Creating nice dmg "installer" for Mac OS X

Question

I've made my first Qt application for Mac OS X. Now I want to create nice .dmg file that will allow user to easily install it. I am thinking about something like firefox has (see the picture):

I am completly new to this, so I don't even know where to start.

Answer 1

Bringing this question up to date by providing this answer.

appdmg is a simple, easy-to-use, open-source command line program that creates dmg-files from a simple json specification. Take a look at the readme at the official website:

https://github.com/LinusU/node-appdmg

Quick example:

1. Install appdmg

   npm install -g appdmg 

2. Write a json file (spec.json)

   {   "title": "Test Title",   "background": "background.png",   "icon-size": 80,   "contents": [     { "x": 192, "y": 344, "type": "file", "path": "TestApp.app" },     { "x": 448, "y": 344, "type": "link", "path": "/Applications" }   ] } 

3. Run program

   appdmg spec.json test.dmg 

(disclaimer. I'm the creator of appdmg)

Answer 2

It's fairly easy - the basic idea is that you create a blank image using Disk Utility (make it big enough to at least hold your stuff - exact size doesn't matter), open that image using Finder, put your stuff in and arrange it the way you want it (use right-click and Show View Options to set things like icon size or background image). That's almost it - all that remains is to convert that r/w image into a compressed image: eject it and use Convert in Disk Utility to convert it into a compressed image.