I have searched high and low for a simple way to create icons that are easily copy-and-paste-able in the Info window. This is the first solution I've found that works like it promises.

Thanks Again!

Thanks this is exactly what I wanted.

Incredibly good!!!
Thanks!

a fantastic tool to create icons

i've tried soooo-oh much with other apps, but this has made it sooo-oh simple! love it! - thanks.

Non capisco a che serve: le stesse icone le faccio con Photoshop o qualsiasi altro programma che salvando il file crea le anteprime. Non gestisce le trasparenze: disegno una nuova icona 128x128 con Photoshop lasciando delle parti vuote, salvo in jpg, lo passo in Fasticns, lo salvo e perdo la trasparenza. Mah...

this is so perfect!! thank you lots for making a simple and easy-to-use program!!!

Caro Sergio, un conto ? creare la thumbnail di un'immagine e un conto ? creare icone da poter utilizzare nei bundle o da poter assegnare a qualunque cartella o file del sistema.

Ti ricordo inoltre che il formato jpg NON supporta la trasparenza: se provi a caricare la stessa jpg nel tuo programma di grafica ti accorgerai che la trasparenza sar? sparita. Per poter mantenere la trasparenza ? necessario salvare in un formato che la supporti: png, tiff, gif o lo stesso psd che FastIcns supporta a livello base.

Ci sono altri programmi per fare icone (anche molto meno costosi di PhotoShop, sei fortunato a potertelo permettere), ma FastIcns non vuole essere un programma per fare icone: vuole essere un programma per convertire immagini, fatte da zero in un qualunque programma (a noi piace Gimp) o a partire da foto, in icone per Mac.

Hey there,

I just saw you had a new release and
It's already posted on my Site,

InTheMac.com...

Good Luck with the Release!

;; Ray

Beautifully crafted.
***** for functionality.
***** for presentation.
***** for appearance.

Magnifico. Un capoloavoro.
Many thanks.

I still don't get it whenever i do it it just saves it as a file.. how do i get to be the icon of a file?

brilliantly simple!

Someone: save as resource fork and choose the existing file / type the name of the existing folder. Or you can drop the file / folder on the cube while keeping the Command key pressed. You'll be asked to confirm the overwrite of the old icon and then it will be replaced.

Excelente prrograma

Gracias !!

I didn't 'get it,' right away, although the rotating cube is fantastic! Your info, above, about saving it as a Resource Fork, though, did it.

For me it made an icon that -- for some reason - openned Text Edit when I double clicked on it.

But since it was an icon I was able to copy it and then paste it onto the folder I wanted, using Get Info.

It's excellent! Thanks.

This is just great! Thanks a lot!

? fantasticooooo! semplice veloce e geniale!!!
grazieeeeeee =)

Just what I was looking for!

I am new to this stuff and have been wondering is there a program that makes icons form images. FastIcons is great. Can you tell me what is "Set face color"in edit menu and how do I use it?

thanks

What am I doing wrong. I have a Mac, Tiger 10.4. I drag the picture (Spiderman) over the rotating cube, nothing happens, and it's a alias. I click on the original, open info, than preview the picture is there. I double click on the cube, save, and a picture shows up named with .icn. I open info. and the icon on the top, left corner is a file named icon, not the picture.? HELP

"set face color" should make you choose a color for the face (instead of the default blue color) to check your image against different backgrounds. It makes no difference for the exported file, tho.

John I'm sorry but I don't know how to help you, we've not received any other complaint like that before. It seems to work nicely: drag a file / image / folder in the cube or in the application's icon, double click the cube and save as a .icns file you can open in Preview.app.

I figured it out. All I had to do was to choose resource fork. Once I did, I was able to use the icons.
Thank you

been looking at a lot of different icon tools, and yours was one of the ones i found... and while i have used it to make some icons, i actually am keeping it primarily as a distraction on my desktop. i have a collection of little images, i choose one that suits my mood, drop it on and leave it running. it's sort of hypnotic, this cube rotating on my desktop... great distraction, and helps clear my thoughts when i'm looking for new ideas. Thanx!

