Icon Machine is an icon editor- it lets you customize the icons of items in the Finder. To edit the icon of an item, just drag it onto the Icon Machine icon in the Finder, and Icon Machine will open a window in which you can edit the icon. When you’re done, use the Save command to apply your new icon. And there you are.
Also, Icon Machine is shareware. A paltry 20 bucks. If you decide you like the program and want to continue to use it, please pay for it as described at the end of this file. If you don’t think it’s worth $20, just delete it from your hard disk and wait around for the next version.
And what do you get for that $20, besides freedom from a guilty conscience? Why, my undying gratitude, of course! I will do my best to support all registered Icon Machine users by helping them with questions, notifying them of new versions of the program, and taking their complaints an bug reports much more seriously.
Why is Icon Machine?
When I first started using System 7 and saw how you could customize icons by pasting them in the Finder’s Get Info windows, I immediately said, “Hey, what we need is an icon editor!” And the idea of Icon Machine was born, and has been evolving ever since. Other people have made icon editors too, and I have tried out as many as I could get my hands on (because if I found one I liked enough it would save me a lot of trouble!) but I was never quite satisfied. If you want a thing done right....
How is Icon Machine?
Well, I think it’s pretty cool. I tried to make it as useful and usable as possible, and as a part of that I have included extensive support for Macintosh Drag and Drop. A lot of ideas have come and gone, many of which are reserved for upcoming versions of this program. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would be overjoyed to hear them. Really.
Editing Icons
Tools
Icon Machine has a pretty much standard array of painting tools: lasso, marquee, pencil, paint bucket, line, rectangle, oval, line, polygon, and text. The usual rules for each tool apply- use the shift key to constrain them, etc.
When using the text tool, the arrow keys don't move the insertion point; instead, they move all of the text by one pixel.
You can also use the keyboard to select the drawing tools. These are the same shortcuts used by Adobe Photoshop 4.
It may not be obvious, but there is a "magic wand" selection tool - just select the lasso and hold down the option key. In a future version the magic wand will get its own spot on the tool bar; there just isn't room right now.
Various special things have been added to the tools for working with masks. What's a mask? I'm glad you asked.
Masks
The icon mask is sort of a black-and-white picture which defines which parts of the icon are transparent and which are opaque. In Icon Machine, the mask is represented using the small dot pattern in the background of the editing area: where the dots are visible, the mask is transparent. It is possible to have a transparent mask under colored pixels, but those pixels will not appear when the icon is drawn.
To view the mask directly, select Mask View from the View menu, or press the tab key. The mask will be displayed as white (opaque) on a black background.
If you open an icon that has an incomplete mask (transparent under colored pixels), Icon Machine will fix the mask and tell you about it. It is possible to create an incomplete mask while editing, so to fix it you can use the Fix Mask command. The mask is also fixed automatically when the icon is saved. Icon Machine "fixes" the mask by making it opaque wherever there are colored pixels.
Each icon family can have two masks- one for the large size, one for small. Technically, these masks are stored with the black-and-white icons, so if they are missing then there is no mask. Also, if the black-and-white icons are missing then the Finder won’t use that size, so Icon Machine won't delete them if the mask is needed; you can never delete the large black-and-white icon.
The mask is automatically updated as you edit the icon, and some tools let you edit the mask directly. See "Mask Mode" below for more details.
Mask View
If you're used to Icon Machine's integrated mask editing, the mask view may look a bit werid to you at first. Just think of it as being the same as the mask editor that other icon editors have. Just remember that it's white-on-black (like Photoshop!) rather than black-on-white like in the other editors.
Selections
If you hold down the option key while dragging a selection, it will leave a copy behind. If you hold down command and option, it will leave a trail. The shift key constrains dragging to horizontal and vertical movement (but you have to hold it down after pressing the mouse button).
Through the magic of Macintosh Drag and Drop, you can also drag a selection outside of the window, either to another editing window or to another application (like to the Finder, to create a clipping file).
You can also use the shift key with the selection tools to add to the selection, and the command key will subtract from the selection. It’s fun.
The lasso has an additional behavior: if you hold down the option key as you press the mouse, it behaves like a "magic wand" - it selects all adjacent pixels of the same color. It works like the paint bucket (for filling), only instead of painting, it selects. A handy trick with this is if you have a white area that you want to make transparent (erasing the mask), you can select it with the "magic wand", and then delete the selection.
