Dec 13
In Tiger when I wanted to make icons of a folder I used a little script called ‘Icon Creator’. It didnt work anymore in Leopard. While experimenting I discovered a very fun and easy way to make icons in Leopard.
All you have to do is to open a jpeg (I believe any format that will open works) in PREVIEW.
Then (with the selection tool) you select the part of the picture you want as your icon. Now COPY it (press Comand + C)
Select a folder (or anything you want to change the icon of) and Right-click on this folder, bringing up the info pane. Go up to the top of the pane, click once on the icon to highlight it, and PASTE.
You now have your new icon.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:08 am
isn’t working for me, perhaps I’m doing something wrong? when i’ve selected an area of an image and pressed cmd-v my mac just beeps at me as if I’m doing something wrong.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Sorry to inform you, that copy’n'pasting any jpeg (and png) is not new to osx. in 10.4 you could easily drag’n'drop or copy’n'paste any icon to a folder, an app or a volume, as well.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Sorry I accidently posted while I was still typing.
This is the coplete post:
In Tiger when I wanted to make icons of a folder I used a little script called ‘Icon Creator’. It didnt work anymore in Leopard. While experimenting I discovered a very fun and easy way to make icons in Leopard.
All you have to do is to open a jpeg (I believe any format that will open works) in PREVIEW.
Than (with the selection tool) you select the part of the picture you want as your icon. Now COPY it (press Comand + C)
Select a folder (or anything you want to change the icon of) and Right-click on this folder, bringing up the info pane. Go up to the top of the pane, click once on the icon to highlight it, and PASTE.
You now have your new icon
December 13th, 2007 at 9:24 am
Thanks Eddie, I’ve updated the article. Like Dr Schwartzau said, I think this was actually possible in Tiger, I do not recall to be honest, in any case, thanks for the tip, keep them coming!
December 13th, 2007 at 10:00 am
You don’t need a jpeg or any image to do this. You can do it from anything you see on your screen by using the print screen tool. I don’t remember the keys you have to press to get print screen because I changed mine but you can find it under system preferences in keyboard and mouse under keyboard shortcuts. I believe there is also a tip on this site about using print screen as well.
Anyway, just print screen right over anything you want to use (an image on the web a photo in iPhoto, etc.) you just need to be seeing it on your screen. If you can see it you can use it.
Then open get info for the icon you want to change, click the icon once then press cmd + V and you’re all set.
December 13th, 2007 at 10:11 am
You’re right. Thanks! But you have to open it in PREVIEW first then Copy it to paste it. If not you’ll get the standard jpg icon. At least on my system.
December 13th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I got it to work first try. It is cool.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
That trick will not work if you are using Cover Flow Finder view and go up to 128×128. You will get a black field instead.
http://www.reales.cc/coverflowbug.m4v
What I do is save the JPEG and drop it into Img2icns to make a Folder Icon and copy/paste icons. This way it will work with up to 512×512 and it’s pretty cool for movies.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:31 am
“Sorry to inform you, that copy’n’pasting any jpeg (and png) is not new to osx. in 10.4 you could easily drag’n’drop or copy’n’paste any icon to a folder, an app or a volume, as well.”
yeh i have been doing this for a while now…
December 14th, 2007 at 3:32 am
works great!
December 14th, 2007 at 8:08 am
To Kevin and Dr Alexander: I wanted to inform that in this way you can select a part (!) of a picture to use it as icon, without making a new jpeg.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
Once you’ve done it, how do u go back?
December 17th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Jock, select the icon again and press Command+X
January 7th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
It *was* available in Tiger. I ripped all my DVDs to my movies folder so as to access them via Front Row. For easier browsing in finder i copy-pasted the DVD covers from google image search to the icons of the movie files.
Very nice feature though.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
is this supposed to change the icons on ur dock or not??
July 25th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Simple answer.
Google “IMG2ICNS”
Problem solved.
September 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
thanks a million for this. Very helpful.