[CharlesS]

Is it possible to make .icns files with multiple icon sizes in them, like in the classic Mac icon family, so that if the user makes the size smaller, it will use a different icon that is designed to be smaller? Or will it just scale down the large one?

[percival]

Hello, yes it is possible. And sometimes necessary given the fact that most 32 x 32 and 16 x 16 icons look horrible when viewed in either list or column view.

[gorgonzola]

Mac OS X has a very nice method of handling icons. Developers must create 8x8, 16x16, 32x32 or 48x48, and 128x128 versions of their icons. The OS allows you to dynamically scale between these versions. If you set it at exactly one of these settings, however, it uses the built-in version and not a scaled version.

But frankly, their scaling engine is so good I find it hard to distinguish unless it's at 128x128 which is too big for normal use anyway.

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[CharlesS]

That's good to hear! I thought it had to be that way, but after downloading a random Cocoa app from VersionTracker and viewing its .icns file with Iconographer, it seemed like I could only see the largest icon size in the font family, and the rest were blank. I guess I probably wasn't looking in the right place.

So, where are the smaller versions of the icon stored? Are they all in the .icns file, or are they somewhere else? Just curious.

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[Mactoid]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
That's good to hear! I thought it had to be that way, but after downloading a random Cocoa app from VersionTracker and viewing its .icns file with Iconographer, it seemed like I could only see the largest icon size in the font family, and the rest were blank.

maybe the developer was just lazy and only made the 128x128 icon. you aren't required to take advantage of all the icon sizes available, and it wouldn't surprise me that it only had the one icon resource. after all, many programs i get from versiontracker don't have any icon.

[zverushka]

You go to the system preferances window, and then change the "Dock" options

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by zverushka:
You go to the system preferances window, and then change the "Dock" options

Erm...

To *make* them, not to *show* them.

[Dalgo]

Often times the developer doesn't need to make more than just a 128X128 icon. You see, if that's all they make then the rest of the sizes are computed using that. Take for example the icons in the dock. You can scale them to any size, but the developer is obviously not going to make all of the hundreds of possible sizes of icons that the one in the dock can be scaled to. The only time a developer would need to make smaller icons is if the computers interpolation of the smaller icons made them look too blurry or otherwise unattractive. Only making a 128X128 icon is usually not a sign that the developer doesn't care how it looks.