There are many reasons to change the icons that appear in the Dock on our Mac, and it’s easy enough to do, leaving you no reason to have to stick with the ones that are automatically attached to files and folders. If you want the dock icons to be something more personal to you, to all match a particular theme, or just have a change of pace, you only need to change the actual icon for that particular app or folder. It’s that easy,
Free Icon Sets are found all over the web. The particular one I’m using for this piece was found at Icon Drawer. Initiate the download as you would with any other download, making sure you follow the usage rules laid out on the site.
Free Icon Sets are found all over the web. The particular one I’m using for this piece was found at Icon Drawer. Initiate the download as you would with any other download, making sure you follow the usage rules laid out on the site.
I want to change my Pictures Folder icon to being black and blue like the logos surrounding it. It’s not even clear looking at this which one it is. Currently it’s the top one shown here and showing the contents of the folder. I’m going to both change the icon, and change this setting so that it shows the icon, and not the contents.
How to Lock the Dock Icons in Mac OS X (to Make It Childproof) Open one of the applications you want to always be in the dock, and right click on its dock icon. You will do these steps for each app you want to keep in the dock. Toggle “Keep in Dock” to on in the Options menu.
The first thing I need to do is select the new file that contains the new logo. Instead of opening it, though, I go to the FIle Menu and pull up “Get Info,” or press Command-I.
From the resulting pop-up, select the tiny icon in the upper left corner and go to the Edit menu and pull up on “Copy,” or press Command-C.
If I clicked on the folder in the dock, it would open it. Instead, I find the application on my hard drive and “Get Info” the same way I did to copy the new logo. This time after I select that small icon in the upper left, I go to the Edit menu and “Paste,” or press Command-P.
To get the change to be reflected in the dock, I need to drag the folder out of the dock and replace it with the changed folder. I still see the contents of the folder, though, and that’s because it’s saved as a Stack and not a Folder. To change this, right click on the folder, and change it from Stack to Folder.
It should be noted that not all dock icons can be changed in this manner. The icons that ship with the Mac OS, such as iTunes, Mail, etc., are set so that you can’t simply copy and paste it away. You will need a program such as CandyBar to do that. However, that application comes with a $29 pricetag.
There’s no doubt that the default icons used throughout Mac OS X are indeed very eye pleasing. However looking at the same icons for months or years on end can get repetitive and old. In this article we’ll go over a few ways to spice up the look of the folder, file, application and dock icons.
Change Icons Method #1 – Get Info
The first method in changing the icons I’m going to show you is through the “Get Info” window. To do this, right-click on a folder or application and select “Get Info”. Doing so, will open up a small window which shows relevent information.
At the top left corner of the window, you’ll see a small icon displaying the icon that is currently being used. Click once on the icon image and you’ll notice that the image becomes highlighted in a light shade of blue. Now all you have to do to change the icon is simply paste a new image on it. After the icon is selected paste your image by using the keyboard shortcut for paste which is Command + V.
Important: You must open the image first, then copy and paste the image. If you just copy the image file then paste it on the icon it won’t display the actual image as an icon, it’ll just display the image file icon as the icon. To elaborate, double-click the image, which by default would open in the Preview app. From the Preview app, copy it using either Command + C or from the menubar, Edit -> Copy.
While this method is incredibly simple and easy to use, it does have it’s limitations. For instance, this method only allows changing one folder icon at a time. Also this method doesn’t working for customizing certain icons such as the trash icon, to change the trash icon you’d need an application like LiteIcon.
Change Icons Method #2 – LiteIcon
LiteIcon is a free application (donationware), which makes customizing your Mac icons incredibly easy and intuitive. It was also recently updated to work with Mavericks.
The best thing about LiteIcon is how it gives easy access as well as organizes all the icons on your Mac. From the sidebar you can choose to customize the Folder, Dock, Devices, Other, Applications and Volumes icons. Selecting one of these will display all the relevant icons that are available for customization.
Now comes the really easy part, just drag an image on top on the icon that you want to change. Once you are happy with your customizations, simply click the “Apply Changes”. You may be asked to log out and then log back in to complete the changes.
One thing to take notice of is the special “Generic” icon in the Folders list. Changing this will change all the generic folders on your Mac.
Icon Resources
This wouldn’t be a very good article if I didn’t show you some awesome icons and other good resources to find more. So without further ado here are some of my favorite icon packs, followed by a few websites to find more.
Download AutobotsIcon Icons
Download Scenery Icons
While you’re here be sure to check out the rest of Arrioch’s profile for more impressive icons.
Download Wooden Drives / Download Wooden Folders
Now go find your own favorites
Be sure to check out these awesome icon resources:
- DeviantART – Warning: you may end up loosing hours browsing here.
Additional Tips:
- To revert an icon to its default, highlight the icon in the Get Info window -> press Delete on your keyboard.
- To revert all icons to their default in LiteIcon, from the menubar -> Tools -> Restore All System Icons.