Customizing the Dock
Warning: This article involves editing system files. Following these instructions is at your own risk. Xicons and Matthew Bice are not responsible for any damage you may cause to your system.
The Finder and Trash Can icons that you see in the Dock are located inside the Dock.app application package. To change these hard-coded icons, you will need to edit the PNG files contained within Dock.app's application package.
To locate these resources, select Go To Folder... from the Go menu in the Finder (or type command-shift-g) and enter the following path:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources/
A Finder window will appear which contains many resources used by the Dock. Most of the interesting files are PNG images with transparency.
Decide which icons you would like to replace and download suitable replacements from from Xicons.com. Open the new icon using the Iconographer. Then choose Edit: Copy: Icon and Mask from the menu (or type command-shift-c).
Launch Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Photoshop Elements and paste the icon into a new document having dimensions of 128x128 pixels and a transparent background. Save this file onto the Desktop in PNG format. Be sure to give it the appropriate name:
Icon description: | Required file name: |
Finder | finder.png |
Trash Can (full) | trashfull.png |
Trash Can (empty) | trashempty.png |
URL spring icon | url.png |
Question mark | notfound.png |
Next, you will need to allow yourself write access to the Resources folder so you can replace Apple's PNG files with your customized ones. To do this, click anywhere inside the Resources folder to select it. Do not click on one of the icons inside the folder. Now select Get Info from the File (or type command-i). Click on the disclosure triangle for Ownership & Permissions. Click on the lock button and then change the Owner of the file to yourself. Enter your password when prompted (your account must have Administrator priviledges in order for this to work).
Now you are free to replace the existing PNG icons with your own customized versions. I strongly recommend that you save backup copies of the originals so that you can change back to them at a later date. Please do not email me asking for these original files. I cannot send them to you.
Once you have replaced the appropriate resources, you should change the permission back to their original state. Set the Owner of the Resources folder back to 'system'.
Before the new Dock resources will take effect you need to delete the Dock preferences. From the finder select Go To Folder... from the Go menu (or type command-shift-g) and enter the following path:
/Library/Caches/
Delete the file named 'com.apple.dock.iconcache.[yourusername]' and then restart the Dock. This can be done simply by logging out and logging back into your account. If you are comfortable with the Terminal, you could also send a kill signal to the Dock process and let it automatically relaunch.
The icons you altered should now be reflected in the Dock. As you may have noticed, there are additional resources inside of Dock.app that are worth changing, notably the Dock poof. Additional customizations are left as an exercise for the reader.
Written by Matthew Bice for Xicons.com. Edited and expanded by Xicons.