In the icns that FastIcn creates there doesn't seem to be any 128x128 mask generated. When I open the file in Preview there is a 128 image but no 128 mask. All of the other sizes seem to have masks. Am I missing something?

As per specification, OSX' icons have no 128x128 mask, as it is included in the 32bit image data as the alpha channel. The other sizes include both the 8-bit mask in the image's alpha channel and the 1-bit mask as a separate layer.
Note however that 1-bit masks should be used only on legacy Classic systems and are included by FastIcns only as to create completely legal icon files.

This is by far the most beautiful application on my mac. The fact that it works so well is almost obscured by the sheer beauty of it.

thanks for the beauty and simplicity of it. I wish I could save the rotating cube as a flash movie and use it on my web-site. Any tips as to how I could do this?

I guess you would do that with some tool like Quicktime Pro or Adobe Flash. You can find the animation inside FastIcns' package, it's called cube.qtz and you can open it with Apple's Quartz Composer.

Thanks are in order, again. It revives my respect for things Italian.

I was looking everywhere for some sort of utility so I could convert the images I made in Photoshop, to mac compatible icons.

It was a relief to find your easy, simple application and best of all it was free =)

This program kicks ass! So f*%#?^! simple! Brilliant.

Im thrilled to finally have an icon creating program. And I love how fast and easy it is.

Simply does'nt work. Obeyed instructions - Nothing!

This works beautifully for me--it's very easy to use and the rotating cube is so attractive I leave it on my desktop with an image du jour! Can't wait to see your next release...Best Wishes!

The cube is cute but doesn't give any indication what it's for. Does it save the icon to look like the current view of the cube? No, it just saves a flat icon for the dropped file.

It would be much more helpful to have a small window (maybe with the cube in a corner) that you can see the resulting icon in, along with a 2-sentence explanation of what happens and why.

Thanks for your feedback. I understand your point but we wanted to make something nice to see and use.
What would a classic window offer more than the cube for this little, simple, basic tool? The source image should be edited in a proper editing program anyway.

just 2 klick for a new nice folder icon!!!
thx a lot!

Tellement beau que mes neurones klaxonnent!

Thats it!
Just two clicks, or drag&drop; of a file/folder and you've got a new icon.
Thanks for this great application!

simple y perfecto, lo que necesitaba.
gracias

AWESOME!!!! Thank you!! I LOVE IT!!

Nice with the possibilities to save as a icon with 512 x 512 pixels, comming in Leopard. I also appreciate the feature to change the size of the cube by dragging it while pressing the Shift key.

I create my images in Photoshop with transparent areas and a drop shadow.
I have been successful in using The "Resource Fork" to create an image that I can use as an icon, using the Copy-and-paste method.
When I create an ICNS file it will have the proper image on it, but "Get Info" shows me a document with an ICNS logo. How do I use this. Since I'm not a real developer, just a guy who changes his desktop all the time, do I need to even bother with ICNS files?

@DWR: probably not, you shouldn't care about them :) You would need them if you wanted to create an icon for a bundle (an application, a plugin...) that you'd like to distribute. They are basically a replacement for the legacy resource–fork business.

FastIcns is an amazing program. I recently blogged about it eugenegordin.com

Well done!

Fasticns is very very good,and it looks greatt on the desktop One suggestion though is to add a menu item like 'save icon as folder' or 'apply icon to file' (say?) so that dummies like me wont have to learn what a resource fork is or hunt around in the help files for the command/drop trick. After reading the comments this part of the functionality seems to have stumped a few other dummies as well as me! Thanks again

absolutely fabulous, direct, easy and effective to use, like a dream, thanks guys for this one

meanwhile, mostly i'm broke....or spending too much money, so, as such, much as i try, nobody gives me a credit card...if i had one though, i'd use the tab below, donations? yessir...

