Img2icns Review and Video: Making Icons Can’t Be Easier
- Keeps track of all previous icons
- Apply icons with Drag and Drop
The Mac platform is dominated by icons. There are icons on your dock, icons depicting your file types, even icons in your menubar. A long time ago there used to be an app called Pic2Icon from Sugar Cube Software. This app (now discontinued) allowed you to turn your images into icons that you could copy onto your folders and files. Ever since its long departure from the Mac app world, I have been searching for the perfect app that allows you to create icons from your images. I couldn’t be happier to say that I have found this app! Introducing Img2icns:
What does this app do?
Img2icns is designed to take any image in all of the popular formats, including Adobe Photoshop files, and apply it so that you can put that image on a folder/file. In other terms, it takes your image and turns it into an icon.
Img2icns feels like this was the blueprint throughout the entire app. All you have to do is drag your image into the window-dominating drop field and Img2icns gives you your options. Once the image is loaded into the app, simply drag another file or folder onto the same drop zone to give it your new icon. If you want to convert that image into Apple icon format (.icns), click the ICNS button.
Streamlined Interface
The developers put a ton of effort into the look and feel of this app. It’s no surprise that Img2icns is dominated by icons. The window is small so it doesn’t take up a bunch of real estate. Every step is transitioned with sleek animations making the experience as fun as the result. If you’re ever stuck, choose Help > Show help balloons and some popup balloons tell you what the interface elements do.
Requirements and Performance
Img2icns is universal, meaning that it can run on a Mac run by an Intel or PowerPC processor. Its current version is made for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, however you can also download version 0.5 for Mac OS 10.4 X Tiger. In terms of speed, like any app it will depend on your processor and the amount of memory you have. Img2icns imports and exports images extremely quickly. Icons are not big files, and setting them to files does not require a lot of processing power.
Standard or Pro?
Img2icns comes in two versions. The pro version obviously comes with more features. Shiny Frog, the developer of this app, has illustrated the capabilities of each version with a comparison table:
The Verdict
At the time of review Img2icns is in version 1.01 and does exactly what the title depicts: it takes your images and converts them into icons, which can be applied to style your files and folders. This app feels like it has been designed from the ground up for this purpose only. There are no excess features or fluff. Img2icns’ interface is streamlined, not to mention beautiful, with great transitions designed to keep your workflow productive and stress free. The best experience is when running this app under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, however there is a previous version available for Tiger. If you have a need for the ability to export icons for the iPhone or to create favicons, there’s a pro version for $12.90. Otherwise Img2icns is available at img2icnsapp.com for Free.
I have a similar, though maybe not so pretty, application in my dock called ThumbsUp. You just drag the picture file to the app and it creates a matching icon for you.
For the free version, I don’t really get why “Export to Favicon” is a feature. Can’t you just rename it later?
Surely, the program name is pronounced “image to icons”, not “i-m-g-2-i-c-n-s”, right? I so want to be right.