How to manually create icns files using iconutil?

Question

When I\'m validating my app I get this error:

the application bundle does not contain an icon in ICNS format, containing both a 512x512

Answer 1

@dardo82's shell code is good & worked. Here is a simpler one in sh (for all *nix's) and faster (like it really matters):

#!/bin/sh
#   This runs silent, be as verbose as you wish
NAME=$(basename ${1} .png)
DIR="${NAME}.iconset"
mkdir -p ${DIR}
for i in 16 32 128 256 512 ; do
    x=""
    for p in $i $(($i+$i)) ; do
        sips -z $p $p ${1} --out "${NAME}.iconset/icon_${i}x${i}${x}.png"
        x="@2x"
    done
done >/dev/null  # /dev/null in lieu of a "-s" silent option
iconutil -—convert icns $DIR
rm -r $DIR

Answer 2

I've refactored @Henry's script to make it look better:

#!/bin/zsh
NAME=$(basename $1 .png); DIR="$NAME.iconset"
mkdir -pv $DIR
for m r in 'n' '' '((n+1))' '@2x'; do
    for n in $(seq 4 9 | grep -v 6); do
        p=$((2**$m)); q=$((2**$n))
        OUT="$DIR/icon_${q}x${q}${r}.png"
        sips -z $p $p $1 --out $OUT
    done
done
iconutil -c icns $DIR
rm -frv $DIR

Update

The -c parameter to iconutil is no longer supported. Use -—convert instead:

#!/bin/zsh
NAME=$(basename $1 .png); DIR="$NAME.iconset"
mkdir -pv $DIR
for m r in 'n' '' '((n+1))' '@2x'; do
    for n in $(seq 4 9 | grep -v 6); do
        p=$((2**$m)); q=$((2**$n))
        OUT="$DIR/icon_${q}x${q}${r}.png"
        sips -z $p $p $1 --out $OUT
    done
done
iconutil -—convert icns $DIR
rm -frv $DIR

Answer 3

Additional comment, when you create .icns file, you need to rename all the pic files with prefix "icon_", otherwise, iconutil will fail with error message: ".iconset:error: Failed to generate ICNS." which is not informative at all.

Answer 4

I have written a bash script for making icns from a svg file:

#!/usr/bin/env bash 
sizes=(16 32 64 128 256 512)
largfile='icon_512x512@2x.png'
if [ ! -f "$largfile" ]; then
  convert -background none -resize 1024x1024 "$1" "$largfile"
fi
for s in "${sizes[@]}"; do
  echo $s
  convert -background none -resize ${s}x${s} "$largfile" "icon_${s}x$s.png"
done

cp 'icon_32x32.png'     'icon_16x16@2x.png'
mv 'icon_64x64.png'     'icon_32x32@2x.png'
cp 'icon_256x256.png'   'icon_128x128@2x.png'
cp 'icon_512x512.png'   'icon_256x256@2x.png'

mkdir icon.iconset
mv icon_*x*.png icon.iconset
iconutil -c icns icon.iconset

Make sure you have imagemagick installed with librsvg support, on mac:

brew install imagemagick --with-librsvg

This script has served me quite well.

---

Update

For a more thorough treatment, I have created a command line tool (written in Swift) for generating AppIcon.appiconset with the correct layout and format:

https://github.com/kindlychung/genicon

Answer 5

When I'm validating my app I get this error:

the application bundle does not contain an icon in ICNS format, containing both a 512x512 and a 512x512@2x image.

⋮

I am not very good with terminal command and so maybe I'm doing something wrong. I wrote:

iconutil -c icns </Users/myname/SDK Mac Apps/MyApp/grafica/icon.iconset>

For one thing, as I mentioned in a comment on Anne's answer, you probably don't need to use iconutil. You should be able to just add the iconset to your project and let Xcode convert it for you as part of the build.

Either way, this may be your problem:

I tryed to put two PNG files togheter (512x512 and 1024x1024) … but I always get the error.

There is no 1024 by 1024 point size. The 1024 by 1024 pixel element (which was 1024 points before Mountain Lion) is now used for 512 by 512 points @2x.

