A common complaint from Mojave users is that when you copy and paste a file icon to create a custom icon for a file or folder, the result is blurry. It turns out that this only happens when the icon image is not square. Convert the image to a square one, or copy a square portion of the image, and the result is crisp and clear.
Comments: 9 Responses to “Avoiding Blurry Custom Icons In macOS Mojave”
Jamesceary
5 years ago
Method No. 1 Enabling or Disabling Font Smoothing The first method of making those blurry letters look more like printed text is to enable or disable font smoothing in macOS Mojave.
Ken
5 years ago
Gary,
For years I have been changing folder icons and very much like being able to. I also changed application icons. When I switch to Mojave the icons for Mac apps went to default ( I had custom Icons for Safari, Mail, Itunes etc). I am not able to change these icons. Is there a way I can change them. Thanks
Ken
Ken: I'm guessing that the new SIP (System Integrity Protection) would prevent you from changing app icons, especially for system apps. I would strongly recommend that you leave these icons as-is. It may be fun to change them, but definitely isn't worth the security risk of turning off SIP.
Ken
5 years ago
Thank you. I did like the icons that I had for the past several years, but I can understand not changing the. As always thank you and always love the quick videos.
Ken
Holly Graham
5 years ago
There were other sites that had complicated answers to this problem.
I'm very visual and like my folders to have the image of the graphic I'm working on, on them.
Thank you for explaining this in such an easy manner.
Andrew
5 years ago
Thanks Gary
What such an easy fix
Only Guru's like you work these cannot see the wood for the tree fixes
You have a new Aias hope you like it Mr Macguru Maxspert
Carlos
5 years ago
EXCELENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot!
David Myers
5 years ago
Yes, square images remain clear as icons. Thank you. But this is ridiculous, starting with a horizontal photo and squaring it to replace a horizontal folder icon. Like Holly Graham, I want the folder icon to show the image being worked on in the folder.
David: Instead of cropping it to be square, expand the edges. So, for instance, if the image is 1920x1080 make it 1920x1920. This will give you the full image. If you use a good image editing app, you can make those new pixels at the top and bottom transparent too.
Method No. 1 Enabling or Disabling Font Smoothing The first method of making those blurry letters look more like printed text is to enable or disable font smoothing in macOS Mojave.
Gary,
For years I have been changing folder icons and very much like being able to. I also changed application icons. When I switch to Mojave the icons for Mac apps went to default ( I had custom Icons for Safari, Mail, Itunes etc). I am not able to change these icons. Is there a way I can change them. Thanks
Ken
Ken: I'm guessing that the new SIP (System Integrity Protection) would prevent you from changing app icons, especially for system apps. I would strongly recommend that you leave these icons as-is. It may be fun to change them, but definitely isn't worth the security risk of turning off SIP.
Thank you. I did like the icons that I had for the past several years, but I can understand not changing the. As always thank you and always love the quick videos.
Ken
There were other sites that had complicated answers to this problem.
I'm very visual and like my folders to have the image of the graphic I'm working on, on them.
Thank you for explaining this in such an easy manner.
Thanks Gary
What such an easy fix
Only Guru's like you work these cannot see the wood for the tree fixes
You have a new Aias hope you like it Mr Macguru Maxspert
EXCELENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks a lot!
Yes, square images remain clear as icons. Thank you. But this is ridiculous, starting with a horizontal photo and squaring it to replace a horizontal folder icon. Like Holly Graham, I want the folder icon to show the image being worked on in the folder.
David: Instead of cropping it to be square, expand the edges. So, for instance, if the image is 1920x1080 make it 1920x1920. This will give you the full image. If you use a good image editing app, you can make those new pixels at the top and bottom transparent too.