Customizing The Mac OS X User Interface: Icons
by Scott Chitwood
February 15th, 2005
This article is intended as a primer for users who are new to Mac OS X.
The heart of any Macintosh user interface customization begins with a personalized selection of icons that suit the taste and needs of the individual user. There are several approaches one can take for changing icons and a huge talent pool of icon artists whose works offer an amazing array of icon styles to choose from.
Before we get started you'll need to download some icons; The Iconfactory, The ResExcellence Archive, widget:widget, and InterfaceLift.com are all great places to browse for icons.
Using Copy and Paste in the Mac OS X Finder is your first option for changing Apple's default icons to something more personal. This method allows you to paste a custom icon over any existing folder that you've created in your Home folder; i.e., a Pacman icon on your games folder, or maybe Mario! Here's how it's done.
Highlight a custom icon, then in the File menu choose Get Info.
Click on the icon pictured in the floating palette, then, in the Edit menu, select Copy.
Close the floating palette.
Repeat the procedure for your target icon selecting Paste from the Edit menu.
That's it!
If you decide that you'd like to revert to Apple's default icon you can do that at any time by choosing Cut from the Edit menu. A simpler method of restoration couldn't be dreamed of!
You can also change application icons using the same method and a few of the default icons in your Home folder too!
If you'd like to automate the process via a contextual menu item grab a copy of Hideki Itoh's freeware FinderIconCM. You'll be copying and pasting in a flash with FinderIcon! An added feature of FinderIcon is it's storage well that has a capacity of up to eighty frequently used custom icons that are ready to paste at the click of a mouse.
As long as we're on the subject of Hideki Itoh let's take a quick side trip and look at another of his freeware tools, QuickImage CM. This handy contextual menu item gives you the power to add thumbnail icons to your photos or other image files in a snap! QuickImage also has commands for viewing image files and converting them to JPEG, PNG, PSD, TIFF, PICT and BMP.
But what if you want to use custom icons for the Finder, Trash, default Folder and other System elements? You'll need some assistance from a third party application to accomplish that trick! CandyBar from Panic and The Iconfactory is the best and most flexible solution you'll find. For $12.95 you'll get a fantastic amount of control over your System, Disk and Application icons.
Of course the most important thing to remember aobut using custom icons is to have fun!
