How can I set the icon for a Mac Application in Xcode?

Question

I have been learning a lot about writing Objective-C code and designing in Interface Builder and I wanted to set icons for my simple programs.

I added the same JPG to all the size fields in Icon Composer and got an ICNS, but I couldn't figure out how to add it to the project.

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Since Xcode 4.4 Icon Composer is no longer the recommended way to create icons and is no longer included in the standard install of Xcode. Due to the introduction of Macs with retina display, it is now recommended to provide high resolution versions of all graphics including app icons.

To give your app an icon under Xcode > 4.4 do the following:

1. Create a folder [IconName].iconset in Finder

2. In this folder place your icon as png files. You'll need the icon in sizes of 16px, 32px, 64px (retina only), 128px, 256px, 512px and 1024px (retina only)

3. These icons must be named with the pattern icon_16x16.png, icon_32x32.png, icon_128x128.png and so on

4. To support retina displays you must also add icon files with double resolution, named [email protected] (with size 32x32), [email protected] (size 64x64) and so on up to [email protected] (size 1024x1024).

5. drag this [IconName].iconset folder to Xcode (copy if necessary)

6. in the info.plist file set the "CFBundleIconFile" (Icon File as Key) value to [IconName] but without the .iconset extension

Annotations:

• it is (currently) not required to provide the @2x icons
• it will (usually) also work if you don't provide every icon file
• the iconset folder should not contain a icon_64x64.png file. the 64px icon is only for the retina version of the icon_32x32

Update: In the end your .iconset folder has the following 10 items:

icon_16x16.png [email protected] icon_32x32.png [email protected] icon_128x128.png [email protected] icon_256x256.png [email protected] icon_512x512.png [email protected] 

Official guide:

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/GraphicsAnimation/Conceptual/HighResolutionOSX/Optimizing/Optimizing.html

Additional information:

To convert the iconset folder to an icns file, run the following command on the terminal:

iconutil -c icns [IconName].iconset 

where [IconName] should be replaced with the prefix of the iconset folder. You now have a file called [IconName].icns. In Xcode 4.4, in the Target Summary, right click the question mark for the icon, then select the icns file. You should then see the question mark get replaced with the icon.