So elegant, and so handy! Thank you very much for creating it. I only wish the invisible surrounding window would dim or glow on mouseover -- I keep misjudging the border and failing to click on objects underneath. Actually...I also wish multiple images could be overlayed, so that an application folder icon could be made from a generic folder icon behind an application icon....

i got it working just fine
but is there any way to reverse the icons back to it's origanal state???
can someone help me???
please!!!

thanx

@caroline: what do you mean exactly by original state? If you want to recover the icon you see for a file in Finder as it was before assigning a new icon to it, use the "Get Info" function of Finder for that file, select the icon in the dialog and press Command-X to remove the current icon and restore the original one. If I misunderstood your question please be more specific on what the problem is.

@Ken: thanks for your kind feedback.
I'll think about the window transparency.
As for overlaying images, that is what other tools similar to FastIcns do. Unfortunately just overlaying images wouldn't be enough: you would also want to rotate, scale, skew images to better fit what's behind them. That goes well beyond the scope of FastIcns, that is supposed to follow the editing made in a proper editor (Gimp would be more than enough for almost anything) or to work on simple pictures taken with your camera or from any other source.

Also thanks to the other feedbacks I couldn't answer directly!

Brilliant !!

Thanks people, very nice work, that's the spirit

nice app, but I seem to be having a problem with transparency. I am using photodhop to greate a spherical graphic but I keep getting a box around my icon. In your preview window the backbround is masked but that doesn't want to apply once the final icon has been cut and pasted in "get info"

any help?

Thanks

I look forward ro making many custom icons

Absolutely awesome!!
Undeniably the easiest programme to date as well as the creative!
Well done!!
Just one question - I am not the brightest when it comes to computers so excuse the following:
I have just downloaded your programme - dropped pictures on the cube - assigned them as icons - attached folders to them - awesome!
However, when I click on the cube on the desktop - it takes me to the folder where I have saved the icon conversion. It does not open the folder I have assigned to it. However, the icon is there when I open my home folder and it works that way.
Is there anyway inwhich the rotating icon on the desk top is the path to a folder - and that it remains on the desk top even after I shut down?
Sorry for the hassle
All the best
Chrissa

I originally found this great app through a VersionTracker newsletter. I tried it out cause the documentation seemed direct and intuitive. Nothing complicated.

I remembered changing icons in OS 9 so many years ago, but only until now have I bothered even trying to learn how to change OS X icons. I remember reading a tutorial on how to do it manually for OS X, but it looked complicated so I didn't even bother.

This app makes it so simple! I'm truly grateful for the work you've put into this.

The only hack I had to figure out on my own was when trying to change the icon for the OS app Mail. It wasn't a straightforward drag and drop. I tried having FastIcns change it a couple of times, but no dice.

I had to save the new icon in the .icns format, open Mail's package contents, go to the Resource folder and swap out the new icon with the old icon titled app.icns. It looks fine now!
Great work,
Jose from Maryland

i dnt get this how do u copy and paste it on to the folder using get info

you don't need to use the get info panel, just select "assign to file or folder" from the file menu, or drop the target file or folder on the cube while pressing the Command key.

I have been using this great app on 10.5 and i have had nothing but great results. Also 512 seems to work nicely. Is there a new version coming to support 10.5? Seems to work nicely already.

A great app with a little footprint that does exactly what says it will and is so EASY to use that it's actually fun to create
with.

Beautiful design.

Keep producing more such gems. Thanks.

In leopard the high resolution image comes out great in cover flow and icon view, but when I view the icon in column view or list view I see a lower resolution image. This software has so much potential, but doesn't quite seem to work right in leopard.

@Jim: I don't think that's FastIcns's fault. From what I read around the 'net Leopard normally uses "common" sizes for Finder windows and only uses big sizes for Coverflow and the such. I think you should just check if the results are good enough enabling the output for all the sizes available in FastIcns.
If you actually checked the difference with an icon made with another tool, please send us by email a screenshot showing the difference between the two icons.
I hope to install Leopard next week and I'll check our softwares myself asap.
Thanks for your help.