You can also flip and rotate the contents of the selection using the commands in the Edit menu.
Colors and Patterns
The middle toolbox lets you select colors (using the pop-up menu or the dropper tool) and patterns. The beveled-out box on the left is the foreground color, the beveled-in box on the right is the background color, and the flat box above is the pattern. You can also use the dropper to pick up any color you click on—a normal click sets the foreground color, and a shift-click sets the background color. If you are using one of the other drawing tools (except the lasso or marquee), you can quickly access the dropper by holding down the option key.
All three of these pop-up selectors can be torn off and used as floating palettes.
The foreground color is used for the pencil, bucket, line, text, the outlines of the shapes, and the “black” parts of a pattern. The background color is used for the “white” parts of a pattern, and also as the background color when erasing, either with the eraser or the pencil. If you select something and move it (without holding down the option key), the opaque areas will be replaced by the background color. This can be useful when you want an image that doesn’t have a white background, like the light gray inside the document icon.
When editing the 8-bit (256-color) icons (the first and third icons as displayed on the right side of the window), there are two color palettes you can choose from: the System palette (rearranged a little; shown above left), and the standard 35 icon colors (the colors you are recommended to use in Finder icons; shown above right). To switch between these, select the palette you want from the Colors menu.
The reason to use the standard icon colors is that, prior to Mac OS 8.5, they are the only ones that will darken properly when an icon is selected, or that will tint properly when an item is assigned a Label color in the Finder.
As you drag the mouse across the System palette, you will sometimes see other color boxes hiliting. This is because some colors were duplicated to complete the layout; when two boxes are hilited, it's because they contain the same color.
Drawing Mode
The next toolbox lets you choose between opaque and transparent drawing. When the mode is set to transparent, the shape tools (oval, rectangle, polygon) will only draw an outline. When it’s set to opaque, shapes will be filled with the selected pattern.
Mask Mode
The final three-button toolbox is for switching between the three mask editing modes. The first is for normal mode, where tools may affect both the icon image and the mask. The second is mask mode, where the image is not affected, only the mask. The third is image mode, where the mask is not affected, and you can only draw in areas that are already opaque.
For example: if you start off with an empty icon, and draw a line in normal mode with the pencil, you get a black line. In mask mode, you get a white line (against the field of dots that show transparency). In image mode, you get a black line, but only in the parts that are already opaque (like the line you made with the mask pencil).
The cursor, if possible (depending on its shape), will show the current mode: a regular cursor for normal mode, a solid black cursor for mask mode, and a transparent cursor for image mode.
You can also override the setting in the palette using the keyboard: Hold down the command key for mask mode; hold down the command and option keys for image mode.
Preview
Underneath all the toolboxes are the preview, and three toggle buttons to choose what mode you want to preview the icon in: selected, open, or offline (like on an ejected disk).
You can also drag the preview to other Icon Machine windows, or to the Finder to create clipping files. This drag will contain the data from the entire icon family, including a picture of the icon in the current preview mode.
Icon Selectors
To the right of the painting area are the icon selectors, for choosing which icon in the icon family you want to edit. You can also drag the icons from these boxes, as well as drop icons into them. This is handy for copying data from one part of the icon family to another.
The icons you can select are, from top to bottom: large 8-bit (256 colors), large 4-bit (16 colors), large 1-bit (black-and-white), small 8-bit, small 4-bit, and small 1-bit. An empty box means that icon doesn't exist in the icon family. To create it, just click on that box. To delete an existing icon, use the Delete Current Icon command in the Edit menu.
Name and Original Icon
At the bottom of the window are the name of the item you’re editing, and it’s orignal (non-custom) icon. The name dispayed is the full path name of the item, like “Hard Disk:Thingies:Grizzly Bears”. If it's too long, it will be truncated by taking out the names of some of the folders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will Icon Machine support Mac OS 8.5's 32-bit icons?
Icon Machine 2.0 will support 32-bit icons. Most of the new features introduced in version 1.6 are necessary for editing 32-bit icons but are also useful for other icon types, so they are part of the transition to 32-bit editing. Mac OS 8.5 also introduced "huge" (48x48) icons, but they are not yet used by the Finder, and therefore Icon Machine 2.0 will not support them either. However, in the future Icon Machine's capabilities will expand beyond only editing Finder custom icons, and so will also be able to edit more different kinds of icons, such as the huge and mini sizes. But all of this will be after version 2.0.
