How to create an .icns macOS app icon

macos-app-icon.md

How to create an .icns macOS app icon

How to make an application icon for macOS using iconset & iconutil

Steps

• Saving images
• Creating an .iconset
• Converting to .icns

Saving images

Save your app icon with the following names & dimensions:

Name	Dimensions
icon_16x16.png	16x16
icon_16x16@2x.png	32x32
icon_32x32.png	32x32
icon_32x32@2x.png	64x64
icon_128x128.png	128x128
icon_128x128@2x.png	256x256
icon_256x256.png	256x256
icon_256x256@2x.png	512x512
icon_512x512.png	512x512
icon_512x512@2x.png	1024x1024

Creating an .iconset

1. Move all of the images into a new folder
2. Rename the folder to: icon.iconset
3. Confirm the file extension when prompted

This will convert the folder of images into an iconset, this can be verified by quick looking with the spacebar - a resizable preview of your icon should now appear.

Converting to .icns

1. Navigate to the directory containing your icon.iconset in the terminal
2. Run iconutil with the following command: iconutil -c icns icon.iconset
3. Your icon.icns will be generated in the current directory