Yesterday, I highlighted my aggressive behavior of placing a Macos Tahoe misfit app icon inside an ugly gray box. This change appears to affect the Mac user experience more than it affects app developers. It makes it difficult to recognize the actual icon at 20% smaller and 80% more difficult.
However, what’s great about Mac is its ability to customize app icons. This could be a temporary solution. Simply track the app icons that work. Here’s how to exchange app icons for Macos Tahoe and avoid the gray box effect:
One of the easiest ways to replace the default MacOS icon for your app is to download and apply it manually, but this can be boring as you lose changes every time the app is updated.
Sites like Macosicons.com offer a huge library of community-made icons that match Apple’s new Squircle Standard. It was great for Chrome and the Pixelmator Pro.
Other repositories like Iconarchive and DeviantArt are also useful.
Traditional methods
- Download replacement icons in .icns format (Apple’s native icon format) or .png.
- Open the viewfinder, select the app, and press Command +i to open the information panel.
- Drag the new icon file into the small icon thumbnail in the top left of the Info panel, or copy and paste it there.
- Close and resume the app to see the updated icon.
How to last using Allatedicon
- Download and install AllationCon on your MAC.
- Drag the replacement icon to Allatedicon and assign it to the app.
- ApplicationCon will automatically re-apply for icons after updates, so no additional steps are required.
Another sustainability tool worth exploring is pictograms. Squircle Prison App Icon Escape should help.
The traditional method still works with many apps, but it does not seem to support Apple’s new clear icon mode or dynamic adjustments for bright and dark modes. You could potentially be able to deal with them using Apple’s free icons Composer app, but that’s a more advanced route suitable for designers.
In the meantime, custom icons will be an easy way to restore personality and clarity to your Mac. Whether it’s a small number of exchanges or overhauling an entire dock, these tools can easily fill the gaps until developers update new style icons on Macos Tahoe.
If you really like a custom setup, consider creating a backup of your icons so that you can easily reapply them if necessary.
what about you? Share your favorite custom app icon or icon source in the comments below.