The best things in life are always the simplest. Awesome job! Best thing I've had on my Mac in years.

If I were giving them out, then this would win the all the awards!

When I drag a Photoshop JPEG file onto the rotating cube, it thinks for a moment, then the Finder icon flashes as if the icon has been updated, but the generic JPEG icon remains. What am I doing wrong?

(Note: these files live on a Xserve, and I have read/write privileges)

Thanks! -- Joel

@Joel: are you using the batch mode, saving to the "resource fork of the original file"? that should be the correct way to do what you seem to be trying to do. I just triend and seems to work right. Don't know if using a network disk would make a difference, can't try that: please try if it works on a local file.

I am new to mac, new to mac os -
this aplication is GREAT and SIMPLE to use.

(I think that the HELP page should be part of the application)

Hi!

The app rocks, especially the resource fork export option!
Leopard is out and I was wondering, any chance for an update?

@Dali: what exactly isn't right on leopard?

Hi, Matteo!

Actually, it’s working very well, I haven’t had any trouble so far.

I was asking about an update because, on "Save As…", under "Sizes…", the 256x256 and 512x512 options say "experimental (not tested)", so I thought you meant you might need to work on them a little after Leopard comes up.

But, otherwise, everything’s cool, the app works as a charm ;)

…This one saves a lot of time and now I make icons I need in two clicks. And works great with new Leopard icons as well. It's amazing, just a little wonder I always remember about when I need an icon.

Thank you very much - Muchas gracias

YES! Exactly what I needed! If you guys and ITTPOI combined you would be the greatest software company in the universe! ... because you and ITTPOI are the two best companies =P

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

A really excellent soft. Thanks

Brilliant icons of the highest quality,
Thanks!

fasticns is a lot of fun and much appreciated. :)

i do have a feature request, though. right now i can take an image file and create an icon using fasticns. the icon created by fasticns looks just like the picture, and that is a great trick.

but it would be really cool if fasticns could place the image in a folder. to understand what the result would look like: the default mac os icon for the library folder shows an image of books, tilted slightly because the image of the folder is also at an angle. so with this feature enabled, a user would drag a picture to fasticns, and the image would be placed over the image of a folder in just the same way as the image of the books appears on the library icon.

you don't have to offer a lot of options for the folders themselves -- if the default powder blue was the only option, that would be fine. but depending on how the folder was drawn you could allow it to be filled with any color from a color palette.

the only other way i can think of to create this effect is to use photoshop to create the overlaid image and then use fasticns. fasticns could probably do it much more easily than most users on their own.

Thank you very much!

Very Simple and Nice!

truly very good: simple, effective, stable, unique, free. Thanks.
Antonio

totally great software: simple, effective, stable, unique, free. Thank you very much for providing this to the world.

Finally found what I was looking for. You ROCK.

easy, funny and reliable … :)

I am an author of a Photoshop title and in the process of writing my second title. The cover mount DVD provided with my book has video tutorials, with fasticns I was able to have the rotating cube with my photograph / logo bug on the right bottom corner. Now I do not have to provide this logo in a separate layer in my post production application (Final Cut Pro).

Found another way to put this awesome little software to my use.

I have a feature request, it would be nice if there is a preference pane to have a selected image as a default, so the same image gets launched every time.

Wow you guys made my night - I had been searching for about 3 hours for a way to assign movie posters to my folders (containing movies and subtitle files) so that I could browse my movie library in coverflow mode.

I didn't realize until I had read some of the comments and responses that ICNS files weren't needed for folders, so for other newbies out there on OSX Leopard, just go to "File->Batch Folder and Options" and set it to output "Resource fork of a new folder", set your sizes as needed (the larger experimental ones seem fine so far) and then go back to the menu and choose "Assign to file or Folder".

Boring old blue folders are now cool movie posters on the HDTV!

