Creating Custom Mac Folder Icons in Freeform

[@loisskiathitis8926]

A very useful and informative video tutorial today! How fun! As always thanks for the visuals! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️

[@meeluanistyn1644]

I wondered what I could do with Freeform and now I know. Great tutorial 👍

[@Chazd1949]

This is so cool! I have a zillion file folders and often click on the wrong one because they all look alike. Now I can improve my aim when I see a folder's unique appearance. THANKS, Gary!

[@enigmatist666]

Fantastic! Thank you! I really like that you can replace the folder image with another image, rather than just plonking an image on the folder. I'm studying several languages and now changing the relevant folder to an image of the country's flag. Another thing that's great is that this isn't limited to folder images but can also be used with, say, a Pages document image. :)

[@perrysrc]

This will keep me busy now

[@ptysme]

Such a cool trick, I was looking for a custom icon that matched other folders on icon hosting sites and this video was recommended. Brilliant!

[@quiltsick]

BTW, I love Freeform on my iPad. I am a quilter & it is fun to collect & arrange quilt photos. Going to work on creating grandkids photos in it too

[@summawub]

You teach me amazing tricks every week. Thank you.

[@AnilAtluriWord]

Wow! Gary, the image replacing the folder is a great idea. Thanks.

[@amichaels-v3]

You've got some serious skillz, Gary.

[@davidcking7]

This is a fabulous tutorial, Gary. Very cool. Thanks. As always, you make things interesting and easy. Much appreciated. I used to play with folder customization back in OS9 but gave up with OSX. Now I'm inspired to explore this some more and make up some custom folder icons.

[@andrewfinch2009]

Fun and useful. It’s great to see topics that go beyond utility. Great video, Gary

[@Erin-Thor]

Thanks for this‼️ 🥰 Once again I find myself thinking I know this, I’ve done this… then YOU make me go wait, WHAT⁉️ and I rewind to discover that I can create data points in a line to precisely match the entire folders contour. 😱🤯🤓 THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO! ❤

[@macmost]

Commercial? Do you mean the KZbin ad? I don't place those. KZbin does it.

[@Erin-Thor]

@@macmost - I know that silly, it was a joke! 🥰

[@macmost]

@@Erin-Thor Unfortunately, years and years of answering KZbin comments has trained me to always assume comments are literal. Because often when I don't I get in trouble or someone upset. Even when the author of the comment is joking, others reading it take it seriously. Sigh.

[@Erin-Thor]

@@macmost - I’ll edit that to take out the bra commercial comment, LOL! And on a serious note… chill! Life’s to short to take comments from strangers seriously. You ROCK! Own that! 👍🏽

[@macmost]

@@Erin-Thor Thanks. Yeah, I know what you mean. And believe me I don't care when someone sends me a message/email. It is when it is a public comment I have to take it seriously because I know others will. Not this case, just harmless comment about an ad. But you can imagine some of the other comments I've seen after being on KZbin since 2007.

[@jcinaz]

Nice! I never thought I would use Freeform, now I just did.

[@RocknRollCEO]

This is what I've been needing for 'kin ages! Thanks!

[@nilsdelmonico]

Brilliant!

[@jeffreysmith5970]

Great Video! I wish Apple allowed this to work across devices in iCloud.

[@homesbydanbyers]

I love this! I can find my most used folders in a second now!

[@jeanwillis2646]

Thanks Gary I’m now busy putting ‘photo’ image’s onto my folders….great idea and fun to do…you are my 🦸🏻‍♂️

[@artysanmobile]

Believe it or not, folders have been copy paste capable in the Get Info window from the early days of OSX, certainly Tiger if not even earlier. I find a custom folder icon very useful. Thanks for this tip.

[@macmost]

Yes, that part isn't new. Freeform is.

[@artysanmobile]

@@macmost You are correct. And I’m delighted to know about it. Thanx.

[@jdcv17]

Macs should already have something similar to Softrino's Folder Colorizer. Anyways, thanks for the tutorial! I'm always amazed.

[@macmost]

You mean a third-party app that lets you create custom folder icons? There are many.

[@jdcv17]

@@macmost Yeah, the Folder Colorizer by Softrino is a third-party app. But what I meant is Macs should already have that folder colorizer feature instead of relying on and purchasing third-party apps or editing through Photoshop or Freeform. Apple should make customizing folders easy! Well, we can customize icons on iPhones easily so why not on Macs as well?!

[@mr_teevee]

I use GIMP, and you've just given me more ideas!

