OS 9 Desktop Icons

[Click]

Does anyone know where I can find collections of OS 9 Icons?  I have Googled and so forth, but haven't located anything usable yet.  In particular I am looking for a desktop icon for a flashdrive, but anything fun and interesting as was commonly available not so long ago  would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[Mat]

Res Excellence had several of them. Sadly the "archive" is often broken, a pity that they closed end ot the year,

[bfcastello]

Anyone know how I can properly create OS 9 folder icons with proper resolutions for each size? The ones I have downloaded elsewhere, not always have the same quality as the default ones in various places (finder, apple menu...). The most noticeable difference is the shadow behind the folder for any custom folder icon I use. I need folder icons for three types of folders: Games, Multimedia and Downloads.

[IIO]

the shadow is not a function or fomat, it is part of the picture; since OS 8.5 they have an 8-bit alpha channel.

tools of my choice would be the export icon plug-in for photoshop and icon machine III

the latter is also useful to find out which type of icon images are already contained in an existing icon file or copy the mask between two different icons.

[GuiBer]

Two sites that can help you, I hope :

https://iconarchive.com
https://findicons.com

[bfcastello]

the shadow is not a function or fomat, it is part of the picture; since OS 8.5 they have an 8-bit alpha channel.

tools of my choice would be the export icon plug-in for photoshop and icon machine III

the latter is also useful to find out which type of icon images are already contained in an existing icon file or copy the mask between two different icons.

  Yeah, I know. Actually, I have found three decent folder icons for them, with these shadows, but my problem with them is that when they appear on Apple Menu, the small custom icon appears a bit more blurred than the default ones, and the shadow is blurred when compared with the default ones (the default ones when tiny/small, the shadow is solid, which is what I want).

One of them don't even exhibit the music note infront of the folder for the Multimedia folder on Apple Menu, just the folder icon itself, but on every other place it is correct. I am just annoyed with these discrepancies.

So I figured out that I'd need a proper tool to produce better icons with correct smaller sizes (and better folder shadow for small sized ones), but had no clue on where to start. I'll have a few screenshots later to provide a better understanding of what I want to achieve with them.

[IIO]

oh i know what you mean, not sure if that happens with icon machine but most icon tools which allowed you to copy the bigger ones into the smaller ones were not working "correctly" in the sense of downscaling like graphics programs would do, they just skip lines or fuck up the transparency.

[bfcastello]

Here they are. The Apple Menu Items open shows the Games and Multimedia Icons with lower quality icons (Games has defaulted to the standard folder icon for unknown reason) and blurred shadows (Multimedia folder) compared to the original ones between them.

When viewing them with Finder, though, they appear to be OK. The third screenshot just shows the icons I’ve downloaded for use with the folders.

I don’t mind redoing them from scratch using the higher resolution ones and downscaling them myself. I just need to know how and the easier method/app to do so. (How to put all the scales together in one file I can use as an icon?) because I know how to do the .icns for modern OS X, just don’t know how to do them for OS9.

[IIO]

you know what? i hate these system icons, i prefer folders to look all the same and/or make you my own.

but of course i also understand that it looks silly to have two different shadows.

so... what did you do? it can be confusing to just paste icons over in the finder, and actually it can even be confusing to do it with icon machine.

i dont know offhand now, but i think you have to make sure to copy the mask prior to copying the rgb picture, then it should work.

and, of course, the default system icons from the system suitcase, which are generated by the folders´ name, arent custom icon files and might use a different small icon that what you would exspect / from making your own.

[IIO]

here is a simple example which shows the "issue".

in the upper icon editor i have first dragged an icon from an existing folder in the desktop into all 4 versions of the 32 pixel slot..

in the lower icon editor i have dragged the existing icon only into the 32 bit slot, and then made copies inside icon machine from 32 to 24, grey, and 2 bit.

and they all look different...

similar things can happen if you convert OSX icons and make them smaller icons both using the finder or tools like icon machine.

[bfcastello]

Yeah, I understand your point.

Last night I was thinking about a workaround but in the end it looks like I will have to do each size of an icon by myself, from scratch. A good plan would be to get the default folder icon sizes and save them as a PNG, and add to each the small icon identifying the folder type (for example, Downloads folder, just add an arrow down next to it for each size). And put it all together with Icon Machine.

You actually helped me to understand better how each four versions of a size should look like.

It could probably work, but the downside is that it will be a LOT of work to do them from scratch. Well, I have nothing better to do at this point. If it works, I'll obviously share them.

EDIT: It worked. I reworked the Games folder icon from scratch using the default icon folder as a base, and now it looks great. I now have to do the same for some other folders.

[DieHard]

NO NEED TO MANUALLY MAKE ICONS in OS9...

From another discussion here in the past...

