What’s new ?

Version 1.0.

This is the first public version.
It runs natively on Apple Silicon and older Intel-based architectures.

This application allows using the Tahoe icons back to version Ventura (macOS 13.5)
Conversely, it allows you to use icons from older systems (even the very first ones) on Tahoe.

Getting Started

Getting Started with IconSmith

IconSmith lets you extract the icon from any macOS application and export it in several formats — as a portable document, an icon file, or a complete set of images.

The portable document is the default format: opening it with a double clic will open the original application.

Step 1 — Load the original app

You can load any application into IconSmith in three ways:

• Drag and drop — Drag an application from Finder directly onto the IconSmith window.
• Click — Click anywhere in the drop zone (without dragging) to open a dialog box where you can select an application.
• Choose — Choose File > Open (⌘O), to open a file browser.

After loading an original app, IconSmith displays its icon in the centre of the window and shows a colour-category label beneath the preview, matching the current system appearance.

Step 2 — Choose the Desired Appearance

Once this is done, you may want to change the definitive appearance. This can be done in three ways.

• Using the ‘Appearance’ System Settings pane — The icon and the label below are updated accordingly.
• Loading an older version of the same application — The icon of the older version of the application is now linked to the initially dropped application. The label below shows the version being used.
• Loading another .is document — This document may come from any source (for example, it may have been sent by a friend), but it must match the original app, regardless of its version. IconSmith responds as described above.

Step 3 — Choose an Output Format

Use the three buttons in the toolbar to select what you want to create:

Button	Format	What you get
	Default ★	An .is document — a launcher that opens the original app and displays the icon you chose, permanently, regardless of any OS appearance change.
	File	The raw icon as an .icns file.
	Folder	An .iconset folder with every standard .png size.

Your format selection is remembered between sessions.

Step 4 — Export the Icon

Once you have selected an appearance and a format, choose one of these methods to save:

• Drag out — Drag the icon preview out of the window and drop it into any Finder folder.
• File > Save (⌘S) — Opens a save panel where you choose the destination folder.
• File > Share — Share via AirDrop, Messages, or any other system share extension.

Clearing the Current App

To delete the selected app or the added icon, start over or go back:

• Press the Delete key
• Choose Edit > Delete
• Click the small ⨂ in front of the colour-category label below the icon preview
• Drag the icon displayed onto the trash can

You can also choose a completely different application right away. In fact, an application that is not compatible with the one originally choosen will replace it.

Choosing an Output Format

IconSmith supports three output formats, each with a primary and an alternate mode selectable with the ⌥ Option key.

The Three Formats

Toolbar Button	Format	Primary Output	Option-Key Output
	Default	.is document	.alias file
	File	.icns binary	.png image
	Folder	.iconset folder	.app minimal app

Each format has its pros and cons.

Selecting a Format

Click one of the three buttons in the toolbar at the top of the window. The active format is highlighted. IconSmith remembers your choice between sessions.

Primary vs Alternate Output

Drag the icon preview out of the window to export. To switch to the alternate output, hold ⌥ Option before you start the drag. The drag image changes to reflect which output will be created.

Which Format Should I Use?

Output Formats

The Default Format

The default format creates a Finder-compatible file that points back to the original application — and carries the extracted icon embedded within it.

IconSmith Documents (.is)

The default output is an IconSmith document with the .is extension. It bundles together:

• The embedded .icns icon data (base64-encoded)
• A bookmark — a macOS reference that continues to work even if the application is moved on the drive
• The original application’s bundle identifier, display name, version, and copyright notice
• A creation timestamp (ISO 8601)
• A SHA-256 integrity checksum that protects the document from tampering

Creating an IconSmith document

1. Select the default format in the toolbar (first button).
2. Drag the icon preview out of the window and drop it into any Finder folder, or choose File > Save (⌘S), or choose File > Share.

What happens when you open an IconSmith document

1. IconSmith verifies the file’s integrity using its SHA-256 checksum.
2. The original application is located using the stored bookmark.
3. If necessary, the custom icon is applied to the document file itself (visible in the Finder).
4. The original application launches.

Classic Finder Alias .alias (Option Key)

Hold ⌥ Option while dragging to create a standard macOS Finder alias file instead. The alias points to the original application and has the extracted icon applied as a custom Finder icon.

Use a classic Finder alias when you want a simple shortcut without the full IconSmith document format.

The advantage of an alias is that you can drag a document onto it so that the application opens the document directly.

Unfortunately, on Tahoe, the alias will loose the wanted appearance or icon as soon as it needs to be updated by the Finder. The same unexpected behaviour occurs when the alias is dropped in the Dock. Apple has been informed of these bugs in Tahoe (FB22323346 and FB22022729).

The IconSmith Memorial Folder

IconSmith maintains a special folder at ~/Library/IconSmith Memorial/ where you can keep your .is documents organised. Choose IconSmith > Reveal IconSmith Memorial to open this folder in Finder.

