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How to Edit Mini-Icons with ResEdit
by Michael Coyle, 04-27-1998

These are the mini-icons that are stored in the Appearance Extension.

They are used in Finder List views and Open/Save dialog boxes.

While they can't be edited directly in ResEdit, there is a trick to use the ics8 editor.

Open a copy of the Appearance Extension in ResEdit, and find the icm series of icons.

For every icon ID that you change, you will have to duplicate it in all three of these resource groups.

In this example, we will change ID-3999, the standard folder icon. Open it with a double-click.

Instead of the usual ResEdit icon editor, you will be presented with a window full of HEX!

What is important here is to notice where the entries stop: in the row starting with 0000B8, as I've underlined in red.

Select all of this data and copy it to the clipboard.

Find the ics8 icon resources and open them with a double-click.

You will now see the dozens of small colored icons used throughout the System.

Create a new icon resource with Command-K, or use the "Resource->Create New Resource" menu choice. You will be presented with an empty standard icon editor. Close the editor, but leave resource ID# 128 highlighted.

Open ID#128 using the menu command: Resource-->Open Using Hex Editor, and you'll see the same type of widow you saw with the mini-icon resource.

Select all the text previous to line 00008B, and paste in the mini-icon info that was in the clipboard.

It should look something like the picture on the left.

Close the hex window, and reopen it (ID#128) with a double-click.

You will now see that the mini-icon takes up a small portion of the ics8 editor.

When modifying this icon, it's important stay inside the 13x13 grid that I've outlined in red.

After editing the 8-bit version, drag it to the other bit depths, and close the Editor.

Reopen ID#128 using the Hex editor and highlight all the text previous to line 0000B8 and copy it to the clipboard (as shown on the left).

Paste it back into icm8, ID#-3999, replacig the information that was there.

Repeat this Copy/Paste for the 4 bit and black and white masks:

ics# ---> icm#
ics4 ---> icm4

That's it. You've now changed the mini-icon.

Go back to ics8, and delete icon ID#128 from the ics#, ics4, ics8 resources.

Close and save the Appearance Extension. Replace the one in the System Folder and ReStart to see your work.

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