[@marceloproano2537]

Didn’t know this. Hopefully I can find time to update some of my folders that I think would benefit me to have customized.

[@jaddyjustineokude9460]

My goat Gary. Thanks been missing u. I was out abit

[@MaiElizabeth]

OK Now I have different take on Freeform! Thanks Gary.

[@sevi_kefalianou]

Thank you! :)

[@MobySlick]

Super nice video. Thanks a lot, dude!

[@stephenjones5391]

Really good and helpful, thank you.

[@davem3325]

Thanks Gary, Folder icons are great for Project based hardware design work, I work on several design hardware projects at the same time, I keep my active projects on the desktop until the project is completed, The other week i actually said, it would be nice to have a picture of the product on the folder for quicker recognition, So i made a crude image and pasted it to the folder icon, its great, but process was fiddly, I have freeform, so lets see if its a little easier.

[@Manuel_Manzotti]

Great tip! Thank you! 🙏

[@carolinebarlow4795]

Thanks very much, Gary, for this very informative video! This will keep me happy for hours 🙂

[@jonathanjones906]

Thank you for this! I have just decorated my iCloud folders on my Mac. It is a pity that the customisation is not picked up when you access the folders on my iPhone! Perhaps a future update.

[@socksistavideo7399]

love this! thanks gary

[@anandbhutkar]

love it, thanks for shearing

[@SoNowWhat]

Cool tip!

[@wudaliabhinavprasad]

Superb video, many thanks for sharing!

[@markparker5585]

Be aware, if you add text to the folder, and the bounding box of the text is wider than the folder graphic, the folder will be scaled down, so make sure to use the centre drag handles on the text box after you have the font size you want.

[@karansmittal]

Very useful! Thanks

[@PurpleYeti1]

Awesome tip - thanks!

[@quiltsick]

My Mac Mini is too old for Ventura. I am still on Monterey. I am always jealous because I miss out on fun stuff!

[@robertgleason2838]

outstanding info. Thank you

[@MStrong95]

What would be nice for folders is if you could have an automated process taking an icon sized folder preview PNG image that is in the folder and if that image is updated it would update the icon of that folder it's contained within. Maybe add some kind of logic for subfolders inheriting the custom icon of the folder one level up unless there's a custom PNG or text file that says otherwise.

[@robertoalvarez3533]

Awesome video

[@lindagacsko]

Your videos are so well done AND your explanation and examples are excellent. I appreciate that you don't' go so fast and miss steps when you are explaining. thank you. I have a question. I have saved the freeform Board. This might be evident, however my question is, if I create 6 different color folders on that board, can I duplicate them and then copy and past new images on them? Please advise. Thank you again!

[@macmost]

Sure. You can just alter it like you want, select the part you want, and then use that for an icon. Experiment with that. Play around and see. It is easy to create a bunch of empty folders and try setting their icons to things.

[@lindagacsko]

@@macmost thank you!

[@frvnzz]

thank you king

[@Erin-Thor]

King? He is a Mac God! 😂

[@user-ph8xh6bj1l]

Thank you so much for the video. Very interesting and informative. Unfortunately on other devices the changes are not visible. Is there any possibility that when you make changes in the icloud they will be visible on other devices as well?

[@macmost]

Would be great for Apple to add that in the future, I agree.

[@michaelopp5389]

This is really cool. Sadly these customized folder icons are not visible in the Folders app in the iPad OS. 😢

[@jeffharmed1616]

Thanks Gary. Do you have to leave space for the “shared folder” background? Oh and your procedure does not seem to work for shares folder?’?! It’s all quite puzzling why Apple created freeform, preview and photos editor each with overlapping graphics editing capabilities. For example freeform & photoeditor can crop an image but preview cannot. Then there is Keynote that can do everything that freeform can do and more!?

[@macmost]

They are each tools for a specific purpose (Keynote for presentations, Preview to work with images and files, etc. But there is an overlap in the functionality that you would want in those tools. You wouldn't want to have to crop something in Preview before bringing it into Freeform. FYI you can easily crop an image in Preview by selecting an area and then use Tools, Crop.

[@parth8687]

genius

[@GozoAya]

Amazing! Where do you find these hidden gems!! This is really useful. I wonder is there also a way to modify the folder icon that appears in the left pane of the finder window? I keep a bunch of favourites there, but the modified graphic of the folder does not come across. Just the usual uncoloured folder outline. Thanks, as always, Gary, for super information!

[@macmost]

No, those are a different sort of thing, just a symbol from a font.

