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The ICO file format is an image file format for computer icons in Microsoft Windows.ICO files contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately. In Windows, all executables that display an icon to the user, on the desktop, in the Start Menu, or in Windows Explorer, must carry the icon in ICO format. User-Selectable App Icons. For some apps, customization is a feature that evokes a personal connection and enhances the user experience. If it provides value in your app, you can let people select an alternate app icon from a set of predefined icons that are embedded within your app.

Files with icns extension can be usually encountered as icon archives from Mac OS X (macOS). Contains several sizes of icons in a single file.

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• In iOS, the CFBundleTypeIconFiles key contains an array of strings with the names of the image files to use for the document icon. Table 3 lists the icon sizes you can include for each device type. You can name the image files however you want but the file names in your Info.plist file must match the image resource filenames.
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Software that open icns file

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ICNS file extension- Apple icon graphic format

What is icns file? How to open icns files?

File type specification:

icns file icon:

File extension icns is most notably associated and ued for Apple icon graphic format, which is the native icon format in Mac OS X.

The typical icns files contain several different sizes of the same icon in a single file. ICSN format supports icons of various sizes, such as 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 128×128, 256×256 and 512×512 pixels, with both 1- and 8-bit alpha channels and multiple image states. The .icsn files may be both uncompressed and compressed.

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The larger icons within the icns file are typically in the JPEG 2000 file format.

Updated: May 15, 2020

The default software associated to open icns file:

Company or developer:
Apple, Inc.

Apple Preview is document and graphic viewer that is integral part of Mac OS X operating system. It can view and also export/convert the most common bitmap picture formats.

Company or developer:
Apple, Inc.

macOS is Unix-based desktop operating system, a successor of Mac OS X system for MacBook-family, iMac, Mac Mini and Mac Pro computers, developed and sold by Apple, Inc.

Company or developer:
Apple, Inc.

OS X or Mac OS X is Unix-based operating system developed by Apple Inc. for Macintosh computers. It contains basic core applications for everyday use, such as Finder basic file manager, Safari for Internet browsing, QuickTime for video, iTunes for managing audio data and iPod, iOS devices management , iMessage instant messaging, Mail, Contacts, Calendar and many more.

The latest version 10.11 of OS X is called El Capitan. It is available to purchase on Mac App Store as well as is distributed with new Mac computers and notebooks. It includes features to improve the security, performance, design and usability.

OS X operating system was replaced by new macOS in 2016!

Company or developer:
ChickenByte

​IconBox is a graphic utility and icon manager for Mac OS X. It is iPhoto like application that enables you to store, manage & change all your icons or dock icons using simple drag & drop like functionality.

The first icon organizer for Mac OS X now has full icon & dock customization capabilities and online tools for searching new icons.

Related articles:

Help how to open:

ICNS icon can be natively opened in Apple Preview and edited in most icon-editing software tools.

How to convert:

Axialis IconWorkshop and IcoFX are able to work and convert the .incs files.

Find conversions from icns file:

Find converter to icns file type:

List of software applications associated to the .icns file extension

Recommended software programs are sorted by OS platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android etc.)
and possible program actions that can be done with the file: like open icns file, edit icns file, convert icns file, view icns file, play icns file etc. (if exist software for corresponding action in File-Extensions.org's database).

Hint:
Click on the tab below to simply browse between the application actions, to quickly get a list of recommended software, which is able to perform the specified software action, such as opening, editing or converting icns files.

Software that open icns file - Apple icon graphic format

Programs supporting the exension icns on the main platforms Windows, Mac, Linux or mobile. Click on the link to get more information about listed programs for open icns file action.

Apple macOS / Mac OS X:

Main software associated with icns file by default:
Preview
Other suggested software:
icns Browser
Apple Icon Composer
Icons Maker
Image2icon

The ICO file format is an image file format for computer icons in Microsoft Windows. ICO files contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately. In Windows, all executables that display an icon to the user, on the desktop, in the Start Menu, or in Windows Explorer, must carry the icon in ICO format.

The CUR file format is an almost identical image file format for non-animated cursors in Microsoft Windows. The only differences between these two file formats are the bytes used to identify them and the addition of a hotspot in the CUR format header; the hotspot is defined as the pixel offset (in x,y coordinates) from the top-left corner of the cursor image where the user is actually pointing the mouse.

