Convert SVG file to macOS icon (icns) format

svg2icns.sh

#!/bin/sh -x

set -e

SIZES="
16,16x16
32,16x16@2x
32,32x32
64,32x32@2x
128,128x128
256,128x128@2x
256,256x256
512,256x256@2x
512,512x512
1024,512x512@2x
"

for SVG in "$@"; do
    BASE=$(basename "$SVG" | sed 's/\.[^\.]*$//')
    ICONSET="$BASE.iconset"
    mkdir -p "$ICONSET"
    for PARAMS in $SIZES; do
        SIZE=$(echo $PARAMS | cut -d, -f1)
        LABEL=$(echo $PARAMS | cut -d, -f2)
        svg2png -w $SIZE -h $SIZE -i "$SVG" -o "$ICONSET"/icon_$LABEL.png
    done

    iconutil -c icns "$ICONSET"
    rm -rf "$ICONSET"
done

Not sure which version of svg2png was used here but the latest one doesn't have the -i flag. Instead it needs to be an argument i.e.

svg2png "$SVG" -w $SIZE -h $SIZE -o "$ICONSET"/icon_$LABEL.png

Current version installed via homebrew no longer uses -o either. Both filenames are simple arguments:

svg2png -w $SIZE -h $SIZE "$SVG" "$ICONSET"/icon_$LABEL.png

Loop over a directory of SVGs with the fixes mentioned above, while ignoring errors:

#!/bin/sh -x

set -e

SIZES="
16,16x16
32,16x16@2x
32,32x32
64,32x32@2x
128,128x128
256,128x128@2x
256,256x256
512,256x256@2x
512,512x512
1024,512x512@2x
"

FILES=/Zafiro-icons-master/apps/scalable/*
for SVG in $FILES
do
  echo "Processing $f file..."
  # take action on each file. $f store current file name
  BASE=$(basename "$SVG" | sed 's/\.[^\.]*$//')
    ICONSET="$BASE.iconset"
    mkdir -p "/icons/$ICONSET"
    for PARAMS in $SIZES; do
        SIZE=$(echo $PARAMS | cut -d, -f1)
        LABEL=$(echo $PARAMS | cut -d, -f2)
        svg2png -w $SIZE -h $SIZE "$SVG" "/icons/$ICONSET"/icon_$LABEL.png || true
    done

    iconutil -c icns "/icons/$ICONSET" || true
    rm -rf "$ICONSET"
done

Dependecies? Where do I get svg2png and iconutil?

I think I did brew install svg2png or similar. It's been a while but Google should find current answers.

Thank you for this! It works as expected and generates icns files with transparent background. 👍🏻

Based on previous contributions, made this shell function which works for me, input is a single file or more. tested with zsh

function svg_to_icns(){
    local RESOLUTIONS=(
        16,16x16
        32,16x16@2x
        32,32x32
        64,32x32@2x
        128,128x128
        256,128x128@2x
        256,256x256
        512,256x256@2x
        512,512x512
        1024,512x512@2x
    )

    for SVG in $@; do
      BASE=$(basename "$SVG" | sed 's/\.[^\.]*$//')
        ICONSET="$BASE.iconset"
        ICONSET_DIR="./icons/$ICONSET"
        mkdir -p "$ICONSET_DIR"
        for RES in ${RESOLUTIONS[@]}; do
            SIZE=$(echo $RES | cut -d, -f1)
            LABEL=$(echo $RES | cut -d, -f2)
            svg2png -w $SIZE -h $SIZE "$SVG" "$ICONSET_DIR"/icon_$LABEL.png
        done

        iconutil -c icns "$ICONSET_DIR"
    done
}

Example usage

$ svg2png -V
0.1.3
$ svg_to_icns notepad.svg
$ file icons/notepad.icns
notepad.icns: Mac OS X icon, 100192 bytes, "ic12" type

You can also turn this into a script, add set -e at least for exiting on error, however then the script must be in your path if you want to be able to invoke it from anywhere, or use as an alias with full path.