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macOS · Desktop

FolderPainter

Find the right folder by color instead of by reading — tint and label them like the system would

In the lab
Notify me when it ships

About FolderPainter

FolderPainter is built to recolor and decorate macOS folder icons. Pick from a 31-color palette, then layer on an SF Symbol, an image from your clipboard or an installed app, or text and emoji. Offset, opacity, and size sliders position the overlay, and the rendered icon can be exported as a .icns. The tinting uses a sourceAtop composite with symbol colors measured off Apple's own Developer folder icon, which is meant to land closer to native than a flat hue shift does.

Who it's for

Anyone who navigates by color and wants their folders to look like the system drew them.

What it does

  • 31-color folder tint palette
  • SF Symbols browser with categories and search (~6,000 symbols)
  • Image overlays from clipboard, file, or installed app icons
  • Text and emoji overlays with font family and weight
  • Offset, opacity, and size adjustment sliders
  • Export to .icns, plus revert-to-default

Behind the build

Still in the lab because the icon rendering is not quite right yet.

Matching Apple's native folder icons means matching how they shade the symbol against the folder body, and 'close enough' is very visible when the result sits next to a real one in Finder. Drag-and-drop folder input and security-scoped bookmarks for persistence across launches are the other two gaps.

Information

Runs on
macOS · Desktop
Status
In the lab
Requires
macOS 13+
Source
Not public
Telemetry
None
Built with
Swift & SwiftUI
Stack
SwiftUIAppKiticonutilXcodeGen

FolderPainter is still in the lab.

Built and running on my machine, but not packaged for release — so there's nothing honest to link to yet. Leave an email and you'll hear when it ships.

Tell me when it ships

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