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History[edit]

Icons introduced in Windows 1.0 were 32×32 pixels in size and were monochrome.^[2] Support for 16 colors was introduced in Windows 3.0.^{[citation needed]}

Win32 introduced support for storing icon images of up to 16.7 million colors (TrueColor) and up to 256x256 pixels in dimensions.^[3] Windows 95 also introduced a new Device Independent Bitmap (DIB) engine.^[4] However, 256 color was the default icon color depth in Windows 95. It was possible to enable 65535 color (Highcolor) icons by either modifying the Shell Icon BPP value in the registry^[3][5] or by purchasing Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. The Shell Icon Size value allows using larger icons in place of 32×32 icons and the Shell Small Icon Size value allows using custom sizes in place of 16×16 icons.^[3] Thus, a single icon file could store images of any size from 1×1 pixel up to 256×256 pixels (including non-square sizes) with 2 (rarely used),16, 256, 65535, or 16.7 million colors; but the shell could not display very large sized icons. The notification area of the Windows taskbar was limited to 16 color icons by default until Windows Me when it was updated to support high color icons.

Windows XP added support for 32-bit color (16.7 million colors plus alpha channel transparency) icon images, thus allowing semitransparent areas like shadows, anti-aliasing, and glass-like effects to be drawn in an icon. Windows XP, by default, employs 48×48 pixel icons in Windows Explorer. Windows XP can be forced to use icons as large as 256×256 by modifying the Shell icon size value but this would cause all 32×32 icons throughout the shell to be upscaled.^[3] Microsoft only recommended icon sizes up to 48×48 pixels for Windows XP.^[6] Windows XP can downscale 256×256 and larger icons if no closer image size is available.^[3]

Windows Vista added a 256×256-pixel icon view to Windows Explorer, as well as support for the compressedPNG format. Although compression is not required, Microsoft recommends that all 256×256 icons in ICO files should be stored in PNG format to reduce the overall size of the file.^[7] The Windows Vista Explorer supports smoothly scaling icons to non-standard sizes which are rendered on the fly even if an image is not present for that size in the icon file. The Windows Vista shell adds a slider for 'zooming' the icon sizes in and out. With users using higher resolutions and high DPI modes, larger icon formats (such as 256×256) are recommended.^[7]

MIME type[edit]

While the IANA-registered MIME type for ICO files is image/vnd.microsoft.icon,^[8] it was submitted to IANA in 2003 by a third party and is not recognised by Microsoft software, which uses image/x-icon instead.^[9] Erroneous types image/ico, image/icon, text/ico and application/ico have also been seen in use.^[8]

Icon resource structure[edit]

An ICO or CUR file is made up of an ICONDIR ('Icon directory') structure, containing an ICONDIRENTRY structure for each image in the file, followed by a contiguous block of all image bitmap data (which may be in either Windows BMP format, excluding the BITMAPFILEHEADER structure, or in PNG format, stored in its entirety).^[3]

Images with less than 32 bits of color depth follow a particular format: the image is encoded as a single image consisting of a color mask (the 'XOR mask') together with an opacity mask (the 'AND mask').^{[6][failed verification]} The XOR mask must precede the AND mask inside the bitmap data; if the image is stored in bottom-up order (which it most likely is), the XOR mask would be drawn below the AND mask. The AND mask is 1 bit per pixel, regardless of the color depth specified by the BMP header, and specifies which pixels are fully transparent and which are fully opaque. The XOR mask conforms to the bit depth specified in the BMP header and specifies the numerical color or palette value for each pixel. Together, the AND mask and XOR mask make for a non-transparent image representing an image with 1-bit transparency; they also allow for inversion of the background. The height for the image in the ICONDIRENTRY structure of the ICO/CUR file takes on that of the intended image dimensions (after the masks are composited), whereas the height in the BMP header takes on that of the two mask images combined (before they are composited). Therefore, the masks must each be of the same dimensions, and the height specified in the BMP header must be exactly twice the height specified in the ICONDIRENTRY structure.^{[citation needed]}

32-bit images (including 32-bit BITMAPINFOHEADER-format BMP images^{[Notes 1]}) are specifically a 24-bit image with the addition of an 8-bit channel for alpha compositing. Thus, in 32-bit images, the AND mask is not required, but recommended for consideration. Windows XP and higher will use a 32-bit image in less than True color mode by constructing an AND mask based on the alpha channel (if one does not reside with the image already) if no 24-bit version of the image is supplied in the ICO/CUR file. However, earlier versions of Windows interpret all pixels with 100% opacity unless an AND mask is supplied with the image. Supplying a custom AND mask will also allow for tweaking and hinting by the icon author. Even if the AND mask is not supplied, if the image is in Windows BMP format, the BMP header must still specify a doubled height.

