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Quick Tip: Finding an App's Original Icon Set in Mac OS X

Don't waste time on the Internet when the icon you need is already on your computer's hard drive

Jun 2, 2009 13:22 GMT  ·  By
Apple application icons in the Dock
   Apple application icons in the Dock

Say you're doing a project for school, a presentation, or you simply need to get a hold of an application's original (512 x 512) icon. Searching Google Images may do the trick, but you'll often find yourself with pictures that are too small, blurry, modified or just not the one you're looking for. This short guide will show you how to get your hands on an application's original icon, right from within itself.

Power users should know that most Mac OS X apps (be they Apple-developed, or created by third-party devs) contain something called a “Resources” folder. This folder is mostly used by the application itself to get the images and sounds it needs to display / play throughout the course of running. Yes, you've guessed right: this is the place you need to be to start looking for that app's icon set. We'll use Apple's GarageBand as the example for this short tutorial.

1. The first thing you need to do is navigate to where GarageBand is installed on your computer. If you have it already living peacefully in your Dock, just right-click its icon and select “Show in Finder.” Whether or not you've placed the music-making program in your Applications folder, you can simply fire up Spotlight (CMD + Space) and do a quick search to locate the app. Hold down the Command (CMD) key and hit Return (Enter) with the GarageBand selected in Spotlight. Congratulations! You've found where GarageBand is situated on your Mac's hard drive.

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2. With the application selected in Finder, right click its icon and select “Show Package Contents.”
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3. Double click the “Contents” folder and then double click the “Resources” folder.
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4. Locate the file called “GarageBand App.icns.”
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NOTE: Most applications' icons can be found using this method, as they're generally named like this: “ApplicationName.icns.”

5. Copy the .icns icon set and paste it wherever you want it (Do not drag the .icns file out! It's GarageBand's to use).

6. Open the .icns file with Preview. It will show the same icon in five different sizes.

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7. As shown in the screenshot above, drag the first (512 x 512 resolution) .tiff image file out and use any image editing application to change its size, format, etc., and save it. If you only want to save the icon as JPEG, GIF, PNG etc., you can just select it in Preview and choose Save As from the app's menu.

That's it!

Hope you've found this guide helpful.

Update: reader Blah suggests a different way to locate and get hold of the original application icons in Mac OS X. His method is:

- select the respective application in Finder, use "copy" (CMD + C) - open Preview app - from the file menu, choose "Paste from clipboard" - the icons, including resolutions like 128 x 128 or 512 x 512 will be shown instantly.