Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

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martimer
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Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by martimer » Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:05 am

Hello,

How are Mac users creating icons? Are they truly necessary for test projects?

I am trying to compile a standalone app and keep getting an error about icons. My first solution was to give the app an icon, but I am lost after that.

I poked around in the Xcode documentation and found instructions to convert icon folders to .icns using Icon Utility, but I cannot locate such a utility! There are also instructions convert .icns to .iconsets using iconutils in Terminal. That is probably really easy if you know have the requisite .icns file.

So, how are the pros handling it?

Thanks.

Note that I own Illustrator and have enough skill to create an image for my project.

Simon
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Re: Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by Simon » Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:41 am

Hi martimer,
The icons are just .png's
Here, it's a bit out of date but you'll get the idea.
http://livecode.com/developers/guides/m ... plication/

Simon
I used to be a newbie but then I learned how to spell teh correctly and now I'm a noob!

martimer
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Re: Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by martimer » Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:10 pm

Well, THAT was easy!

Thank you.

vedus
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Re: Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by vedus » Sat Mar 08, 2014 4:31 pm

here is some link that will help you for the icons..
And the guides is very good for start.
http://ivomynttinen.com/blog/the-ios-7- ... eat-sheet/
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios ... TP40013289
and here is that you need http://appicontemplate.com

FourthWorld
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Re: Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by FourthWorld » Sat Mar 08, 2014 6:12 pm

Icons for OS X can begin as PNG files, but ultimately each of the various required sizes must be wrapped together in an ICNS file, a proprietary Apple format:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image

You can use the free and very powerful graphics app GIMP for making Windows icons easily, making each icon size as a different layer and then exporting as an .ico file:
http://gimp-tutorials.net/How-to-make-a ... -a-picture

Once you have your .ico file, you can open it in Apple's Preview app, and Save As ICNS to get the format Apple requires, so you'll have icons for both platforms.

If also deploying to Linux, being an OS that favors simple open formats your original PNG file will be fine there, just specify it in your .desktop file (see LiveCode's own .desktop file for an example).
Richard Gaskin
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jacque
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Re: Creating Icons on a Macintosh (Mavericks)?

Post by jacque » Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:49 pm

If you're on a Mac, Graphic Converter saves as both Windows and Mac icon files. There's a full-featured free version, though if you find it as valuable as I do you'll pay to get rid of the startup delay. (At least, that's what it used to do. I've supported the paid version for over 10 years now, so I haven't seen what the free version does.)
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jacque at hyperactivesw dot com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com

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