An ongoing project to create grayscale versions of the most commonly used Mac apps. A perfect match for the newly introduced dark theme for macOS
- Download the repository.
- Download and install LiteIcon.
- The
grayscale
folder contains all of the icons in black and white. - Drag the
.icns
file of the desired app over the colour version within the LiteIcon panel. - Click Apply Changes.
- Open/Close and Reopen the app to see changes.
The majority of system applications cannot be changed using LiteIcon due to a macOS security feature called SIP. LiteIcon warns you the first time opening it of this with the following prompt.
You will have to disable SIP temporarily with the following steps:
- Restart your Mac.
- Before OS X starts up, hold down Command-R and keep it held down until you see an Apple icon and a progress bar. Release. This boots you into Recovery.
- From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
- At the prompt type exactly the following and then press Return:
csrutil disable
- Terminal should display a message that SIP was disabled.
- From the menu, select Restart.
- All of the disabled icons will now appear in the LiteIcon interface.
- Make sure to re-anable SIP once done using the same steps except
csrutil enable
. This is important for security.
There is an icons.sketch
file included for users who wish to contribute or modify the existing icons for their own usage.
- Open the
icons.sketch
- Go to
Applications/**Example.app**/
- Right-click and
Show Package Contents
- The original icon is always in
Content/Resources
. - Copy the icon and rename accordingly and place in the
original
folder. - With Sketch open copy into
icons.sketch
as a layer. - There is only one panel you need to use to get the image grayscale. With the icon selected tick
Color Adjust
in the right-hand sidepanel. - Adjust Saturation to 0. Using a combination of Brightness and Contrast, adjust settings until there is a strong white/black contrast that should flatten the image. Ensure not to omit critical details for aesthetical reasons. I have found flat icons work better than detailed ones.
- Export the layer @2x PNG.
- Download the Image2Icon app and import
.png
and export.icns
for use. - If contributing commit ONLY the
.icns
files for the original and grayscale, NOT theicons.sketch
file.