Why don't icons appear when I save them?
If you are using System 7, make sure the Finder Scripting Extension is enabled. If it isn't, then Icon Machine is forced to change the icons behind the Finder's back, so that the new icons won't be visible until you restart your computer.
Why does it take so long to save an icon sometimes?
Icon Machine saves icons by telling the Finder to change them. Sometimes the Finder takes a long time to respond; I don't think there's anything I can do about this. But usually after the first time it seeds up.
The “Edit Icon” Contextual Menu Plugin
As part of the Icon Machine package, you will notice a file called "Edit Icon". If you have Mac OS 8 or later and a PowerPC system, you can place this file in the Contextual Menu Items folder in your System Folder. This plugin will add a command called "Edit Icon" to the contextual menu of any file, folder, or disk which will open the item's icon in Icon Machine. If you don't have Mac OS 8, what are you waiting for?
A contextual menu, by the way, is the one that appears when you hold down the control key and click on something. But only in Mac OS 8.
Drag-and-Drop Summary
Currently the editing area and the selector boxes support drag and drop; other parts of the Icon Machine window will be joining them soon.
Dragging
- Drag selections from the paint area
- Drag icons from the selector boxes
- Drag the icon preview
Dropping
- Drop icons and pictures onto the painting area
- Drop icons onto the selector boxes to replace them
Kaleidoscope Notes
The selector boxes (on the right side of the window) do not draw correctly with Kaleidoscope 2.0 using schemes that have dialog background patterns. This bug was fixed in Kaleidoscope 2.0.1.
For you scheme designers, I'd like to make a suggestion for making tool buttons like Icon Machine's look good. In bevel buttons, the inside of a black-and-white icon is drawn using the button's background color, even if the button has a pattern in it. This means that you can use the background color as an icon fill color, and then use a pattern as the real background color, even if it's a solid color pattern. For an examlple, look at my schemes (Dathorc's Kids, Sweetener, Armored Carrier), available at the Kaleidoscope Scheme Archive. I redesigned the mask mode icons because I don't expect many schemes to take advantage of this, and I wanted something that would be meaningful using only two colors. I don't use color icons because they're not guaranteed to look good against every possible button style.
The Future of Icon Machine
Icon Machine as an external editor
An interface is being developed to allow Icon Machine to edit icons contained in other programs. You double-click on an icon in another program, and it opens up in Icon Machine! This can also give Icon Machine a kind of icon library feature, where you will use another utility (such as Icon Dropper or Icon Archiver) to manage the library itself.
Et Cetera
New drawing tools, support for Mac OS 8.5 icons, and some more powerful editing features are also among the other things on the drawing board. Brace yourselves!
Money
As mentioned at the beginning, Icon Machine is shareware. Try before you buy; just don't forget to buy! You can register your copy for $20 through Kagi Shareware. The option of a site license is also offered; this allows you to use as many copies as you need at a particular site. If your company only has one site, that's all you need! A site license is $100.
Using the enclosed Register program, fill out your name, how many copies you're registering, and your payment method. Then you can print the form and mail it, fax the form, or copy and e-mail it. The addresses you need will be given in the form itself.
Alternately, you can register on the Web at the following address:
http://order.kagi.com/?2YD
When you register, you will receive a confirmation by e-mail. You will not receive a registration code; Icon Machine doesn't use codes.
Version History
1.6.1
- Mask view no longer displays solid black
- The magic wand tool works properly in mask view
1.6
- Added mask vew
- Added tool tips
- Fixed some pre-Appearance drawing problems
- Fixed some drawing problems that happened with gridlines off
- Conflicts with Navigation Services have been removed
- Uses Platinum features when System-wide Platinum Appearance is turned off
- Icons open with the 256-color icon selected
- Icon Machine creates a new editing window on startup
- Fixed an error that occurred when using the Customize command
- Fixed a bug where sometimes dragging from one icon to another would result in a lightened image
- Show Gridlines is off by default
- Removed the Icon Machine Guide from the package. It was out of date, and I wasn't able to make a new version.
