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Apple Icon Image format
The Apple Icon Image format (.icns) is an icon format used in Apple Inc.'s macOS. It supports icons of 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256, 512 × 512 points at 1x and 2x scale, with both 1- and 8-bit alpha channels and multiple image states (example: open and closed folders). The fixed-size icons can be scaled by the operating system and displayed at any intermediate size.
As of macOS 11, asset catalogs are the preferred file format for macOS custom icons.
The file format consists of an 8 byte header, followed by any number of icons.
Element types that deal with ARGB (32-bit) or RGB (24-bit) image formats require different types of headers before the binary data. This header is part of the image data and is not the 4-byte big endian icon element type value (e.g. ic04 or ic05).
ARGB images must have their binary portion of the image data preceded by the four byte 'ARGB' header. After that, instead of each pixel with each of its four channels stored together (e.g. ARGBARGBARGB), an image with three pixels would be stored in individual channels of pixel data (e.g. AAARRRGGGBBB). In addition, each channel of pixel data needs to be encoded as mentioned below.
RGB images have their binary portion of the image data preceded by four zero byte characters only when the element type is 'it32'. In all other cases, no header is needed. Channel data is separated as with the ARGB binary data (e.g. RRRGGGBBB instead of RGBRGBRGB). Each channel must also be encoded as mentioned below.
Mask elements are not encoded like ARGB and RGB image color channel data. The data is the same as that of an ARGB image except only the alpha channel data is provided. So for an image that has two pixels, ARGBARGB, the mask data is AA.
Over time the format has been improved and there is support for compression of some parts of the pixel data. The 24-bit RGB (is32, il32, ih32, it32, icp4, icp5) and ARGB (ic04, ic05, icsb) pixel data are compressed (per channel) with a format similar to PackBits. Some sources mention that the OS supports both compressed or uncompressed data chunks.[citation needed] However, manually crafting icns files with uncompressed 24-bit RGB or ARGB images will not display properly – at least on newer macOS releases (tested on macOS 11).
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Apple Icon Image format
The Apple Icon Image format (.icns) is an icon format used in Apple Inc.'s macOS. It supports icons of 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256, 512 × 512 points at 1x and 2x scale, with both 1- and 8-bit alpha channels and multiple image states (example: open and closed folders). The fixed-size icons can be scaled by the operating system and displayed at any intermediate size.
As of macOS 11, asset catalogs are the preferred file format for macOS custom icons.
The file format consists of an 8 byte header, followed by any number of icons.
Element types that deal with ARGB (32-bit) or RGB (24-bit) image formats require different types of headers before the binary data. This header is part of the image data and is not the 4-byte big endian icon element type value (e.g. ic04 or ic05).
ARGB images must have their binary portion of the image data preceded by the four byte 'ARGB' header. After that, instead of each pixel with each of its four channels stored together (e.g. ARGBARGBARGB), an image with three pixels would be stored in individual channels of pixel data (e.g. AAARRRGGGBBB). In addition, each channel of pixel data needs to be encoded as mentioned below.
RGB images have their binary portion of the image data preceded by four zero byte characters only when the element type is 'it32'. In all other cases, no header is needed. Channel data is separated as with the ARGB binary data (e.g. RRRGGGBBB instead of RGBRGBRGB). Each channel must also be encoded as mentioned below.
Mask elements are not encoded like ARGB and RGB image color channel data. The data is the same as that of an ARGB image except only the alpha channel data is provided. So for an image that has two pixels, ARGBARGB, the mask data is AA.
Over time the format has been improved and there is support for compression of some parts of the pixel data. The 24-bit RGB (is32, il32, ih32, it32, icp4, icp5) and ARGB (ic04, ic05, icsb) pixel data are compressed (per channel) with a format similar to PackBits. Some sources mention that the OS supports both compressed or uncompressed data chunks.[citation needed] However, manually crafting icns files with uncompressed 24-bit RGB or ARGB images will not display properly – at least on newer macOS releases (tested on macOS 11).