../Collecting icons/Mac conversion
Mac conversion
Basically, there's not much to it. You just need two basic applications and you're done. But here's some specifications. When all this fails, here's a page on getting it done by emulating a Mac.
Basically, there's not much to it. You just need two basic applications and you're done. But here's some specifications. When all this fails, here's a page on getting it done by emulating a Mac.
To extract those MacIntosh files there's one utility dominating, but it's free and it's good, from Aladdin. Their Aladdin Expander for Windows extracts Mac 'zip'-files like .hqx, .sit and .sea. Since files compressed with a new version of Dropstuff can't be extracted with older versions of the expander, you should check for updates once in a while to be able to continue extracting those files.
It's a very simple app, but you've gotta experiment a little with the options to be able to extract all you want.
It's a very simple app, but you've gotta experiment a little with the options to be able to extract all you want.
A good start, at the options, 'Cross Platform'-page, is, first, never convert text files to Windows format.
Second, at the option to save Macintosh files in MacBinary format, choose "When a file contains a resource fork".
And last, set the "modification of file extentions..." to never. This way most files are extracted right. Still, you've got to 'decode with options' once in a while.
Note (!): over time, they've skipped providing a seperated download. You need to download the full Stuffit suite (trial version), then only install the free expander component. Don't download if your language version is 8.0. The options as mentioned above are not present anymore, a lot of icon extracts fail. Is reported to being fixed in the future, in the meantime check here.
There's an alternative available, called MindExpander. Not sure why it's developed, mainly 'cause there doesn't seem to be much difference. It works allright though.
Second, at the option to save Macintosh files in MacBinary format, choose "When a file contains a resource fork".
And last, set the "modification of file extentions..." to never. This way most files are extracted right. Still, you've got to 'decode with options' once in a while.
Note (!): over time, they've skipped providing a seperated download. You need to download the full Stuffit suite (trial version), then only install the free expander component. Don't download if your language version is 8.0. The options as mentioned above are not present anymore, a lot of icon extracts fail. Is reported to being fixed in the future, in the meantime check here.
For the conversion you'll need IconShop, version 1.13 now, it's free! And it's improved quite often, so check in once in a while.
Alpha builds are numbered 1.20, and though not fully functional yet, they let you handle ALL available icons. That includes all kinda Windows libraries, but also a lot of graphic formats, some often used on other platforms (.tiff, .xpm). It also imports OS/2 icons (.ico), and most important, all known formats on the Mac! That meaning all sizes that come with later versions of Mac OS, ánd icons using alpha-blended transparency (introduced by Mac OS 8.5), for use with Windows XP. This tool is unbelievable!
You can just drop your extracted folder onto Iconshop and they'll get converted. It displays all provided formats, it's possible to delete (lesser) formats, saving them is easy.
An alternative is MacIco, by Xemico. Not as easy to use, though. Icons can only be viewed/saved one at a time, and doesn't support newer Mac formats. Not under development.
Notes:
Alpha builds are numbered 1.20, and though not fully functional yet, they let you handle ALL available icons. That includes all kinda Windows libraries, but also a lot of graphic formats, some often used on other platforms (.tiff, .xpm). It also imports OS/2 icons (.ico), and most important, all known formats on the Mac! That meaning all sizes that come with later versions of Mac OS, ánd icons using alpha-blended transparency (introduced by Mac OS 8.5), for use with Windows XP. This tool is unbelievable!
You can just drop your extracted folder onto Iconshop and they'll get converted. It displays all provided formats, it's possible to delete (lesser) formats, saving them is easy.
An alternative is MacIco, by Xemico. Not as easy to use, though. Icons can only be viewed/saved one at a time, and doesn't support newer Mac formats. Not under development.
Notes:
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You might find that sometimes not all icons can be saved to windows format. Their names could be the reason. Mac iconnames can contain punctuation marks an .ico can't: \ / : * ? < " > |
They have to be replaced by something 'allowed' before saving in .ico-format.
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You might also encounter a lot of hidden files in empty folders.. then you might need Properties Plus, an overall useful tool to show and customize more file properties. It lets you remove the 'hidden'-attribute of all the files in a folder by just unchecking it.
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Got your system set to 24 or 32-bit colors (?).. then you'll notice Windows support, in 9x/Me/2k, for truecolor icons isn't that good. When it finds both a 256-color ànd a truecolor version in an icon, it displays the first. You need to delete the 256-color versions (simply done with Iconshop) to let the truecolor version show up. This isn't the case in XP.
- These days you can find a lot of XP icons on Mac sites - they've got the tools to do the conversion. Wondering why that nice alphabended version doesn't show, but 256 color version does ? Check for a monochrome version and delete it.
MacOS 8.5 icons are able to show a subtle transparancy, and are truecolor. Windows icons can be truecolor since a while too, but there's just a plain transparancy possible, in 9x/Me/2k. No good conversion can be made. Iconshop creates some gradient colors based on your background.. they will look good as long as you don't change it. They won't on any other background - so you might consider the 256-color ones, if available. Still, these aren't half as good, most of the time... pity!! Windows XP, combined with latest alpha build of IconShop fix this :).
MacOS 9 added a new format, 48 x 48. Windows has it so that's good, and IconShop (1.20 alpha) can handle the format, so no problem, unless transparancy is being used... which mostly is being done. Only usable in XP that way.
And now there's MacOS X, which adds resizable 128 x 128 icons. Mmm give any bitmap an .ico extension and Windows will resize it, but there's transparancy issues again. There's some distributed in .tiff and .png, which can be read by several graphic apps, so there might be a lot easily converted, and IconShop handles it quite well, again... these are hardly usable in explorer, but are used a lot with Windows spin-offs of the MacOS X dock, detailed here.
MacOS 9 added a new format, 48 x 48. Windows has it so that's good, and IconShop (1.20 alpha) can handle the format, so no problem, unless transparancy is being used... which mostly is being done. Only usable in XP that way.
And now there's MacOS X, which adds resizable 128 x 128 icons. Mmm give any bitmap an .ico extension and Windows will resize it, but there's transparancy issues again. There's some distributed in .tiff and .png, which can be read by several graphic apps, so there might be a lot easily converted, and IconShop handles it quite well, again... these are hardly usable in explorer, but are used a lot with Windows spin-offs of the MacOS X dock, detailed here.
[*plastic:] ..what to call an icon, and what's merely a bitmap pretending to be one ?? I tend to think the transparancy options added with 8.5 are a real enhancement, and it's good seeing Microsoft copied it (XP). But I'm also concluding that the fact Mac icon designers weren't able to use truecolor until 8.5, kept a real artistic spirit alive, for a long while. The option to use true colors has been available for Windows much longer, and it didn't stimulate artistic expression (...). It's just too easy to resize any bitmap, paste it into an icon application and you're done... you can see it being done in the Mac world a lot these days too. Which makes me wonder if this particular type of artistic expression has much longer to live.
IconShop extracts the icons out of "IconDropper" packs, "iPacks" (iconsets for IconDropper and iControl, two Mac shareware applications made by the IconFactory) and "Kaleidoscope" themes (Windowchanger for the Mac) too.
Still, two little comments. The first two are single files. Within Aladdin Expander you should uncheck the option "continue to expand when the result is a single file". Then extract twice.
After extracting the icons, open the file with notepad/wordpad. The 'readme'-info can be extracted to a .txt-file, if it's available.
Still, two little comments. The first two are single files. Within Aladdin Expander you should uncheck the option "continue to expand when the result is a single file". Then extract twice.
After extracting the icons, open the file with notepad/wordpad. The 'readme'-info can be extracted to a .txt-file, if it's available.