An Icon as a File

The File format extracts the icon from an application and saves it as a standalone file that you can use anywhere on your Mac.

.icns Format (Default)

Dragging with the File format selected creates an .icns file — the native macOS icon format used by applications. An .icns file contains multiple resolutions of the icon (from 16 × 16 to 1024 × 1024 pixels) packed into a a single binary container that can be viewed using the Preview app.

Common uses for .icns files:

• Apply to an app — Select the app in the Finder, choose File > Get Info, then drag the .icns file onto the small icon in the upper-left corner of the Get Info window.
  
  This is the best way to set the desired icon for an app. It will be updated in the Dock, in the “About...” window, and so on. However, it may be lost during an update.
• Apply to another Finder item, File or Folder — Same procedure in Get Info.

.png Format (Option Key)

Hold ⌥ Option while dragging to export a .png image instead. The .png is rendered at 1024 × 1024 pixels at 2× scale (equivalent to a 512 pt @2x retina image), providing a high-quality, lossless result with full alpha transparency.

Common uses for .png files:

• Sharing the icon image with others
• Importing into design tools (Sketch, Figma, Pixelmator, etc.)
• Including the icon in documents or presentations
• Using as a source image in image-editing workflows

File Naming

The exported file is named after the application’s display name. For example:

• Safari.icns
• Xcode.png

An Iconset

The Folder format exports either a complete set of icon images at all standard sizes, or a minimal application that launches the original app.

Folder with icon set .iconset (Default)

Dragging with the Folder format creates an .iconset folder containing .png images at every standard macOS icon size:

Using with Xcode

Drag the .iconset folder directly into your Xcode project’s asset catalog. Xcode automatically imports all sizes.

Converting to .icns

You can convert an .iconset folder to an .icns file using Terminal:

Minimal application .app (Option Key) — For advanced users only

Hold ⌥ Option while dragging to create an .app wrapper — a minimal application that, when double-clicked in Finder, launches the original application. The wrapper displays the extracted icon.

You must use the “Terminal” app

After creating the app wrapper, a Terminal command is automatically copied to your clipboard. You must run it to finish the setup:

1. Open Terminal (in Applications > Utilities, or search in Spotlight).
2. Paste the command with ⌘V and press Return.

The command performs two tasks:

• Removes the macOS quarantine flag
• Sets the executable permission on the wrapper’s binary

The main advantage of this format is that it can be used anywhere as an alternative to the original application, for example on the desktop, in a Finder window or in the Dock. Any document dropped on it is forwarded to the original application, which tries to open it.

Advanced

Using IconSmith Documents

An IconSmith document (.is) is a portable file that bundles a custom icon together with a reference to its associated application.

Just double-click it to launch the application. If necessary, the icon for this document will be updated.

Integrity Verification

Every IconSmith document has an embedded SHA-256 checksum. When you open a document, IconSmith verifies this checksum before doing anything else.

If the document fails verification, you see this alert:

This means the file was modified after it was created — either by a transmission error, by another application, or deliberately. Move the document to the Trash and recreate it from the original application.

If the Linked Application Is Missing

When you open a document, IconSmith looks for the linked application in this order:

1. Follows the stored bookmark (works even if the app was moved).
2. Performs a system search by bundle ID if the bookmark is outdated or if the document was shared.

If the application cannot be found at all, you see an alert. Reinstall or relocate the application and try again, or drag the app back onto the IconSmith window to create a fresh document.

Organising Your Documents

Use the IconSmith Memorial folder to keep your .is documents in one place. Open it from the IconSmith menu > Reveal IconSmith Memorial.

The folder is located at ~/Library/IconSmith Memorial/ and is created automatically the first time you launch IconSmith.

Understanding Style Detection

When you drop an app onto IconSmith, it doesn’t use the icon from the Finder’s Info window; instead, it uses the icon from the current style, as displayed on the desktop and in Finder windows. This style (Default, Dark, Transparent), along with any selected color (Tinted), appears below the icon preview.

How does This Work ?

IconSmith performs the following steps:

1. Resamples its own icon to a 40 × 40 pixel grid and computes the average colour.
2. Converts the average colour to the CIELAB colour space, which models human colour perception rather than raw RGB values.
3. Calculates the ΔE76 distance between its icon’s colour and each of the 22 reference colours.
4. Assigns the category whose reference colour is closest (smallest ΔE76).

This perceptual approach ensures the best possible detection of the style used by the system when the Finder displays its icons.

The 22 Colour Categories

Each colour family has a Light and a Dark variant, indicating whether the icon’s dominant tone is lighter or darker:

Appearance-Aware Preview

The colour category label updates in real time when you switch between Default, Dark, Clear or Tinted Style.

When IconSmith is in the background, it continues monitoring for appearance and style changes and refreshes the preview.

Using the Colour Label

The colour category label below the icon preview serves two purposes:

• It tells you which category the icon belongs to.
• Clicking the small ⨂ icon next to the colored category label below the icon preview removes the current app from the window and lets you start over.

