IconImp, ICOimp, and ICNSimp

This is a collection of command line tools to create Windows and OS X/macOS icons.

ICOimp

The icoimp BASH script is a simplified version of the IconImp script. This is a much more stable implimentation but doesn't support Apple ICNS or Web-Clips creation.

Basic Usage Examples

# Create a Windows Vista+ icon
$ icoimp logo.png

# Create a browser favicon.ico
$ icoimp -f logo.png

# Creates a favicon.ico, and Windows 10 ICO named logo.ico
$ icoimp -f --win10 logo.png

ICNSimp

The icnsimp BASH script is a helper script for the iconutil tool on newer versions of OS X (Snow Leopard+ ?) and macOS. It takes as input a single image filename and creates an iconset directory and populates it with correctly sized and named versions of the source image and then uses iconutil on the iconset to create the final Apple ICNS icon.

Basic Usage Examples

# Create Apple ICNS icon
$ icnsimp logo.png
  Building IconSet...
  Creating logo.icns icon...

Windows ICO Spec

The following data is illustrative but should not be considered de facto standard information.

Installation

Option 1: Symlink the files icnsimp.bash, icoimp.bash, iconimp.bash, iconimp-ega.gif, and iconimp-winxp.gif to your personal bin directory. Good for single user or restricted systems.

$ cd ~
$ mkdir repos
$ cd repos
$ git clone https://github.com/runeimp/IconImp.git
$ cd "$HOME/.local/bin"
-or-
$ cd "$HOME/bin"
$ ln -s ~/repos/IconImp/icnsimp.bash icnsimp
$ ln -s ~/repos/IconImp/icoimp.bash icoimp
$ ln -s ~/repos/IconImp/iconimp.bash iconimp
$ ln -s ~/repos/IconImp/*.gif .

Option 2: Symlink the files icnsimp.bash, icoimp.bash, iconimp.bash, iconimp-ega.gif, and iconimp-winxp.gif to your local bin directory. Good for easy access by all system users.

$ cd /usr/local
$ mkdir repos
$ cd repos
$ git clone https://github.com/runeimp/IconImp.git
$ cd /usr/local/bin/
$ ln -s /usr/local/IconImp/icnsimp.bash icnsimp
$ ln -s /usr/local/IconImp/icoimp.bash icoimp
$ ln -s /usr/local/IconImp/iconimp.bash iconimp
$ ln -s /usr/local/IconImp/*.gif .

Note: The two GIF files must exist in the same directory as iconimp so that the script file can find them to create the full featured Windows ICO file.

OS Support

Mac

ICOimp & ICNSimp

Both scripts use sips for image resizing. This is a Mac only utility as far as I can tell. But I will add ImageMagic/GraphicsMagic support in the future for use on other platforms.

IconImp

Currently the script reliese on ImageMagick for image resizing and source image size info. But in the near future will use the native program sips to be used for source image size info and image resizing when ImageMagick is not present. Though ImageMagick must still be present to create FavIcon and Windows ICO files. As well as producing generally higher quality icons in any format. Note that depending on your version of OS X you may need to install iconutil to support ICNS creation by installing Xcode and then check Xcode Preferences > Downloads > Components and download the "Command Line Tools".

Linux

ICOimp

This script will not work on Linux currently as it only supports sips for image resizing at this time.

ICNSimp

This script is just a helper for the Mac only iconutil command line tool and thus is useless on any other platform.

IconImp

This script has not been tested on Linux yet but is expected to work normally given that ImageMagick is installed where iconimp can access both the convert and identify commands. To my knowledge there is no Linux version of iconutil. Thus Mac ICNS file creation is not possible on Linux. Though if I can find a way I will add such support.

Windows

ICOimp

This script will not work on Windows currently as it only supports sips for image resizing at this time.

ICNSimp

This script is just a helper for the Mac only iconutil command line tool and thus is useless on any other platform.

IconImp

This script has not been tested in Windows yet but is expected to work via MSYS or Cygwin as long as ImageMagick is installed where it is accessible by BASH in those environments. To my knowledge there is no Windows version of iconutil. Thus Mac ICNS file creation is not possible on Windows. Though if I can find a way I will add such support.

Image Formats Supported

Source Images

Only the PNG format is supported for source images at this time. Though other image formats are likely to be added, formats that don't support 8-bit alpha transparency (JPEG & GIF) will not be able to produce high quality images without a background color.

Output Formats

FavIcon

By default for ICOimp this is a standard Windows ICO file with the sizes 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, stored internally. ICO is the only format at this time that is supported by all browsers that support the FavIcon concept.

Windows ICO

By default iconimp creates a standard Windows ICO file with the sizes 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 256×256 in 24-bit true color with alpha (if present) format. 8-bit (256 color) versions are also included for the sizes: 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48. 4-bit (16 color) versions are also included for 16×16, 24×24, and 32×32 sizes. The 256×256 HQ Windows XP (also Win7 and Win8) is PNG compressed by all newer versions of ImageMagick's convert program.

Mac OS X ICNS

By default IconImp and ICNSimp use iconutil (on the Mac only) to create a High Quality ICNS file that supports both normal and Retina icon sizes. The source images should be in the sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 64×64, 128×128, 256×256, 512×512, 1024×1024.

Smartphone Web-Clips

The default web-clips sizes and names use the standards that Apple created which seem to be the most broadly supported by the Android Browser, Chrome for Android, and the latest Blackberry Browsers. The sizes are: 57×57, 72×72, 114×114, 120×120, 144×144. Be sure to check-out Mathias Bynens: Everything you always wanted to know about touch icons

IconImp

The iconimp BASH script is a PNG to FavIcon, Mac ICNS, Windows ICO and Web-Clip builder. It was created on a Mac but should also work on Linux and Windows given the proper system support. Currently broken though... :-(

Note the API will change soon.

Basic Usage Examples

# Creates a FavIcon, Mac ICNS, Windows ICO and Web-Clips using the base input/file name "logo"
$ iconimp logo

# Creates a browser favicon.ico and specifying the input base name explicitly
$ iconimp -t f -i 'my fav icon.png'

# creates a favicon.ico and Windows "my fav icon.ico"
$ iconimp -t fw 'my fav icon.jpg'

# Apply an image or ICNS file to a file or folder
$ iconimp -a logo.icns
or
$ iconimp -a "Company Logo.png"