Outline[edit]

All values in ICO/CUR files are represented in little-endian byte order.

Header

Structure of image directory

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Referenced image data

All image data referenced by entries in the image directory proceed directly after the image directory. It is customary practice to store them in the same order as defined in the image directory.

Recall that if an image is stored in BMP format, it must exclude the opening BITMAPFILEHEADER structure, whereas if it is stored in PNG format, it must be stored in its entirety.

Note that the height of the BMP image must be twice the height declared in the image directory. The second half of the bitmap shouldbe an AND mask for the existing screen pixels, with the output pixels given by the formula Output = (Existing AND Mask) XOR Image. Set the mask to be zero everywhere for a clean overwrite.

PNG format[edit]

The ability to read PNG images from ICO and CUR format images was introduced in Windows Vista.^[7] A PNG image can be stored in the image in the same way as done for a standard Windows BMP format image, with the exception that the PNG image must be stored in its entirety, with its file header.

Icon library[edit]

An icon library is a way to package Windows icons. It is typically a 16-bit New Executable or a 32-bit Portable Executable binary file having .ICL extension with icon resources being the packaged icons. Windows Vista and later versions do not support viewing icons from 16-bit (New Executable) files.^[10]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^The classic BITMAPINFOHEADER bitmap format supports storing images with 32 bits per pixel. When saved as a standalone .BMP file, 'the high byte in each [pixel] is not used'. However, when this same data is stored inside a ICO or CUR file, Windows XP (the first Windows version to support ICO/CUR files with more than 1 bit of transparency) and above interpret this byte as an alpha value.
2. ^Although Microsoft's technical documentation states that this value must be zero, the icon encoder built into .NET (System.Drawing.Icon.Save) sets this value to 255. It appears that the operating system ignores this value altogether.
3. ^Setting the color planes to 0 or 1 is treated equivalently by the operating system, but if the color planes are set higher than 1, this value should be multiplied by the bits per pixel to determine the final color depth of the image. It is unknown if the various Windows operating system versions are resilient to different color plane values.
4. ^The bits per pixel might be set to zero, but can be inferred from the other data; specifically, if the bitmap is not PNG compressed, then the bits per pixel can be calculated based on the length of the bitmap data relative to the size of the image. If the bitmap is PNG compressed, the bits per pixel are stored within the PNG data. It is unknown if the various Windows operating system versions contain logic to infer the bit depth for all possibilities if this value is set to zero.

References[edit]

1. ^'MIME Sniffing Standard'. WHATWG. 2014-01-17. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
2. ^Fekete, Gyorgy (March 11, 2009). 'Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009'. Webdesigner Depot. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
3. ^ ^abcdefHornick, John (September 29, 1995). 'Icons'. Windows User Interface Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
4. ^'Windows 95 Architecture Components'. Microsoft TechNet. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
5. ^'Shell Icon BPP'. Windows 2000 Registry Reference (Microsoft TechNet). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
6. ^ ^ab'Creating Windows XP Icons'. Windows XP Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. July 2001. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
7. ^ ^abc'Icons'. The evolution of the ICO file format, part 4: PNG images. Raymond Chen - MSFT. Retrieved October 22, 2010.
8. ^ ^abButcher, Simon (3 Sep 2003). 'image/vnd.microsoft.icon'. Retrieved 3 Jan 2014.
9. ^Lawrence, Eric (11 Feb 2011). 'IE9 RC Minor Changes List'. IEInternals. MSDN Blogs. Retrieved 20 Aug 2016. See the second comment.
10. ^Chen, Raymond (May 2008). 'Windows Confidential - 16-Bit Icons Are So Passé'. TechNet Magazine. Retrieved July 1, 2011.

External links[edit]

• The evolution of the ICO file format (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4[1])