[@TC-en7vi]

Hi ninja! Thank you so much for this video! Very cool! Some how after I did my creations they went back to normal... What could I did wrong!?!

[@macmost]

Not sure. Try re-applying the images in the info window.

[@TC-en7vi]

Thanks!@@macmost

[@alangarretson872]

Cool - do you think this could be done on an iPad with iOS 16.2 and use them on the Mac? Also, do you think there is a way to change Safari Icons for websites that don't have icons?

[@macmost]

You mean create the icons in Freeform on the iPad. Sure, I suppose. Seems like extra work as opposed to just doing it in Freeform on the Mac. Browser "favicon" are a different thing altogether and those must come from the website itself.

[@bPrestonL]

Do the custom icons persist after an os update? Love your channel!

[@macmost]

They should, yes.

[@jacquelinedolby7559]

Gary this is just so cool! I have a bunch of folders I want to customize. The first folder came out fine but the other folders just are not pasting onto the folder that shows at the top left of the info page... What am I doing wrong?

[@macmost]

Not sure what you could be doing wrong. Are you selecting the icon first? Are you sure you copied the item from inside the graphic first? Keep trying.

[@linellstewartjr2147]

I think it only works with folders on the laptop not external

[@stevejacob4375]

A great tutorial, thank you I have been waiting for something like this. Just one comment, Please take it slower so it's easier to take notes. thanks again.

[@macmost]

You can speed up, slow down and pause KZbin videos. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/e2aVZ42Fas6Uba8

[@jasonward808]

Another great tutorial! Can someone please explain to me why my custom icons will sometimes just vanish, especially on an external drive. I do this same thing but then they're all gone at times. Thank you kindly!

[@macmost]

Perhaps the format of the external drive? It should be Mac formatted to support custom icons.

[@galato4234]

Thank you for the video. Please tell us how to get the application. Thank you.

[@macmost]

Freeform comes with macOS. It is new in macOS Ventura.

[@galato4234]

@@macmost Thank you for your response.

[@rwbishop]

For ages now, I've made my USB flash drive icons bright red... making them a 'little' harder to leave behind.

[@perrysrc]

Will these new folders be backed up with pictures on with Time Machine ?

[@macmost]

Probably. Haven't tested. But folder icons are just cosmetic, so in a disaster they aren't nearly as important as your actual files or photos, etc.

[@schuilnaam85]

unfortunately, those adjustments are only visible on the mac not on icloud / iphone

[@MegaStarr10]

beam trying to do this for years with the preview way not working, to separate external hard drives and back ups by colour. ensuring all my photos are labelled the same etc, years of resisting photos app which I still dont like and back ups and back ups of duplicates I want colours and tags ae useless. the fact we have to go to these lengths though is a little shameful from apple im afraid! May as well use illustrator to shape the folder icon I mean come on, Another way after 19 years of loyal apple seem to be slipping but makes your videos so fantastic and the only ones I refer to

[@1958jem]

Gary, I am finding that file folders that are in iCloud only (showing the download arrow) do not copy the folder onto Freeform. Only files that are on my local machine seem to be able to be copied from the Info dialog box as you show. Is this your experience?

[@sundaynightdrunk]

Probably because the folder isn't local to the machine. You'd have to download it, and then change it and wait for it to be archived to iCloud again, although it will still only show the custom folder icon on your local machine.

[@macmost]

Try what @sundaynightdrunk suggested and see if that is your issue.

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches. I still have my circa 1986 Mac SE and Apple dot matrix printer in the attic. I have always held the belief that when a new folder is created, Apple should give the user some ability to customize the folder--at least change the color. I have watched all of the other videos on changing folders, but this seems the easiest for me to understand. I need to go back and watch your Freeform video's again as I thought I would ever use Freeform. The world in an icon based world new it seems and the concept of folders looking like "folders" is outdated. I really like the ability to just use icons instead of folders looking like folders. Would it be possible to use pictures from Photos? For instance my wife and I have a folder (looks like a folder) containing our life time documents. It would be so nice just to use a picture of us instead of a folder looking like a folder. Or to use a picture of our 1965 Mustang which we still have (bought new) on the folder that has information on the car? Kinda make sense what I am asking?

[@macmost]

Just copy a portion of an image (open in Preview, select an area or Command+A) then copy, then paste into the icon.

[@brianhoward6793]

All good except when a custom folder is dragged from the Finder into the Dock, the modification goes away. Doing something wrong or is that just the way it works?

[@macmost]

Just tried it and it worked fine. Check your Options for that item in the Dock to make sure it is set to display as a Folder, not a Stack.

