folder icons

athomenator · Nov 15, 2009

Hey guys

this is the first time i've posted something here, and i was just wondering if anyone coukld please help me out with some folder icon issues that i want to resolve

i've been trying to make a custom folder for a games folder, and i also want to place it in the side bar,
but i want that to have a different icon just like the applications folder and the music folder. How do i do that?

thanks, rick

nabl · Nov 15, 2009

I don't think that is possible. The icons used in the sidebar for the standard folders are stored somewhere in the System folder (I don't remember where, but I saw them one day when I was messing around in there). They aren't using the standard icon format as far as I can tell; I think their use is hard-coded into the Finder. I'll see if I can track them down again to find any more information out, and I'll let you know if I do.

athomenator · Nov 15, 2009

wow, i didn't know it went that deep!
but thanks for your help so far.
I really want everything i have in that sidebar to look nice but so far you can only do it with certain folders.
There must be a way to edit that, but how?

nabl · Nov 15, 2009

Ah, I found where the icons I was referring to are located. They're in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/, but I don't think that has to do with the solution. Instead, there's a way to do this programatically. I'm trying to figure out how it works, and I'll let you know if I do.

athomenator · Nov 15, 2009

is there no way to just drag the .icns file into here? or do you have to program it into the system

athomenator · Nov 15, 2009

I'm going to try to add a file named "toolbarfoldergames.icns" hopefully it will recognize
it and when i put a folder named "games" into the toolbar it might work, ill let you know
if it does, to be quite honest i don't know much about this. but i wanna learn so if any of
you guys think i'm a dumbass please don't take note just help.

macwannabe · Nov 15, 2009

Dude just drag the folder into the sidebar... i just tried it ... remember its a mac, so its gotta be easy, right.

i just moved the address book into the side bar to show you the icon

nabl · Nov 15, 2009

athomenator said:
I'm going to try to add a file named "toolbarfoldergames.icns" hopefully it will recognize
it and when i put a folder named "games" into the toolbar it might work, ill let you know
if it does, to be quite honest i don't know much about this. but i wanna learn so if any of
you guys think i'm a dumbass please don't take note just help.

That's not a bad idea, but I doubt it will work; if you did add a file there, remove it. The best way that you'll be able to do this for now is to simply set the 16x16 version of the icon to the custom picture that you want in the sidebar. What are you using to make the icon? If it's Icon Composer (which comes with the OS X Developer Tools), then that's quite simple to do. The only downside to this method is that if you would open the folder in list view or very small icon view, you'll see the different icon, but I'd say it's worth it considering the alternative*.

macwannabe said:
OMG OMG dude just drag the folder into the sidebar.. i just tried it ... remember its a mac, so its gotta be easy right.

That's not quite what athomenator was asking, although it is how you add a folder to the sidebar.

*If you're truly interested, there is a programmatic way to do it, but it's pretty scarcely documented. It's using the API declared in LSSharedFiles.h; kLSSharedFileListFavoriteItems refers to the items in PLACES in the sidebar.

macwannabe · Nov 15, 2009

nabl said:
That's not a bad idea, but I doubt it will work; if you did add a file there, remove it. The best way that you'll be able to do this for now is to simply set the 16x16 version of the icon to the custom picture that you want in the sidebar. What are you using to make the icon? If it's Icon Composer (which comes with the OS X Developer Tools), then that's quite simple to do. The only downside to this method is that if you would open the folder in list view or very small icon view, you'll see the different icon, but I'd say it's worth it considering the alternative*.

That's not quite what athomenator was asking, although it is how you add a folder to the sidebar.

*If you're truly interested, there is a programmatic way to do it, but it's pretty scarcely documented. It's using the API declared in LSSharedFiles.h; kLSSharedFileListFavoriteItems refers to the items in PLACES in the sidebar.

well he wants a cutom icon you can do that with either copy/paste or with a program like candybar

athomenator · Nov 16, 2009

yeah but i want a differnt icon for the tool/sidebar i dont want the same icon, if i did i would just drop it, but yeah im using icon composer so ill just do that and see how it looks, thanks

athomenator · Nov 16, 2009

nabl is this what you mean

? thanks

wont this mean that in a list the folder will also have the custom icon?

nabl · Nov 16, 2009

athomenator said:
nabl is this what you mean [image removed] ? thanks

wont this mean that in a list the folder will also have the custom icon?

Yes, that's what I meant. I also mentioned that it will indeed show up in List View. However, that might be preferable to not having your custom icon at all; it's up to you. And you could always use the large icons in list view, if you'd like (use View → Show View Options to change it). Nice icon, by the way.