I hate the new icons in Mac OS X Yosemite - specially the new ruby iTunes icon. How do I change icons in Mac Os X Yosemite and (for instance) get the original blue iTunes icon back?

Icons represent all kinds of things and items in Mac OS X. Your Mac uses icons to represent apps, utilities, folders and files. Generally speaking, icons are designed to wait like the thing they represent, so a folder looks similar a newspaper binder, and the Notes app looks like a notepad. Over time you get used to the OS X icons and they help you speedily navigate around your Mac.

When Apple introduces new icons, like the red iTunes icon, it can be jarring. Fortunately, information technology's pretty easy to change the icons in OS 10 to whatsoever you lot desire.

This is likewise bang-up for people who want to customise their edition of OS X, and achieve a particular wait with the icons they want. Information technology's also fun to expect at Apple'due south icons up close (they are beautifully crafted) and change them to the ones you want.

In this tutorial we're going to have a look at the iTunes icon (because it seems to be the electric current whipping boy), just you lot can use these instructions to change any icon in OS Ten y'all want.

See also:

Super-advanced tips for Mac OS X Yosemite

Mac tricks: x Things You Didn't Know Your Mac Could Do

How to use System Preferences in Mac Bone X Yosemite

OS X 10.10 Yosemite - in-depth review

How to swap icons in Mac Bone X Yosemite

How to cut and paste icons in Mac OS X

Before changing any icons for key apps, it's worth playing around with icons for disposable files and folders to effigy out how the icon-swapping process works.

Icons in Mac OS X use the .icns format. These icons can be cut and pasted from 1 detail in Mac OS Ten to another. To test this out we are going to create an empty folder on the desktop, but give it an icon from a bare text certificate. It's ameliorate to kickoff out with these disposable items rather than jumping straight into editing app icons.

  1. In Finder, choose File > New Folder.
  2. Open Text Edit and choose File > New then File > Save. Select the Desktop and click Salvage.
  3. You should at present have a folder chosen "Untitled Folder" and a file named "Untitled" on the desktop. Select the binder and choose File > Become Info (Control-I) to open its Info window. Now select the file and choose File > Get Info.
  4. You now take two Info windows. One for the folder and ane for the file. Each has a small graphical preview of its icon at the top of the Info window. Click the pocket-sized icon graphic in the text document'south Info window. It should now be highlighted in blue.
  5. Choose Edit > Re-create (Command-C).
  6. Now highlight the icon in the folder's info window and choose Edit > Paste.

As yous practise this you lot'll see the folder on the desktop change from a folder graphic to a text document graphic. You've just inverse its icon! Here are some things to note:

  • Yous haven't changed all folder icons, just that specific icon for that binder. Open a Finder window and all other folders will have the regular icon.
  • The "Untitled Folder" is still a folder. You can double-click to open information technology, and fifty-fifty elevate the Untitled text document into the binder.
  • Notice how disruptive this is. Icons are metaphors that correspond items, actions and concepts. Changing icons is a neat OS X trick to know, only you will rarely improve the Mac feel by irresolute icons effectually.

How to create new app icons in Mac Bone Ten

Format images online

With all that in listen we are going to look at changing an icon on the Mac. Of course, information technology'due south like shooting fish in a barrel to swap icons around using the trick above. Just you can just modify one icon for another i already in employ. What if you want to replace an icon with a completely different one: can you lot blueprint icons, or download icons for Mac from the cyberspace?

The smashing news is that you lot can. Icons are stored using the .icns format. This is important to remember: exercise not use png or jpeg, or confuse ICNS with ICO (that'southward the Windows format).

You lot tin design your own files using a program like Adobe Photoshop or Pixelmator and then catechumen them to icns (the dimensions are 1024 ten 1024 pixels; be sure to use a clear alpha background and salve the files as PNG and so convert them to ICNS).

At that place are many programs on the App Store that enable you to convert a graphic to icns. Alternatively y'all tin can use an online converting service such asiConvertIcons.

Yous tin can as well download replacement icons from the internet. Services like Icon Archive enable you to download icons. Just call up to choice the ICNS format.

How to replace the red iTunes 12 icon with the onetime blue one from iTunes 11

Find images in Google Image search

In this example nosotros'll show yous how to supplant the blood-red iTunes 12 icon with the blue iTunes eleven icon.

  1. Open Safari and enter the following into Google Search: "iTunes 11 icon kind:png". Click Images in Google search to view all the images available.
  2. Scan beyond the images to discover i that is 1024 x 1024. Cheque that it has an alpha background (that means the groundwork is a checkerboard of grey and white squares, not a solid white). Drag the file to the desktop.
  3. Now open the iConvertIcons.com website.
  4. Drag the file you lot downloaded from the desktop to the "Drag an epitome here" surface area of the iConvertIcons website. Look for the conversion to take place.
  5. Click the blue download icon marked ICNS.
  6. Open the Downloads folder.
  7. Click the file ending in HQX. Information technology volition extract a text document with the icon and instructions. Select the file and choose File > Get Info.
  8. Open up the Applications folder and select iTunes. Choose File > Get Info.
  9. Select the blue iTunes icon in the text document's Info window and choose Edit > Copy.
  10. Select the crimson icon in the iTunes Info Window and printing Edit > Paste.
  11. Because this is an application you will need to enter your admin password and click OK.

The iTunes app in the dock won't change immediately. But when you open the iTunes app information technology will immediately switch over to the new blueish icon.

Cut and paste the iTunes app icon

iTunes 12 using the classic blue icon