Thanks again for this amazing and useful app

Its a great program, ive used with regular leopard, but in snow leopard, after i've created an icon, when I look at the info, it appears as a icns default icon.
don't know if its snow leopard or something else.
Hope someone could help me :D

thanks

no funciona!!!
necesitamos una actualización plis!!!

Nice modern design, I like the spinning cube thing. It's different. This app works GREAT and is very simple to use. I'm a graphic designer and this tool is a lot of fun and is great to customize your workspace!

THAKS FOR SUCH A NICE APPLICATION! IT'S SO SIMPLE AND FRIENDLY!

i needed to convert some pngs to icns fast, this is just life saver ! thank you

I love it

I juse it on a daily basis now.
Wish there was a same easy way to greate Win .ICO files on a Mac!!!

This is exactly what I was looking for. I can't tell you how excited I am to have found this or how grateful I am that you made it freeware. Thank you so so much.

I was minimizing the spinning cube over to the left of my desktop screen and it appears it has slid out of sight on the desktop screen. I have tried reinstalling, but it still doesn't show....Any suggestions?

On word to describe both fasticns and instantShot, Awesome !

I've just replied by email: you'll find all the infomations in the message. :)

So quick and easy!

Hats off for such a wonderful tool.

Thanks so much, easy, simple.

Does one job and does it very well.

Perfect!

I'm sorry but this application's interface must be the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Completely unintuitive. Thanks anyway. Works fine.

I can't seem to change my HD's icon with this software, and after reading all the above comments I can't see what the problem could be. The app works fine on folders and files, but not the HD itself. I have set the permissions of the HD to the exact same as the files and folders I tested it on, and ye olde copy-and-paste-from-Get-Info technique works on the HD, but of course that technique doesn't preserve transparency, the very reason I'm using this software. The drive is an external FireWire which I'm booting off of. Am using OS 10.4.11 What could the problem be? Thanks for your help.

Tried booting off the internal HD instead. Didn't help. Also tried checking "Ignore permissions on this volume." Didn't help, either.

BTW, to counter-balance what others have whined about here, *I* think the spinning cube is cool. I say keep it.

Excellent, simple applications - much thanks

BSS

HiHi

For those tortured by the spinning cube, you can turn it off in the Edit menu. Why not look at the wealth of options handed you before you gripe or suggest eradication?

Which brings me to say this about your thoughtfully developed and wonderfully realized application: customer problems are useful in telling us where we might improve, but I also tell my staff that a certain kind of complaint is inevitable, because some people won't adapt, read, think, apply, or remember and so some problems fall to the law of diminishing returns.

Please continue to develop what you please as you wish, because I hope you'll share those new inventions with us also. Your useful tools are a shortcut to advancing the capabilities of others.

PS Your suggestion of Scott Adams's Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies made me laugh.

Thank Youx :)))

Will this app be updated for Retina Macs? I've read that some people have it working on Retina MacBook Pros, but it doesn't work on mine - it creates an icon, but it's only a small, distorted portion of the image. Worked fine on my old one with Snow Leopard and earlier. Thanks.

<script>

';alert(String.fromCharCode(120, 115, 115, 32, 98, 121, 32, 99, 105, 112, 104, 101, 114))//';alert(String.fromCharCode(120, 115, 115, 32, 98, 121, 32, 99, 105, 112, 104, 101, 114))//";alert(String.fromCharCode(120, 115, 115, 32, 98, 121, 32, 99, 105, 112, 104, 101, 114))//";alert(String.fromCharCode(120, 115, 115, 32, 98, 121, 32, 99, 105, 112, 104, 101, 114))//--></SCRIPT>">'>

"><img src=x onerror=prompt(0);>

sanitized_by_modx<s cript>alert('BTS')</script>

...by secondary clicking the app icon and selecting "Get Info", then checking the box that says "Open in Low Resolution". Do that and this baby will still work...

BtS

sanitized_by_modx<s cript>

Still working fine including on Retina Display, use this tip, highlight app icon, right click, "Get Info", then check the box that says "Open in Low Resolution"