Extracting Icons from Mac OS X Applications
Occasionally you may want an image of an application icon in Mac OS X (perhaps you are writing a tutorial, and wish to include an image like the one to the right). Within each Mac OS X application is a package that contains an “.icns” file, which is the icon image used by the application.
Using the Finder
You may access this file through the Finder, using the following steps:
- In the Applications folder, choose the application whose icon you wish to extract.
- Ctrl-click (right-click) on the application icon and choose Show Package Contents.
- A new Finder window will open. Browse to the Resources folder and look for the icon. This file usually has an “icns” extension.
- Open Preview, and drag the “.icns” file to the Preview icon in the Dock. The image will open in Preview and from there you may save it as a “.png” or “.jpg” file. The former is the preferable format for the web; select the “Alpha” check box to preserve transparency.
Using Get Info and Preview
- Select the volume, application, folder, or file whose icon you want to stamp onto another, just click the icon to select it.
- From the File menu, choose Get Info or press Command-I to open the Info window.
- Click the icon in the upper-left corner of the Info window to select it.
- From the Edit menu, choose Copy or press Command-C.
- In the Applications folder, choose the application whose icon you wish to extract.
- Press Cmd-I to open a Get Info dialog. In the upper left of the dialog windo is a small icon. Select it and then select copy (under Edit > Copy)
- Go to Preview and paste. Four sizes of the icon will open: 512×512, 128×128, 32×32, and 16×16 px
Using Terminal
If you prefer the command-line, see these articles on Mac OS X Hints and MacWorld about using the unix sips command to convert “.icns” files to various image file formats.
