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Macintosh® vs Windows® icons

 

This article provides information on the following topics:

• What are the differences between Windows® and Macintosh® icons?

• Image formats included in Macintosh® icons

• Various Macintosh® file types

• Transfer an icon between Windows® OS and Macintosh® OS

• Information about the new 256x256 icon format for Tiger (OS-X 10.4)

What are the differences between Windows® and Macintosh® icons?

Microsoft Windows® and Apple Macintosh® icons are very similar. They both have several image formats embedded in the same icon. But the file format is totally different. You cannot use Macintosh® icons as is under Windows®. The file format is not compatible. You must convert them to Windows® ICO file format (with IconWorkshop™ of course!). This is the same under Macintosh® OS which cannot read Windows® icon files.

Axialis IconWorkshop™ supports the following Macintosh® icon files: ICNS, RSC and BIN. You can easily open them into the Icon Editor and save them as Windows® ICO format. During this operation, we recommend you to remove special Macintosh® formats which are useless under Windows®. You can also read a Windows® icon and save it as Macintosh format.

Recommended image formats embedded in icons are slightly different in Windows® and Macintosh®. See the comparison tables below:

 

Some image formats are unavailable in Macintosh® icon specifications. Therefore IconWorkshop™ won't event permit you to create them. If you try to save or convert a Windows® icon to Macintosh®, some format will be removed. Note that all image formats can be created in Windows® icons, even custom formats not listed above.

 

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Image formats included in Macintosh® icons

Only a limited list of image formats are available in Macintosh® icons (no other formats can be defined):

  • 256x256 (Tiger) - Available in RGB/A mode only. This image format is compatible with Tiger OSX 10.4 or more.

  • 128x128 (Thumbnail) - Available in RGB/A mode only. This image format is compatible with OSX or more.

  • 48x48 (Huge) - Available in RGB/A, 256 colors, 16 colors and mono.

  • 32x32 (Large) - Available in RGB/A, 256 colors, 16 colors and mono.

  • 16x16 (Small) - Available in RGB/A, 256 colors, 16 colors and mono.

  • 16x12 (Mini) - Available in 256 colors, 16 colors and mono. Rarely used.

The 32x32 Monochrome format is recommended for Macintosh icons to ensure display compatibility on old Macintosh systems with B/W screens.

 

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Various Macintosh® file types

Macintosh® icons can be saved using two different file formats: "ICNS" and "RSC" (or "RSRC" is used). A third format MacBinary "BIN" is used for transfer purpose between Windows® and Macintosh®.

  • ICNS - This is the standard Macintosh® icon file format. Only one icon (with several formats) can be saved in this format. This format is the most commonly used.

  • RSC or RSRC - This is the Macintosh resource file format. It is used mainly by developers. This format can contain several icons. IconWorkshop™ support reading of RSC files with several icons but can write only RSC files with one icon.

  • BIN - MacBinary format. This format permits to easily transfer files between Macintosh® and Windows®. For more information on this format, visit this website: http://www.lazerware.com/formats/macbinary.html.

We strongly recommend to use the MacBinary file format to transfer your icons to Macintosh® because it is compatible with Mac file system which separate each file in two parts called "forks": The data fork and the resource fork. The data fork contains the data included in the file (a text file for example). The resource fork contains the image or icon which permits to display it on screen. See below for more information on transfer from Windows® to Macintosh®.

 

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Transfer an icon between Windows® OS and Macintosh® OS

To transfer and icon between Windows® and Macintosh®, the easiest method is to use the MacBinary format. This format permits to generate an icon compatible with the Mac OS forks.

The MacBinary format permits to merge the 2 forks in one file handy for transfer, mail attachment or Web publishing. When IconWorkshop™ saves an icon in MacBinary format, it writes the icon in the resource fork. The data fork is left empty. As a result, as soon as you receive or see the file in Macintosh®, the icon appears automatically. Then, you can handle it using the standard Finder/MacOS user interface.

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Information about the new 256x256 icon format for Tiger (OS-X 10.4)

The new Macintosh® OS version 10.4 (Tiger) introduces a new icon format which permits to create 256x256 icons. In the upcoming months a new generation of flat LCD displays will have much higher resolutions. The screens won't be larger but the number of pixels per inch (DPI) will increase. This will result in smaller items on screen including icons. To compensate this effect, Apple® has planned to create a new resolution-independent user interface and the ability to display icons with higher definition in Tiger.

This feature is not yet fully implemented in the actual version, but next small upgrades to come will include it for sure. However you can already create compatible 256x256 icons with IconWorkshop™. That way you'll be ready when the feature will be implemented. This format is highly compressed and permits to create large 256x256 icons using less than 100 KB. Actually, Tiger loads the icon but display it in 128x128 format.

Keep in mind that a 256x256 icon is 25 times the size of a 48x48 icon! It will change deeply the way you'll create icons in the future. But be sure we'll add many features to help you in future versions. To get an idea of things to come, see an icon snapshot comparing sizes from 256x256 to 16x16:

 

For the same reasons of compatibility with hi-res screens to arrive, Microsoft Windows Vista™, the next version of Windows® to be released in 2006, comes with a new format of icons supporting PNG compression and sizes up to 256x256.

Axialis IconWorkshop™ permits to create Vista icons. To read more about Windows Vista™ Icons? and how to create them using IconWorkshop™, read this article: "What's new with Vista Icons?".

 

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Article written by Axialis Software Team on Friday, October 07, 2005.

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