Tired Of The Mac’s Boring Folder And File Icons? Customize Them For Free

For all of Apple’s vaunted and applauded design prowess, the Mac sure has plenty of boring folder and file icons.

What can you do to customize your Mac? Beyond Desktop pictures, not much. Unless you want real customization with file and folder icons that are more tasteful (or more gaudy) than the ones Apple puts into Mac OS X.

Ugly Icons? Or, Pretty Folders?

A visit to the Mac App Store brings up half a dozen choices– apps to create custom file and folder icons. The one that wins the Strange Name Award for 2013 is Ordinatore.

If you want to dispense with Apple’s file and folder icons designs and change to something different (or, create your own), Ordinatore could not be much easier to use.

Grab an image that you want to be used as a file or folder icon. Drag it to Odinatore. Then, select the file or folder to install the image.

The rest is automagical. Ordinatore applies the image to file or folder icon. Folders are instantly transformed.

Keep folders subtle and understated; similar to those provided by Apple in OS X. Or, go crazy with any of the dozens of built-in icon designs in the Ordinatore library.

What’s interesting about Ordinatore Plus isn’t the ease-of-use, or the icon collections.

It can’t be easier to use, and the collection and the app is free (if you don’t mind viewing ads).

A lot of work has gone into creating a simple, elegant icon changer, and creating plenty of icons to use without the need to create your own.

What’s missing are tools to help in the customization process.

Drag and drop .jpg, .png. and other image file formats onto Ordinatore (or, the commercial version sans advertising, Ordinatore Plus), select a file or folder, and the icon is changed.

Where’s the option to add text to a folder? That would be a plus. Otherwise, it’s difficult to argue with the price, even the Plus version.

Folders Factory is the same price as Ordinatore Plus but has more features.

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