Instructions on making new icons

[phrancpharmD]

So, I decided to clean up my dock. I made aliases of the apps I commonly use and stuffed them into four different folders to put on the right side of the dividing line in my dock, just to tidy things up, you know? Anyway, now I have four identical looking folders in the dock, and I want to customize them. I don't want to download already made icons, and I don't really want to design anything from scratch with Iconographer. For example, one of my folders is for "iApps." What I would like to do is take the plain blue folder and shrink the standard iTunes and iPhoto icons down and paste them over the plain blue folder in Photoshop, just to have a way to differentiate it from the other folders, except I can't seem to make it work correctly. Any suggestions are appreciated!
Frank

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I know there is software out there that can do this (at least there is for Mac OS 9 - I've used it). What you need to do is get a scaled-down image of whatever icon you want pasted on top of a generic folder (check the mask!), then copy this image (preferably with its mask) and paste it onto a full-size generic folder. Then use this image as a custom icon for the folder. If you're having trouble getting the scaled-down image to paste itself on the generic folder icon without white space, the reason is that the software you're using doesn't take the mask into account when pasting. Do you know how to apply a custom icon to a folder (Get Info for the folder, select its icon, paste the icon you have on the clipboard, close the info window)?

 

[michaelrjohnson]

use the same process as you did previously, using iconographer in photoshop. i've done it, it works.

 

[RiseAgainst]

Check out Folder Icon Maker X on version tracker.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17225

The program combines two existing icons into one, exactly what you want to do. Just select a generic folder icon and, say, an iTunes icon, and it will make an iTunes folder for you.

 

[janey]

if you want to use existing icons, copy the icon by doing apple+i on the folder/app, then clicking on the icon and copying it, then doing apple+i on the item you want the icon to be on and click the icon in that window and paste...

yeah that wasnt too great of an explanation, but thats basically all you have to do. to make your own icons theres this tool in the developer tools (xcode) called icon composer that you can use.