Mac Icon Maker

What it's for

Make the .icns icon file a Mac app, folder or disk uses, from one picture, or look inside an existing one. An .icns holds the same icon at every size from 16 to 1024 pixels, which normally means making ten PNGs and running iconutil in Terminal.

For example, when you’ve drawn a 1024-pixel logo for a small app or an Automator workflow, turn it into an icon in the rounded-square shape the Dock expects. Open the .icns in Preview, copy it, and paste it onto the icon at the top of the app’s Get Info window.

How to use it

Choose a picture, or drop it on the Picture box: a square PNG or SVG of 1024 pixels or more works best. Shape keeps the picture as it is, or puts it on a rounded square with a soft shadow and margin, the template macOS app icons have used since Big Sur, filled with the Background colour. Padding adds space around the picture. All three are remembered in this browser.

Save the .icns downloads the icon with all ten sizes. Save as an .iconset downloads a ZIP of the PNGs named as iconutil expects (icon_16x16.png, icon_16x16@2x.png and so on), for Xcode or to make the .icns yourself.

To look inside an icon, choose or drop an .icns on the .icns file box: each picture is listed with its type and size, and Save the pictures as PNGs downloads them as an icon set.

Example

Choose a 1024 × 1024 PNG logo called logo.png, set Shape to the macOS app icon and Padding to 12, and press Save the .icns.

The previews show the logo on a white rounded square at 1024, 128, 32 and 16 pixels, and the message says Saved logo.icns, with 10 sizes from 16 to 1024 pixels.

Good to know

Small sizes are scaled down from the same picture, so fine detail may disappear at 16 and 32 pixels. The shape is a rounded rectangle close to Apple’s, not its exact curve. Older icons store some sizes in formats from before OS X 10.7, or as JPEG 2000; those are listed but not shown or saved. An icon pasted in Get Info doesn’t change an app’s own icon file, and macOS may restore the original after an update.