The Lost Art of the Icon

In the past few weeks, I have rediscovered the lost art of the desktop icon. There was a time when I would scour the internet for the latest and greatest desktop icons to customize my computer with. After all, pre-OSX, I only had a few ways to customize the look: I could set a desktop picture but not a slideshow. I could set a startup picture but I rarely restart my computer these days. And I could set icons. I would decorate my desktop with Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin icons during Halloween; Christmas trees, snowmen, and lights during Christmas, etc. Now I normally prefer a clean desktop (just the HD icon) but after seeing the new sets of icons for OSX available on the web, I have changed my style. Currently, I have my desktop decked out in
Sushi.

OSX brought the arrival of scalable image-based icons. Thanks in part to the Quartz graphics engine. No more 16 x 16 px bitmapped icons. Now I can enlarge my icons to 128 x 128 px. And with the magnification set high in my dock settings, I can see them scale up and down until the cows come home. Here are a few of the best resources I have found on the web for icons.

Iconfactory.com
Still the most comprehensive place on the web for finding icons, making icons, and sharing icons. Hundreds of links to pages of downloadable icons can be found daily. And with sets of icons taking up very little hard disk space, you can download a ton.

Xicons.com
The best collection of OSX-only icons on the web. Each icon set has a thumbnail preview which makes deciding which one to download that much easier. The option to sort by category is also helpful. Still using some Classic applications? Well if you drag an alias of those icons to your dock you will notice a garbled mess magnifying at you. Actually it is just those pesky 16 x 16px being stretched without preserving any resolution. Xicon is one of many sites that offers alternate icons to place in your dock to solve these issues.

Flying Icons 1.0
Do you miss the flying icon screensaver that came pre-installed with the original OSX? Never fear! You can reproduce it and more with this free utility.

iCoco
Making custom icons have never been easier. iCoco provides the template and you drag and drop your own picture into it to make it your very own.

Deskfinity 1.0
Still only a Beta but works really well. With Deskfinity you can create icon sets on your desktop. Very handy if you have a cluttered desktop.

iconbox
Ok. So you have now downloaded thousands of icons. How will you possibly keep them all straight? Iconbox is a program that allows you to browse your icon collection just like you would browse your pictures in iPhoto.

With icons you can make your desktop as unique as you are again. But don’t get too carried away. Icons, when used efficiently, can aid in navigation through your files. But with hundreds of thousands of options out there, it is very easy to get carried away.