Advanced Techniques

The most powerful uses of IconSmith come from combining two drops — loading an application first, then supplementing it with a second source to override the icon.

Using an Icon from an Older Version of the Same App

You can load the current installed version of an application, then replace its icon with the one from any other version you have on disk — an archived copy, an old backup, a version you kept precisely because it had the icon you preferred.

How to do it

1. Drop the application from its current location (for example, /Applications/TextEdit.app) onto the IconSmith window. The current icon is displayed.
2. Drop another version of the same application — from your backup drive, an archive folder, or anywhere else it lives — that contains the icon you want to use instead.
3. The icon in the window updates to the one from the version you just dropped. A label beneath the preview tells you which version that icon came from.
4. Export using your chosen output format. The result carries the old icon applied to the new target.

This technique is especially useful when:

• An application update replaced a carefully crafted icon with a flat squircle redesign.
• You want to pin an older version’s icon to the current installation permanently.
• You have an archive of old application bundles from previous macOS versions.

Loading an Icon from an IconSmith Document

An .is document is a portable icon container. If someone shares a document with you — perhaps one containing the icon for a long-discontinued version of an app — you can use it directly: it will launch the corresponding app on your system.

How to do it

1. Drop the application you want to work with onto the IconSmith window. Its current icon is displayed.
2. Now open the .is document: drag it onto the window, or choose File > Open (⌘O) and select it.
3. If the document’s bundle identifier matches the application already loaded, the icon from the document is used in the preview. The application’s target and all its metadata are preserved — only the icon changes.
4. Export normally with your chosen format.

Why this matters

IconSmith documents can be shared between users, posted online, or stored in your own archive. They carry no external dependency — the icon data is self-contained. This means:

• A friend can share the original TextEdit icon from macOS 10.9, and you can apply it to your copy of TextEdit without ever having that old system.
• You can build a personal library of historical icons in your IconSmith Memorial folder and use them on any machine.
• Communities of users can curate and distribute collections of archival icons for the applications they care about.

Reference

Keyboard Shortcuts

File & Window

Editing

Help

The Option Key Modifier

Hold ⌥ Option while dragging the icon out of the window to switch to the alternate output format:

Troubleshooting

The app icon doesn’t appear in the drop area

Make sure you are dragging an actual application bundle (a .app file) directly from Finder. IconSmith cannot extract icons from other file types.

If the icon is missing even for a valid app, the application’s bundle may not include a standard icon resource. This is rare but can happen with developer builds or command-line tools packaged as .app bundles.

I dropped an app but only see the default icon

Some apps store their icon under an unusual resource name. IconSmith reads CFBundleIconName and CFBundleIconFile from the app’s Info.plist, then falls back to the Finder thumbnail. If neither yields a recognisable icon, the system default app icon is displayed.

I can’t save to a particular folder

Before saving, IconSmith checks that the destination is writable. Common reasons a folder may not be writable:

• You do not have write permission (check in Finder > Get Info).
• The volume is mounted read-only (e.g., a disk image or a locked external drive).
• The path is protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP): /System/, /usr/, /bin/, or /sbin/.

Choose a writable destination such as your Desktop, Downloads, or Documents folder.

The document shows "damaged and can’t be opened"

This alert means the .is document has failed its SHA-256 integrity check — the file does not match the checksum recorded when it was created. Possible causes:

• The file was corrupted during a network transfer or copy.
• The file was modified by another application.
• The file was received from an untrusted source and may have been altered.

Move the document to the Trash and create a new one by dropping the application onto IconSmith again.

The linked application can’t be found

When you open an .is document, IconSmith tries to locate the linked application. If it shows an alert that the application is missing:

• Make sure the application is installed. Reinstall it if necessary.
• If you moved the application to a new location, the bookmark should still resolve correctly — but if it does not, drop the app onto IconSmith again to create a fresh document.

The app wrapper won’t launch (Gatekeeper blocks it)

When you export an .app wrapper using the Folder output with ⌥ Option, a Terminal command is automatically copied to your clipboard. You must run this command before the wrapper will launch:

1. Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities).
2. Paste with ⌘V and press Return.

The command removes the quarantine attribute and sets the executable flag. Without it, macOS Gatekeeper will prevent the wrapper from running.

The icon looks wrong after switching between Default, Dark, Clear or Tinted Style

IconSmith monitors system appearance changes in the background and updates the preview automatically. If the preview looks incorrect after a mode switch, click anywhere in the drop area to force a refresh.

The icons do not appear correctly after dragging the Memorial folder to the Dock.

While holding down the ⌥ Option key, make sure the following options are selected: Show as folder and View contents as a grid.

The help book doesn’t appear in the Help menu

After installing a new build, macOS helpd may cache the previous help book. Clear the cache with the following Terminal command, then relaunch IconSmith:

How do I send feedback or report a bug?

Choose Help > Send Feedback to open a pre-addressed email to the developer, or visit the IconSmith website via Help > Visit IconSmith Website.