Transferring Icons from Monterey to Leopard

[mac57mac57]

I have a number of folders with customized icons on my Monterey Mac Studio. When I copy these folders over to a PPC Mac running an older Mac OS X version (Tiger, Leopard, Sorbet Leopard) I often find that the icon doesn't show - what displays is just a blank screen area where the icon should be. Sometimes it works just fine, but many times it does not.

Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone else know of a solution?

As a workaround, so far I have been painfully recreating the custom icons on the Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard side using a browser to get an original JPG, PNG or whatever of the image I want to use, then Photoshop to erase the background and save it as a PNG, and then iConverter v0.9 to convert that PNG to an ICNS file. Needless to say, this is a bit of a process. I would like to understand why the ICNS images generated on Monterey (also on other "recent" macOS versions) are not understood on Tiger/Leopard.

Thanks!

 

[Slartibart]

The resolutions and/or format are different - the newer system use higher resolutions. One way to get the folder icons for transfer to the older MacOS X:

1. Select a folder on the newer macOS and press Command + I (or right-click the folder icon and choose Get Info).
2. Click the app icon in the top-left corner of the Info panel so that a blue border appears around it.
3. Press Command + C on the keyboard or click Edit > Copyin the menu bar to copy the icon’s graphics to the system clipboard.
4. Open the built-in Preview app on your Mac.
5. Click File > New From Clipboard in the Preview menu.
6. Preview will automatically paste the app icon in all available sizes, with thumbnails available in the sidebar. Check each size before choosing one you’d like to use. Generally, the highest-resolution icon is the topmost version; to verify, select the icon and press Command + I
7. With the wanted icon selected in the sidebar, right-click the icon and choose Export As.
8. Save as PNG and transfer it to the older system for drag&drop as folder icon.

 

[mac57mac57]

Thanks @Slartibart, great insight. I presume it has to be either file size or not density, but this Preview trick is new to me. I will give it a try! Thanks!