macOS Touch Bar Icons Location

Question

New MacBook Pro's with Touch Bar, in macOS Sierra, icons for the system control strip, where would they be located?

I looked under HD/System/Library/CoreServices, not there.....

alexkaessner · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-18T07:19:22.433

15

The Touch Bar system icons are all located in /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemAppearance.bundle/Contents/Resources/Assets.car.

To name a few examples, they are named like TouchBarControlStripSpotlight or TouchBarControlStripSiriContent.

If you want to inspect and also change them you can use the ThemeEngine app to open the .CAR files. You can find the app/project here: https://github.com/alexzielenski/ThemeEngine

Sadly the ThemeEngine.app fails to display all icons. Some appear to be empty, but I guess thats a problem with the app. Maybe there's another, more reliable way to open .CAR files.

edited May 18 '17 at 07:19

answered Feb 14 '17 at 11:46

alexkaessner

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I just found the [AssetCatalogTinkerer](https://github.com/insidegui/AssetCatalogTinkerer) app, which does the same but works more reliable for me. At least to get the images. Also [Crunch](https://pragmaticcode.com/crunch/) seems to open macOS .car files. – alexkaessner Feb 14 '17 at 12:06
@Gizmodo does this answer your question? If yes, please mark it as answered ;) – alexkaessner Apr 28 '17 at 12:01
I didn't get to personally test this; However, this looks like it! – Gizmodo Jul 06 '17 at 02:00

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 13 '16 at 11:37

Touch Bar is introducing these new icons:

Here are the references: (You can find them and all others images in NSImage.h)

NSImageNameTouchBarAddDetailTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAddTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAlarmTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioInputMuteTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioInputTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioOutputMuteTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioOutputVolumeHighTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioOutputVolumeLowTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioOutputVolumeMediumTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarAudioOutputVolumeOffTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarBookmarksTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarColorPickerFill, NSImageNameTouchBarColorPickerFont, NSImageNameTouchBarColorPickerStroke, NSImageNameTouchBarCommunicationAudioTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarCommunicationVideoTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarComposeTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarDeleteTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarDownloadTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarEnterFullScreenTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarExitFullScreenTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarFastForwardTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarFolderCopyToTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarFolderMoveToTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarFolderTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarGetInfoTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarGoBackTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarGoDownTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarGoForwardTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarGoUpTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarHistoryTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarIconViewTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarListViewTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarMailTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarNewFolderTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarNewMessageTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarOpenInBrowserTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarPauseTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarPlayheadTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarPlayPauseTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarPlayTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarQuickLookTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRecordStartTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRecordStopTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRefreshTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRewindTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRotateLeftTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarRotateRightTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSearchTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarShareTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSidebarTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipAhead15SecondsTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipAhead30SecondsTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipAheadTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipBack15SecondsTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipBack30SecondsTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipBackTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipToEndTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSkipToStartTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarSlideshowTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTagIconTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextBoldTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextBoxTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextCenterAlignTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextItalicTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextJustifiedAlignTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextLeftAlignTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextListTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextRightAlignTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextStrikethroughTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarTextUnderlineTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarUserAddTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarUserGroupTemplate, NSImageNameTouchBarUserTemplate

Example use in Obj-C:

NSImage *image = [NSImage imageNamed:NSImageNameTouchBarUserTemplate];

Example use in Swift:

let image = NSImage(named: NSImageNameTouchBarUserTemplate)

I was looking at this from more of a 'non-developer' perspective. I wanted to replace the color Siri icon with a monochrome one. So these icons aren't saved as artwork in PNG/PDF/SVG format inside a system folder somewhere? — Gizmodo, Dec 13 '16 at 14:34
Well Siri is actually app like any other. So all you need to replace Siri icon si go to; /Applications/Siri.app/Contents/Resources where you can find Siri.icns with all Siri icons. Most likely you will have to restart your computer after you change them, since the icons will be already wired into OS. — Roman Roba, Dec 14 '16 at 10:47
Weirdly, I did replaced icons in /Applications/Siri.app/Contents/Resources and also System/Library/CoreServices/Siri.app/Contents/Resources. Still the Touch Bar Icon is not changed. — Gizmodo, Dec 15 '16 at 17:58

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 27 '19 at 15:38

If you're interested in customizing the touch bar icons Apple provides some templates to get started:

And while they're not specific to the touch bar – which has its own design guidelines – there's a bevy of additional design resources available on the HIG.

macOS Touch Bar Icons Location

3 Answers3