IconLab

IconLab is a File Format plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, that allows you to work directly on Mac OS X's native icon format from within Adobe Photoshop or compatible software.

IconLab gives you the freedom to use professional graphics software such as Photoshop as your "icon editor", giving you the full power of layers and filters when constructing your icons.

IconLab also allows Mac OS X icon files to be imported directly into Photoshop, and will correctly pre-multiply the RGB channels to ensure the icon appears in Photoshop exactly as it does in the Finder.

Using IconLab

To use IconLab, simply drag it to the "File Formats" folder within your Photoshop installation.

IconLab will automatically register itself with Photoshop's import/export system, allowing you to drag .icns files onto Photoshop and treat them as you would any other image format.

When exporting, the alpha channel of the image is used to generate a high-quality mask for the icon. This allows you to go directly from a complex multi-layer image to a flattened icon file, in one easy step.

Images are also resized automatically, allowing you to work at a higher resolution than the final icon file.

Requirements

IconLab requires Mac OS X 10.2 or higher, and a suitable host application (such as Photoshop 7.0 and Photoshop Elements 2.0, or later versions).

Registration

IconLab costs $24.95. You may evaluate it free of charge for 7 days, after which time you should register to purchase your copy.

Registering will allow you to remove the watermark which will appear after the 7 day evaluation period is over.