1.5b17
- Fixed several bugs related to displaying selections
- Moving a file while it is open in Icon Machine won't cause problems when you try to save
1.5b16
- The editing window has been redesigned to take advantage of the Mac OS 8 Appearance Manager
- Open and Save As now use Navigation Services dialogs when available
- Flip and Rotate commands have been added
- The Edit Icon plugin now works on multiple files
- Mac OS 8.5 proxy icons and path pop-ups
- The Style popup menu was replaced with three toggle buttons
- The mask modes have different icons (if you don't like them and have a better idea, please let me know)
- The member selector has been redesigned, and I don't call them "members" anymore
- Some error messages are now more accurate
- This version no longer has balloon help
- Recompiled with CodeWarrior Pro 4
- Fixed various problems that would happen when dragging from one icon selector box to another
- Kineticon is disabled while Icon Machine is active, to avoid unwanted animations in Icon Machine's windows
1.3.2
- Fixed a crash that happened when undoing the Delete Member command
- Fixed a bug introduced in 1.3.1 where the Delete Member command was enabled for the large B&W icon.
- Made the dropper cursor resource non-purgeable, which should fix the problem of the cursor turning to garbage
- Recompiled with CodeWarrior Pro 3
1.3.1
- Fixed a problem with incoming drag flavors marked "don't save". This was needed for drag-and-drop compatibility with the new version of the Kineticon editor.
- Fixed the translucent drag image of small icons in the icon preview (they were being stretched to large icon size)
- The Edit Icon plugin finally works correctly when Icon Machine is not on the startup drive.
1.3
- Added keyboard shortcuts for tools.
- Added the Show Gridlines command.
- Fixed a potential crashing bug when saving while the Finder is not running, such as with At Ease.
- Added a Troubleshooting section to Icon Machine Guide.
- The Help command in contextual menus is now enabled, and opens Icon Machine Guide.
- Only allows one about box open at a time.
- Fixed a contextual menu bug introduced in 1.2.1 - control-clicking in a window's drag area would drag the window instead of displaying a menu.
- Fixed a bug which made the System Colors palette not tear off.
- Fixed a bug in the System Colors palette which would hilite two "blank" colors if you put the mouse in just the right place.
- Fixed another bug in the System Colors palette where using the dropper tool to select certain colors would cause the wrong color to be hilited, even though the right color was chosen.
1.2.1
- When the Other Size dialog was open, you could control-click in another window to bring it to the front. This has been fixed. This was a potentially dangerous problem because you could close the window you were trying to choose a size for, which probably would have caused a crash.
- Keyboard shortcuts for the OK and Cancel buttons are recognized in the Other Size dialog, and the OK button is outlined.
1.2
- The icon preview is now draggable.
- Fixed a crashing bug in the Edit Icon plugin. My apoligies to those who ran into this.
- When you drag an icon clipping onto the member selector, it will use the contents of the clipping rather than the clipping's icon (when appropriate).
- With some icons, dragging an icon from the member selector to the editing area created a selection with an incorrect mask. This is fixed.
- The Edit Icon plugin was modified to keep the "Edit Icon" string in a resource for easier localization.
1.1
- Mac OS 8 contextual menus in all windows
- Window menu, which under Mac OS 8 displays each window's icon
- Tear-off floating palettes (requires System 7.5 or later)
- The pattern selector uses the foreground and background colors to display patterns
- The Paste command is only enabled if there is picture data on the clipboard
- The about box is modeless
- Added a Revert command to the file menu
- Double-clicking the marquee or lasso tool does a Select All, and double-clicking the eraser erases the current icon (obeying the current mask mode)
- The Edit Icon plugin now searches all disks for Icon Machine so you don't have to have it on your startup disk
- Recompiled with CodeWarrior Pro 2 and PowerPlant 1.8.1
- Fixed a crash that happened when dragging icons in from Icon Archiver
- Now able to open and save icons on floppy disks
- The text tool now handles double-byte text correctly
1.0.1
- Updated to PowerPlant 1.8b1. The most visible result of this is that the Other Size dialog looks a little different.
- Fixed a crash in the polygon tool.
- Fixed a problem with the pencil's auto-erase in 16-color icons.
- Corrected a typo in the balloon help
That's the End
If you have more questions, you might try the Apple Guide file. Also, you can find the latest info at the Icon Machine web page:
http://www.kagi.com/dathorc/iconmachine.html
You can also e-mail me at dathorc@kagi.com.
When all else fails, you can try the old-fashioned method:
