 +0000

can you put a jpeg image as an apple application icon. Someone please write to my email at johsviesantos@yahoo.com Thank You

By: Fernando

Fernando — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:32:40 +0000

Great tip! Thanks!

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:46:03 +0000

You can also use Candybar (http://www.panic.com/candybar) to store these icons and export into Photoshop. Just drag the icns file into the candybar window and its now ready to be archived.

By: chris

chris — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:19:59 +0000

Y would you be using windows? and do this with 10.5.4 on the mac.

By: United Voices

United Voices — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:02:47 +0000

can this be done in windows too?

By: BittBox

BittBox — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:51:41 +0000

WOW,

I had no idea that Preview could do this.
Thanks for all the tips everyone :)

~Bitt

By: Esben Thomsen

Esben Thomsen — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:45:02 +0000

wtf!

I think most of you needs to learn your mac osx “abc”.. preview app, which have followed OS X since its birth, can do this as well and in same resolution and tranparency etc.

Its alot worse the other way around, making a icns, which oddly isn’t supported.

By: toby

toby — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:28:24 +0000

This is a great tip! No more trawling Google images. Horray!

Nice one!

By: Bep

Bep — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:11:52 +0000

It’s amazing how nobody read previous comments when posting one :p

Maybe it’s because i said “aperçu” instead of “preview” for the app :p

By: mf

mf — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:04:37 +0000

this is a cluttered approach. there is an easier way. and i mean _easy_ way:
1. locate the icon you want
2. right click > Get Info ( or apple + i )
3. click on the icon in top left corner and copy it ( apple + c )
4. open Preview and File > New From Clipboard ( or apple + n )
5. choose the size you want and File > Save as… and pick PNG with alpha

that’s it :P works on 10.5.4, and i assume on older ones too :P