How To Create Custom Icons on a Mac

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I just finished up organizing my iMac computer last night and I came across something pretty cool that I hadn’t thought about before.

I try to keep my desktop clean, but I have two files that I need almost daily so I keep them there to make them just one click away while I’m working (my bookkeeping spreadsheet and my spreadsheet for my daily NHL betting picks). Both are excel documents and looked nearly the same on my desktop. I wanted a way to make them look nicer and make it easier to distinguish between the two.

I had the idea of creating a custom icon picture for each, but I wasn’t sure it was even possible. I messed around with it for a minute without any luck so I decided to search google. I didn’t know exactly what to search because I didn’t even know they were referred to as “icons”, but luckily I came across a page that told you how to customize them.

It only took a few minutes and here is what I now have on my desktop…

Here are the steps for creating your own custom icons for your Mac desktop.

#1 – Visit a free icons site such as this one

#2 – Check what size of icon you are using on your desktop by right clicking and choosing show view options (mine are 128×128).

#3 – Search for an icon image that size, and when you find one download it to your computer.

#4 – Open it up in preview and press command+a to select the image and then command+c to copy it.

#5 – Right click on the file on your desktop that you want to create the custom icon for and select “get info”

#6 – In the top left of the get info screen you will see a small image of the file, click that and it will become highlighted, then press command+v to paste the custom icon

There you go, you should now have a custom icon on your Mac desktop. This will make your desktop look nicer, and it will make things easier to find.