Current Version : Folder Icon X 3.0.2 (2.5 MB)
 

     
 
     
 

Introduction

Folder Icon X is an award-winning Mac OS X-native application providing a simple way to create a customized folder and document icons by placing another icon on a standard plain icon. It fully supports "drag & drop" feature and can load any icons from any files, ".icns" documents and folders. All generated icons are 32-bit Mac OS X-compatible icons which can be viewed on both Classic Mac OS and Mac OS X. This software now supports 9 languages (see below)

Folder Icon X can also perform:

  • Icons to pictures
  • Pictures to icons : support translucent 8-bit mask : view sample
  • Icons to new icons : both folder icons and document icons
  • Icon organizer
  • and more.

The current version is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

 

Highlight Features

Folder Icon X has several useful features, such as:

 

 

 
  • Create a folder icon with a logo on it.
  • Create customized icons for generic disk and folder icons (view sample).
  • Icon outputs have size of 128x128 pixels and 32 bits color depth, i.e. 16 millions color.
  • Icons can be viewed on Mac OS 7 through Mac OS X (32-bit icons require Mac OS 8.5 or higher).
  • Can import pictures, and save them as icons or ".icns" documents (view sample).
  • Can import pictures to be a logo icon, a small icon on a plain icon (pict-to-icon).
  • Can export icons as pictures (icon-to-pict).
  • Support Apple's 8 bits mask (DeepMask), i.e. the icons have different levels of transparency.
  • Support drag & drop, live resize and transparency change.
  • Unlimited customizable templates.
  • Can save icons as folders and ".icns" documents.
  • Can create icons with dropping variant or open-drop icon (view sample).
  • Can import icons from the Finder by using Finder's contextual menus, called Folder IconX.plugin

Adding a dropping variant or open-drop icon

The generic folder icon usually has two statuses, i.e. closing status and opening status. The icon of the closing status is the blue folder icon which you see on the desktop. The opening status will be displayed when users dragging files or folders on that folder icon

 

 

Folder Icon X provides an easy way to add the dropping variant, i.e. icon of the opening status, to the folder icon. Just create your folder icon on the main window as usual, and then select your dropping variant from the Add Dropping Variant command of the Icon menu. Download an example here or view the demonstrating movie.

 

Transformation of the logo icon

To freely transform or distort the shape of the logo icon, users can use the Set Customized Dimension command of the Distortion submenu of the Edit menu. This command will display a red transforming frame with four gray active corners. Dragging the corners of the frame will distort the shape of the icon. For more convenience, users can also activate the transforming frame by double-clicking on the logo icon. The transforming configuration can be saved for future use by the Save Current Setting command.

 

 

Users can also transform or distort the logo icon to match the shape of generic folder or disk icons. Please view demonstration and download a sample here.

 

Manually Crop

Manually Crop command is located on the Edit menu. It allows users to crop the logo icon manually.

 

 

When the command is activated, the greenish cropping frame will be shown. Dragging the active corners of the cropping frame will change size of the frame. To finalize the command, hit Enter or Return key, or double-click on the framed area.

 

Organize your icons with features of Template menu

Template menu will display the items which are placed in the template folder. The default template folder is a folder named "Template" located in the same folder as Folder Icon X application. Users can put any files, folders or aliases in this template folder in order that users can select their icons from the Template menu. This feature will help users to categorize, organize, and group icons. On the Template menu, all icons in the template folder will be listed in hierarchical manner.

Moreover, the Template menu can also be listed in the contextual menus, either those of Folder Icon X itself or the Finder. Importantly, if the items are ".icns" documents (standard Mac OS X icon document), the Template menu will display the contents of ".icns" data.

 

 

Other highlights of the Template menu

  • Any folders inside the template folder will be displayed as categories in hierarchical manner.
  • Hold down the Command key while select an item from the menu will open that item in Finder.
  • If Caps Lock is on, the mask of the selected template icon will be applied to the original icon.

 

 

 

Contextual Menu : Folder Icon X.plugin

"Folder Icon X.plugin" is a Mac OS X-compatible contextual menu module, which helps users to manage icons of files and folder form Finder. "Folder Icon X.plugin" allows users to perform the following tasks :

 

 

  • Add icons of any desktop items to the main canvas of Folder Icon X.
  • Save icons of any desktop items as "icns" documents.
  • Copy icons of selected items to the Clipboards.
  • Paste copied icons to the selected items on the desktop.
  • Remove custom icons from selected files and folders
  • Preview selected icons, including contents of ".icns" files,on a floating window.
  • Create a folder icon using Make Folder Icons command
  • Compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.1 and later, including Mac OS X 10.3 Panther.

 

Make Folder Icons command


The Make Folder Icons command allows users to create folder icons form the contextual menu. The generated folder icon is the combination of a template folder icon and a logo icon. The template folder icon can be customized via the Startup pane of the Preferences window of the Folder Icon X application. The logo icon is the contextual menu-selected item. The customized position of the logo icon is the last position on the Folder Icon X's main window.

 

Make & Paste To Parent command


The operation of Make & Paste command resembles that of the Make Folder Icons command. Once the engine make the icon, it will automatically paste that icon to the parent folder of the selected item.

 

Preview Icon Document command

 

 

The Preview Icon Document command is located on the root menu of the Folder Icon X contextual menu. It has an ability to display the icons of selected items on a floating window. If ".icns" icon documents are selected, the engine will display the contents of those ".icns" documents.

 

Requirement

  • Mac OS X 10.3 or later.
  • QuickTime 6.4 or later

 

Language support

If you want to translate Folder Icon X, please contact me at: naratt@naratt.com

Users can change the application language although that language is not installed on the current system. To change language, open the Info window of Folder Icon X. Then select the "Languages" popup menu. Check the language which you want to set and uncheck the languages which you do not want. If you check more than one language, the used language is the one that has been set in the system preference. This method does not work if Folder Icon X is on a locked volume.

 

Photoshop support

  • If you need to create a Mac OS X-compatible icon with Adobe Photoshop, please try Icon Exporter Plug-in.
  • Icon Exporter Plug-in is a simple exporting plug-in allowing Photoshop users to export composite RGB layer data as a 32-bit Mac OS X icon (128 x 128 pixels). The plug-in can also transfer alpha channels to be a 8-bit Deep Mask with different levels of transparency.
  • Icon Exporter Plug-in works with Photoshop 5 and 6. It also works with Classic version of Photoshop 7, but not Photoshop 7 or CS Mac OS X version.

 

Registration

 

Folder Icon X is a shareware.

  • Single user license US$ 15.00
  • Site license US$ 150.00

Icon Exporter Plug-in is a shareware.

  • Single user license US$ 10.00
  • Site license US$ 30.00
The registration code will be sent via e-mail. Please provide a valid e-mail address.
Purchase online at: http://store.eSellerate.net/naratt/store

Download

Folder Icon X 3.0.2 (2.5 MB)

Icon Exporter Plug-in 1.8 OS 9 (200K)

Danish documents for Folder Icon X 3.0 (630K)

 

Check an update with your Symbian mobile phone (e.g. Nokia 6600) at: http://www.naratt.com/mobile/

If you have problems about Folder Icon X, please e-mail me at: naratt@naratt.com

 

Updated: August 5, 2006