Your PNG file must be named appropriately: icon_512x512@2x.png

Answer 6

Hello, for my needs I made a droplet that works in drag and drop icons alone or icons to search in a folder (I limited to folders as the searches on Volumes of all the icons can take a lot of time ). So in drag and drop you can drop folders or application, anything that can contain an icon. The iconset created bears the name of the original icon, it is placed in a directory "/ aaaicones" and the path of the icon. Example in the folder "/ aaaicones if you submit xcode.app you will find "/aaaicones/Applications/xcode.app/access.iconset" and /aaaicones/Applications/xcode.app/access.icns (the recreated icon) there will be a text file where it is traced the full path of the icons , And the path to the corresponding iconset example "/Applications/xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/Frameworks/InstrumentsPlugIn.framework/Versions/A/Resources/access.icns" "/aaaicones/Applications/xcode.app/access.iconset" in the example taken (xcode) this can create a folder at the end (with all icons and iconset) of 214 MB in size. If you treat an icon alone, it will be placed in the directory "/ aaaicones / aIconeseule /" and its original path, example /aaaicones/aIconeseule/Mac Elcapitan/.VolumeIcon.icns and /aaaicones/aIconeseule/Mac Elcapitan /.VolumeIcon.iconset with /aaaicones/aIconeseule/Mac Elcapitan/aalisticones.txt The droplet is below

on open draggedItems
    set input to draggedItems
    set fich to draggedItems


    set media to {}

    set theInfo to {}

    set n to "0"
    repeat with currentItem in draggedItems
        set dirchoisi to POSIX path of fich
        if ".icns" is not in dirchoisi then
            if "Volumes" is not in dirchoisi then

                set origi to do shell script "echo   /aaaicones" & dirchoisi
                set fich to do shell script "echo " & fich & " | xxd -p -c 100000 | sed 's#3a#2f#g' | xxd -r -p | sed 's#" & dirchoisi & "#" & "/aaaicones" & dirchoisi & "#g' | xxd -p -c 100000 | sed 's#2f#3a#g' | xxd -r -p"
                tell application "Finder"
                    if exists (folder fich) then
                        set nn to "0"
                        repeat with nn from 1 to 5
                            set origi to do shell script "echo  " & origi & "/" & " | sed 's#//#" & nn & "/" & "#'"
                            set fich to do shell script "echo " & fich & " | sed 's#:aaaicones*.*#" & origi & "#'" & " | xxd -p -c 100000 | sed 's#2f#3a#g' | xxd -r -p"

                            if not (exists folder (fich as Unicode text)) then
                                try
                                    set origi to do shell script "echo  " & origi
                                    exit repeat
                                end try
                            end if
                        end repeat
                    end if
                end tell
                tell application "Finder"
                    if not (exists folder (fich as Unicode text)) then
                        do shell script "mkdir -p -m 0777 " & quoted form of origi
                    end if
                end tell
                try
                    set theInfo to do shell script "find " & (quoted form of dirchoisi) & " -name *.icns "
                end try




                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return

                set theList to text items of theInfo

                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

                set n to count theList
                repeat with i from 1 to n
                    if "Volumes" is not in item i of theList then
                        set end of media to item i of theList
                    end if
                end repeat
                set n to count media
                set cheminicns to do shell script " > " & quoted form of (origi & "aalisticones.txt") & " |  chmod 777 " & quoted form of (origi & "aalisticones.txt")
                set cheminicns to do shell script "ls " & quoted form of (origi & "aalisticones.txt")

                tell application "Finder"
                    set letext to (POSIX file cheminicns as alias)
                    set label index of letext to 2
                end tell



                repeat with i from 1 to n

                    set hdd to item i of media
                    try

                        set input to do shell script "echo   " & hdd & " | sed 's#//#/#g; s#(#\\(#g;s#)#\\)#g' "
                        do shell script "echo   " & quoted form of input & " >>" & quoted form of cheminicns
                        set png to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of input & " | sed 's#.*/##' "

                        do shell script "cp -f " & quoted form of input & " " & quoted form of origi
                        set input to do shell script "iconutil -c iconset  " & quoted form of (origi & png)
                        do shell script "echo   " & quoted form of (origi & png) & " | sed 's#.icns#.iconset#' >>" & quoted form of cheminicns
                    end try
                end repeat
                tell application "Finder"
                    if exists (folder fich) then
                        open fich
                    end if
                end tell

            end if
        else

            set input to do shell script "echo   " & dirchoisi & " | sed 's#//#/#g; s#(#\\(#g;s#)#\\)#g' "
            set png to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of input & " | sed 's#.*/##' "
            set origi to do shell script "echo " & quoted form of ("/aaaicones/aIconeseule/" & input) & " | sed 's#/Volumes/##; s#" & quoted form of png & "##'"
            do shell script "mkdir -p -m 0777 " & quoted form of origi
            do shell script "echo   " & quoted form of input & " >>" & quoted form of origi & "aalisticones.txt"

            do shell script "cp -f " & quoted form of input & " " & quoted form of origi
            set input to do shell script "iconutil -c iconset  " & quoted form of (origi & png)
            do shell script "echo   " & quoted form of (origi & png) & " >>" & quoted form of origi & "aalisticones.txt"
        end if
    end repeat
end open