[@normdorosh]

HI Gary ..I tried changing the folder on my SSD card but it wouldn't work...Is there a workaround this? It only seems to work on the Macintosh Hardrive...thanks. Norm

[@macmost]

Maybe that drive isn't formatted for Mac?

[@macforme]

I have been making my own folder icons in Sierra for years... Just moved to Sonoma ( yes, I have whiplash) and you can't keep all that hard work on making your own icon if you make an alias, in Sonoma, to keep on the desktop. Have you covered this already? ... I am still trying to catch up... I upgraded, kicking and screaming ... but the net forced me to give up Sierra. 🤯

[@macmost]

You can still make custom icons for aliases, but they are separate from the original. You use exactly the same techniques, but just with the alias itself (select, get info, select icon, paste image).

[@macforme]

@@macmost Yes, I have been doing that but Sonoma still manages to remove those icons too. ( I solve 1 problem... I get 3 more. 🙄 )

[@mulljacob]

After clicking on the folder icon and trying to paste, in multiple ways, it doesn't change in Get Info. I know it's copied because I can paste it into a doc...

[@cajunla.jtr.0057]

Man! Please use Dark Mode it's best for low vision people can see than liglhtl mode it's too bright. Could you please remake it and upload? Thanks!

[@djr3386]

Is it possible to change the default folder colour in mac, so that all create new folder creates a new folder with red colour instead of blue colour?

[@macmost]

No, because folders don't have colors. They are just graphic icons and the default folder icon happens to be blue.

[@djr3386]

​@@macmost Is it possible to change the default folder icon colour from blue to a different colour?

[@macmost]

@@djr3386 There is no way to change the default icon.

Does is sync with iCloud Drive?

[@macmost]

No, unfortunately not.

[@Aviator503]

Did all of this change under iOS Sonoma? Because none of this works for me whatsoever. I cannot copy/paste anything into Freeform in the way of icons or otherwise. Thanks for any and all help!

[@macmost]

This all works the same in Sonoma.

[@Aviator503]

Hello sir, thank you for getting back to me first of all! So, have you actually tried doing this in Sonoma? Because it’s not working for me at all. Specifically the part where you go to the info section of the folder, and then copy/paste the folder icon into Freeform. That part is specifically what’s not working whatsoever. It’s not allowing me to paste the folder image, give it a try if you hava a moment and let me know if you have any issues yourself, or if you can figure out a workaround for it, thank you!

[@macmost]

@@Aviator503 Yes. It works right now for me, today, in Freeform in Sonoma. Maybe try another folder? Make sure you select the icon so you see it highlighted before you use Command+c.

[@Aviator503]

@@macmost Hmmm, very interesting. Then it appears as though there is something wrong with my software. Perhaps it just requires a shut down and restart, as I've tried all those ideas and it's still not working. Hopefully a good restart fixes it. Thanks so much for your time and help!

[@Tiago.LS.Ribeiro]

@@Aviator503 the copy-paste part also doesn't work for me...

[@TheChapin333]

Just clip art or can you use a photo image?

[@jeanwillis2646]

Yes, you can use photo images I’ve just done some 7:44

[@macmost]

Anything you want. Try it and see.

[@TheChapin333]

@@macmost thanks I’ll give it a go

[@TheChapin333]

@@jeanwillis2646 doesn’t work on an iPad unfortunately

[@jeanwillis2646]

@@TheChapin333….The title of the video is Creating Custom Mac folder icons….’ So I didn’t think you could create on an iPad maybe someday…..

[@pulsar.]

it says freeform can only be installed on iphones or ipads

[@macmost]

Freeform is part of macOS. It comes with it. Make sure you have macOS 13.1 or newer and look in your Application folder and it should be there.

[@VladislavPerge]

1 thing to keep in mind is that these icons DO NOT SYNC across iCloud or anything. They are local only.

[@BU_89grad22dad]

"My Mac Talk" shows how to change the color of the folder: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHavl4Fpjal7oc0

[@macmost]

I showed the same technique a while back: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r5zYk4CIi7-inNk

[@TheChapin333]

Doesn’t work on iPad , its the only device I use now. Have tried to copy it but it does nothing. Ah well

[@macmost]

There are no custom icons in the Files app on the iPad.

[@TheChapin333]

@@macmost thanks

[@indyford3531]

That is way too much time.

[@tmdx6345]

Nope does not work

[@macmost]

Which step, exactly, isn't working for you?

[@kjvisual7]

Brilliant!