Working with Icons in Yosemite
I have a confession to make. I have never been content with the stock desktop icons that have shipped from Cupertino. The default OS X icons have always been bland to me; they lack personality. I like customizing my computer’s icons. Call it my compulsion, if you will.
Replacing the stock Mac icons with custom icons is something I’ve been doing for every Apple computer I’ve owned. Back in the classic Mac OS days, power users could tweak and customize their Mac’s icons through a program called ResEdit.
About three years ago, I wrote about my favorite OS X replacement icons. The OS X icon landscape has changed a bit since then, so I felt that time was right to revisit the subject.
When I wrote that article, the best option for replacing icons in OS X was an application called CandyBar. Sadly, as of late 2012, it’s no longer supported. (It’s still available for download, though.)
Filling in the void left by Candybar is the freely available LiteIcon, by freemacsoft. LiteIcon is barebones in terms of its features compared to Candybar, but it gets the job done. And it’s actively supported.
Finding quality crafted third party replacement icons for Yosemite and Mavericks has been a challenge. (For a thorough analysis on what goes into making Yosemite’s icons, you would do well to read Nick Keppol’s post on the subject.)
Replacement icon development seems to have waned in the past several years. Many of my favorite icon sites are no longer around. Perhaps tinkering with icons is a bit of a geeky endeavor. Maybe people are satisfied with the defaults. Or maybe it’s just Apple being restrictive with Mac App Store apps due to code signing. Whatever the case, third party replacement icon development appears relegated to that of a fringe activity now.
That being said, third party icon development still happens. If you’re into that sort of thing, here are a few noteworthy places to check out.
TheyMakeIcons.com: this site has both free and paid icons. I found a beautiful set of hard drive icons here (including the ones shown in the top-most screenshot of this blog post).
Muir: Yosemite Icons volume 1 and 2. These are Retina enhanced icons created by Sebastian De With. You’ll find stunning replacements for the Adobe apps, Twitter, Spotify and more.
Dribbble also has several Yosemite replacement icons, created by a pool of talented designers from around the world. My favorites include sets designed by Jeremy Goldberg, Rasmus Nielsen, and Vitor Hugo Japa.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more icons to customize…
-Krishna
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