# Where are the system/default icons located?



## FOOOD (Nov 22, 2004)

Where are the system/default icons located in OS X?

I want to locate them (or just download them) & play about with them (change the look of them).

If they are hidden, then how do I show them & where are they located?


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Nov 22, 2004)

It depends on what icons you mean... application icons, like Preview's or iChat's icon, are located inside the application file itself (which is actually just a folder that acts like an application).

Right-click on the application, then select "Show Package Contents."  A new folder should open with the contents of the app.  Poke around in there to see what's around.  You should find the application icon along with a slew of other application-specific icons.  For example, if you want the icon that shows on a .TIFF file, then you'd go poking around in the application package that's associated with that file (PhotoShop, Preview, whatever).

I would be hesitant to go changing icons around in the system by manually editing them unless you know exactly what you're doing.  There are strict guidelines for icons, like masks, size, color depth, format, etc. that must be kept at a certain value -- you can't drop any old TIFF in place of a system TIFF and expect it to work.  There are lots of articles about this on the internet, and a Google search for something like "Mac OS X icons" or "change Mac OS X icons" should yield a good amount of results.

If you want to safely change system icons, you can always get CandyBar:
http://www.panic.com/candybar/

It works well and safely changes the icons, so you can always change them back.


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## alexandr (Nov 22, 2004)

i gotta back up elDiabloConCaca here. i downloaded candybar the first time last week, and it is truly a cool and easy app to use. if you just want to "play around" with the icons, change them every now and then etc, this must be the easiest (and probably also the safest) wayto go about doing it. genius, if you ask me..

alex.


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## FOOOD (Nov 23, 2004)

I don't mean change the icons around.
I meant take the default icons (system icons) modify them & then save them as new icons (in a different location). Then change them using CandyBar 

Thanks for the help though.


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## mdnky (Nov 23, 2004)

Basically, all over the place.  Some are here...some are there...most are hidden in the contents of the APP package.

Candybar makes a backup of the stock system icons the first time it's run (most .icns format, finder & trash are PNGs) so that's probably your easiest solution.

/Users/_Your User Name_/Library/Application Support/CandyBar/


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## bobw (Nov 23, 2004)

Use Find, and set for Visibility and Visible and Invisible items, and search for *.icns* 
 You should find all the icons in the system.


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## Darkshadow (Nov 24, 2004)

I think most of the system level icons are in /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemIcons.bundle/Contents/Resources


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## twister (Nov 24, 2004)

I might have them all in an icon restore application. (goes to look, right clicks, shows package contents) Yep look like them all.   I have them from when candybar screwed up my system icons.  

 Tip:  Don't run candybar and Shapeshifter or else candybar gets confused and you can loose some icons.


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## Nezumi22 (Sep 19, 2010)

Sorry for my English, I'm French-Canadian. I'll do the best I can !
---
Ok, Yeah, I'm late, but I HAVE to answer to this. I played around with icons and I didn't know how to reset default icons and ElDiabloConCaca's message completely freaked me out.

What to do ? cmd+i, select the small icon in the top left of the window and simply do cmd+x.

Ouff !


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