I use a program called "icontools" where I can right click and "stamp" icons on my folders and make custom icons, and I would say I love this feature in OS 9.  It has never impacted performance on my DAW (at least that I could tell) and I have seen the hell a heavily fragmented disk can do to a Studio mac... so I am not in agreement here... I have hundreds of custom icons, I like them

I use "icon Tools" shareware app which has the ability to very quickly (just right click) add "icon Stamps" which are small pictures to the standard folder icon,
and the quality is awesome !  I found that adding icon stamps to the bottom left position of a folder works great for every view.

http://www.riccisoft.com/icontools/

"Icon Stamps" in combination with "label" colors can give you everything you need to make all sorts of folder icons and colors (using the default icon folder as a base) that really help organize.

[IIO]

while this is a completely different story, it is indeed an alternative to just roll your own, and then for making folder a tool like folder icon or icon tools will be your friend.

or why not convert everyrthing you need from OSX - or a third party OSX icon set. then they contain at least all the same error.

regarding the format:
normally you only need the 32 bit icons in OS 8.1 and higher (i woulndt know where the other would be displayed by finder and system tools) - and they are the only ones which have a 32 bit mask, which is part of your shadow problem.

of course if you create you own set you might want to include a 64 pixel icon for OSX, too. (but those can only be set and copied by icon machine, not by finder)

in photoshop, you would use something like 680*680 to make the picture and the mask, scale down to 34 and 68 from that, and then remove 1 or 2 pixels from the sides.

[DieHard]

while this is a completely different story, it is indeed an alternative to just roll your own

Yes, the only reason I suggested it is because I have tried every method including making my own. 

I put a lot of time into making crazy good folder icons, but in the end, when I would come back to a machine that I replaced the folder icons with custom icons (with no folder background), I realized that it became hard to distinguish later if the item stuff was a folder, and app, a package, etc.  So, in the end, using the stock folder icon with stamp modifications (on the bottom left) my brain could immediately know 1) it's a folder, 2) a clue of the contents, then the Mac OS 9 label (color) would indicate the "Status" of the folder "In progess" "complete" or whatever makes sense to you.

In OS X, I use "Folders Factory" by George Lyakhov  I select the same temple folder and then add text or graphics or both, in literally 2 clicks.
Also, you can grab graphics from the web and scale them on the fly with this app

[FBz]

In OS X, I use "Folders Factory" by George Lyakhov  I select the same temple folder and then add text or graphics or both, in literally 2 clicks.

Good to know! I'm so damned tired of endless blue icons in OS X!
Lotsa files and folders here to visually discern - and across many machines.
Absolute sheer MADNESS!

[bfcastello]

With macOS Big Sur I use colorful folders, for example yellowish dark for Documents, green for downloads, a tint of red for Music and so on. They all have a badge identifying its contents. I've been doing it since Mojave, keeping the same default style, just using new colors.

With OS9 though, having a badge in a folder icon helps a lot to identify its contents. I am a front-end web designer, UI/UX designer, and seeing so many purple folders without any idea of their content is madness. I just finished redoing some folder icons I've found, like the Games folder and Wallpaper (should be Pictures, actually) folder. And I created new icons for Multimedia folder and Downloads folder. I need to reorganize my collection of Icons that I have just started to collect around the web, a few weeks ago.

I'll release the customized ones as soon as I test them on OS 9 later. I made them using PS 2020 on Big Sur because I have a workflow that already works insanely fast. Just took me less than a hour to make them (could have made them in minutes if I hadn't wasted my time searching for an idea for a Multimedia folder badge. I ended using a play icon along with a film icon and IMO looks great).

[IIO]

Good to know! I'm so damned tired of endless blue icons in OS X!

what? you dont use shapeshifter? how did you survive looking at the aqua shit for 20 years?

[IIO]

however i find it very interesting that people actually like to use different icons.

i am already a visual person, but when navigating in the finder i am totally okay with filenames and label colors, and system suitcase icons for various folders such as " system/servers/" or "/user/documents/ music/ only confuse me.

i mean, i dont even need these folders, not to speak of folder icons with badges.

i also consequently remove custom icons from folders of applications, i want them to look all the same. if there are 200 programs in a list and i need to find "fuzzy" i type "f" and there we go.

far more important is to have useful icons for documents created by apps. (aka BNDL resource) some programs in OS9 suck at this, and many filetypes in OSX PPC like to appear with wrong resources because the com.company shit always collides with the desktop DB - and because programs like quicktime, VNC, text editors, stuff i, and console like to grab document types even after you tried to turn that off.

[FBz]

what? how did you survive looking at the aqua shit for 20 years?

By keeping my biggest foot in OS 9
...and by avoiding OS X as much as possible!

[bfcastello]

To each their own.

What if I tell you that I actually like the OS X Aqua theme, as well as the pinstripe theme from Panther? However I hate the brushed metal theme from later versions.

Anyway, what attracts me in OS 9 is the Platinum theme. So simple, easy. Looking at it is like being in a time machine.