Icon spacing in Panther

I don't know about Panther, but this was a frequently discussed topic concerning Jaguar, and the short answer for Jaguar was, "Nope, stuck with the big grid."

I doubt it's changed for Panther.
 
Perhaps it has something to do with the size of the icons or the point size of the font that is used?

Try reducing your icon size a bit... or even bumping down the font size to 10...
 
Font size helps, of course. Icon size, too. But else: You're stuck. Yes it's bad. Yes, Apple should make it a user preference. Yes, send a bug report, if you like to. Yes, I do _not_ believe Apple will change it as it looks like very, very intentional. Play with the selection of files and labelling and you see why it'd look quite awkward if the spacing were smaller.
 
I've found the best way around this problem is choosing "label position: right" from the Finder View prefs. Unfortunately this doesn't really work for the desktop, though, as the result looks rather crappy.
 
Is there any way to change the default icon grid spacing in the new Panther finder in icon view? In Jaguar it would put the icons about 7/8" apart while Panther puts almost 1 1/2 inches between icons which means that the finder window has to be almost as wide as the screen to get three columns to display.

I can turn off "arrange by..." for a given window and then manually move the icons closer together but there doesn't seem to be a way to change the default icon grid for all windows. Is there a system value somewhere I can change?

I would guess so since Apple's very own Panther page (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/finder/) shows the icons closer together than the default spacing.

For those that are going to say it I know that I should go to browser view but I have lots of custom folder icons and in browser view they are almost impossible to tell apart.

Any suggestions?
 
I have the same problem running in 1152x864.

There's also a huge gap of desktop on the left and the bottom... It's annoying, I have like half the usable desktop space than before! ::evil::
 
I agree. I've never been really happy with OS X's icon spacing (and use of screen space in general), and Panther's only made it worse. I don't think there's anything to do but wait for an update, or have sloppy, unaligned icons.
 
I agree that the icon spacing in Panther is uselessly TOO wide (in icon view). Lots of wasted horizontal white space. (There goes the extra real estate I got with my 1440x900 screen... it's like having the classic mac all over again...)

The only lame work-around is to set the font size of the icon window view option to a smaller size. Changing it from 12 point to 11 point does bring the icons a tad closer together. But still wider than Jaguar was. (I have screen clips to prove it! ;^) In this regard, OSX Finder is less friendly than OS9 Finder.

Two good resources for tech background info on the way Finder works with icons and folder settings:
- http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030305025744788
Very thorough article on how the Finder tracks icon and folder settings (ala .DS_Store and other means) and what things cannot be set.
- http://www.personal.kent.edu/~blukens/viewoptions.html
Excellent article with screen snaps explaining Finder icon organizing and how to force Finder to remember your "Computer" window view.

Note, to save the icon settings you have made, make sure that you periodically use something like TinkerTool 'Quit Finder', which forces the Finder to write the settings cache out to disk. (other utils also, but I use TT.) if you force quit, or Finder crashes, all your recent settings changes will be lost.

Now, if we could just get Apple to make the Finder more customizable and user friendly. I have written several comments to the Apple OSX Feedback page. Please, if you agree that there are bugs or user-unfriendly things, tell Apple. It only takes a few minutes.
Go to:
- http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
- or email to <feedback@apple.com>
Thx.
 
Icon spacing is wider in Panther (10.3.1 & 10.3.2) than in Jaguar, which was wider than OS9.

I do not agree that the Panther wide spacing is necessary for visual needs, as everything else (font item label size, icon size) can be set to the same as Jaguar showed, yet the spacing in Panther is way wider than Jaguar.

I have one vol-partition as 10.2.6, one as 10.3.2, and when I do a clean up in Jag, then go to Panther and do the clean up command, the icons all get pushed much wider (and a bit taller spacing too). Go back to Jag and do cleanup and they move closer. So it is a setting Apple made in Panther that could be at least made back the way it was in Jaguar.

See my post on other thread http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?p=293355 .

Please go to Apple and suggest they make smaller icon spacing a user settable option. http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
 
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