Proceed with caution! Changing icons of MacOS requires certain system restrictions to be disabled. We begin by disabling
System Integrity Protection, which enables mac system icons to be changed. Reboot your mac into recovery mode by holding
down ⌘R while the system is being rebooted. Enter your system password and then select Utilities > Terminal
csrutil disable
Now reboot your mac once again
To be able to change some obstinate icons, enter the following commands into the terminal
sudo mount -uw /
killall Finder
After changing all the icons, remember to re-enable System Inegrity Protection, by rebooting your mac
csrutil enable
This is what your launchpad will look like once all the icons have been replaced
Download the icons with the following link, or clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/amanchokshi/retro-icons.git
tree retro-icons -d
retro-icons
├── docs
├── icns
├── original
├── scripts
└── templates
├── pngs
└── svgs
cd retro-icons
MacOS uses icon files in the .icns format. All icons available with this icon packs are available in the retro-icons/icns folder.
The original folder contains system icons, in case you want to revert to the back to the default icons. templates contains
svg and png files which can be used as templates to modify icons to your taste. It also contains palette.ai an Adobe Illustrator
file with a color palette and an icon shape template. The scripts folder contains python scripts used to convert svg file to pngs
and icns.
Changing application icons is an quick process. Open your Applications folder. Right click on an app you want to modify and select get info
The icon outlined in orange is the one which needs to be replaced. Open the retro-icons/icns folder, find the matching icon, and drag in over
the orange box until a green ⊕ symbol appears. You may need to enter your password to finalise the change of the icon.
This method will work for most apps. Some system icons such and the finder, calendar & the trash can will require more love.
The icons in the dock may not immediately reflect the changes you've made. To refresh the dock, open a terminal Utilities > Terminal
and enter
killall Dock
In the unlikely scenario where you'd like to revert to the original icon, right click on the icon and get info. Select the icon as
outlined in the figure above, and hit delete on your keyboard. This will delete the custom icon, revealing the original icon
These icons can be more stubborn and will require more attention
The finder and trash icons live deep within the bowels of the operating system. They can be accessed with the following incantation in a terminal
open /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/
Or, open the Finder and enter ⌘ + ⇧ + G or command+shift+G to bring up the Go To Folder prompt where the following path may be entered
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/
The following files will need to be replaced
.
├── finder.png
├─── [email protected]
├── trashempty.png
├── trashempty.png
├── trashempty2.png
├── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
├── trashfull.png
├── trashfull2.png
├── [email protected]
└── [email protected]
Custom versions of thes icons can be found in retro-icons/icns/Finder & retro-icons/icns/Trash. Drag and drop them into the Resources folder,
making sure to check replace files in a prompt pops up. You may need to enter a password before this can be completed. If at a later stage,
you'd like to revert to the original icons, follow the above steps, but use the original icons which I've provided in the retro-icons/original folder.
Replacing the default icons of the MacOS folders, Hard Drives & SD cards requires a process similar to that described above.
The system icons live in one of the following three folders. Open them with the terminal using the open command, or use
⌘ + ⇧ + G in the finder.
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/
/System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/
/System/Library/Extensions/IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily.kext/Contents/Resources
The custom icons live in retro-icons/Folder & retro-icons/Drives. You can drag and drop them over the system icon, select replace and
enter your password to replace the icon.
The calendar icon is particularly problamatic, since it is dynamic, and changes every day to display the current date. To change the icon,
right click on the calender.app and select show package contents. Navigate to Contents > Resources. Find App-empty.icns and App.icns
and replace them with corresponding icons found in retro-icons/icns. Navigate further to Calendar.docktileplugin > Contents > Resources
and replace App-empty.icns
Now, our custom calender icon will update everyday to show the date, in our custom retro style.
Modify these icons and make them your own!
This repository contains the intermediate vector files which I used to create these icons. These can serve as the base for modifications, or as an inspiration
to create something new and awesome. retro-icons/templates/palette.ai is an Adobe Illustrator file which contains the color palette which I used for these
icons and well as a template for the icon shape.
retro-icons/tempates contains svgs and pngs folders. The svgs folder has vector graphics for each of the icons. These can be opened
in Illustrator to modify the design and colors. The pngs folder contains pngs of my custom folder icons. You can use Photoshop to modify their colors and design.
The retro-icons/scripts folder contains python scripts which can convert .svg & .png files in MacOs .icns icon files.
svg files are converted to png files using inkscape, which can be installed with
brew cask install inkscape
The svg2png.py script converts a batch of pngs in a --svg_dir folder to pngs which will be saved to an output folder specified using
the --out_dir flag.
Note: these scripts require python versions above 3.6
# See all options with
python svg2png.py --help
# Example
python svg2png.py --svg_dir=./svgs --out_dir=./pngs
The above code will convert all svg files in the ./svg folder to png files which will be saved to ./pngs
Similary, the png2icns.py will convert a set of png file to mac icns files
# See all options with
python png2icns.py --help
# Example
python png2icns.py --png_dir=./svgs --out_dir=./icns
These icons were made to suit my needs. My OCD wouldn't let me stop till I could replaced all my icons, which may leave
you a couple of apps short of a full set, with no suitable beautiful retro-icon to replace. I undertand your plight!
Open an issue on this github page with the icon you're missing and I'm happy to make you a super cool one ✨🌙✨
I'd love to see any new icons you come up with, and make them a part of this repository. Submit a pull request and I'm happy to add your creations to this repository, as long as they match the aesthetic style!
To get in touch, email me at Aman Chokshi