NeXTStep Icons Still in OSX Leopard

Posted: July 31st, 2009 | Author: Robojamie | Filed under: Apple | Tags: , , , , , , | 35 Comments »

NextStep Camera Icon

Windows is known for hanging on to ancient icons. If you go looking in Windows Vista or even 7 you can find icons dating back to the 16-bit era. Mac OS X is not known for this sort of thing, but if you use the single window screenshot short cut, Command + Shift + 4 and then space, you’ll find an icon that dates back to Steve Jobs’ NeXT days. I’ve always liked the design of the NeXT icons even if they appear slightly dated.

The presence of this icon leads to the question: Is this an easter egg or an oversight?

35 Comments on “NeXTStep Icons Still in OSX Leopard”

  1. 1 nathan said at 12:54 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    I love that it’s included. I’d be it’s an easter egg.

    There is a stray line of about 5 pixels to the far right at the bottom of the transparent portion of the icon.

  2. 2 Graveyard Fields said at 12:54 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    The icon news is interesting, but the command-shift-4 then space command is really cool! I’m more than a bit ashamed I didn’t already know it.

  3. 3 Kojder said at 12:57 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Also, the new iMovie has an OS 9-style HD icon in the top right corner of the Event Library sidebar, which is a cute tribute.

  4. 4 NeXTStep Icons Still in Mac OS X Leopard « said at 1:03 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    [...] Original source : http://robojamie.net/?p=4…; [...]

  5. 5 orta said at 1:15 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    I’d vote easter egg.

  6. 6 Phil Dokas said at 1:22 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Interface Builder has plenty. One needs look no further than the spring icons for UI widget resizing elasticity to find some examples.

  7. 7 Phil Dokas said at 1:29 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Also, when you bring up the color palette and click on the magnifying glass icon next to the current color you get a magnifying glass cursor which also hails from the NeXT days.

  8. 8 mau said at 1:44 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    @GraveyardFields

    [Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-4 ]+Space sets your screenshot onto the clipboard, rather than the PNG on the desktop.

    Gotta love the little Camera icon.

    I didn’t know it allowed you to focus on actual icons too.

  9. 9 Nick said at 2:00 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Somewhere I saw it noted that the Mac OS X Finder icon (/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/Finder.icns) is larger than the original Finder 1.0. It’s larger than the original Mac boot ROMs, which held a large chunk of the system. Kind of tangentially related to the topic at hand, I know.

  10. 10 Glen said at 2:02 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Thanks a lot Nathan, now I’ll always see that little stray line ;-)

  11. 11 Darren Stone said at 2:10 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    There used to be a number of them, and they were easy to spot because they had accurate 4-bit monochrome representations. Sadly, most of last remaining NEXTSTEP icons were purged with Leopard.

  12. 12 iamleeg said at 2:40 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    I’ve never found out if it’s used anywhere, but have a look at /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/NSMultipleFiles.tiff

  13. 13 Robojamie said at 2:46 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    This is all really interesting.. It seems like there quite a few examples of this.

  14. 14 Paul Eccles said at 2:53 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Here’s hoping they fix that stray line in Snow Leopard!!

  15. 15 Paul Eccles said at 2:56 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Let’s hope they fix that stray line in Snow Leopard!

  16. 16 NeXTStep Icons Still in OS X Leopard « Day and Age said at 3:34 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    [...] Never noticed this before, tried it, and sure enough it’s there. [...]

  17. 17 JayJay said at 3:41 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Does anyone know where this icon is hidden in the system?

  18. 18 NeXTStep Icons Still in OSX Leopard | Superposition Kitty said at 4:16 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    [...] NeXTStep icons in OS X. [...]

  19. 19 Mars said at 4:33 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    JayJay – If you look at the Resources of the Grab tool (utilities folder) you will see different instances of the camera icon.

  20. 20 Foo said at 5:49 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    Bah. The Basso, Frog, Funk, Ping, Pop, and Tink sounds are all from NeXTSTEP 2.0 or earlier.

  21. 21 Hamranhansenhansen said at 6:22 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    It’s good nostalgia, but this should be fixed. The icon has a single-pixel faux shadow that is really out of place on an operating system that has had real shadows for the entire 21st century. And a camera means “camera” now, not “screenshot”.

    But the other mouse cursors look even older to me. For example, the I-beam, which you see when you hover your cursor over editable text, does not look like it has changed at all from 1984. And the pointing hand is still wearing that Mickey Mouse glove. Other than the Quartz drop shadows in some cases, aren’t these the same icons from System 6?

  22. 22 NeXTStep Icons Still in OSX Leopard at blog villoslado said at 7:16 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    [...] (Via Robojamie) [...]

  23. 23 Terry McCall said at 7:18 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    @mau

    Desktop Icons (and only these) are actually little windows.

    Another reason why you should keep your desktop tidy (too many windows = slow OS)

    Weird huh?

    And I never would have noticed the line! I vote minor oversight

  24. 24 Parham said at 9:17 pm on August 4th, 2009:

    It just dawned on me, but….when installing an Apple application the “Box” is a hold over from NeXTSTEP days too.

  25. 25 Ciryon said at 2:16 am on August 5th, 2009:

    In contrast to Windows, the old NextStep icons are really cool and beautifully designed too. That in itself is pretty amazing, considering how old they are.

  26. 26 Rick Patrick said at 5:16 am on August 5th, 2009:

    Apple is actually pretty slow when it comes to cleaning redundant UI imagery up. Leopard (and presumably Snow Leopard) contains has hundreds and hundreds of defunct UI bitmaps, like pre-10.3 Titlebars and Titlebar buttons, pre-10.2 Aqua controls, 10.4 Menubar, etc.

    The old school camera still makes me grin (and wince) though.

  27. 27 Parham said at 10:43 am on August 5th, 2009:

    Having a NeXT back in the day, I got curious about the people behind the product (HW/OS/SW)…to me they were the most interesting people/personalities. No doubt there were allot of really talented people at NeXT.

    One of those people was Keith Olfs was the person whom designed much of the icons ( http://www.ohlfs.com/keith/self/next/next.html )

  28. 28 PhotoGeek Week#96 The split screen Kombi | Photogeek. Podcast for the geek photographer said at 1:37 pm on August 5th, 2009:

    [...] Mac OSX 10.5 hit Command/Shift/4/space to see the NeXT [...]

  29. 29 straypixels said at 2:09 pm on August 5th, 2009:

    I just wrote up a bug about the stray pixels in the camera icon. Thanks.

    (You can write up bugs too externally at bugreport.apple.com.)

  30. 30 Mac OS X Leopard Still Contains Icons From NeXTStep | Cult of Mac said at 9:24 am on August 6th, 2009:

    [...] Other holdovers from NeXT in Leopard include various system sounds, including Basso, Frog, Funk, Ping, Pop, and Tink, as one commenter notes at Robojamie.net, which first pointed out the camera icon. [...]

  31. 31 JayJay said at 12:08 am on August 18th, 2009:

    Mars – I see the icons you’re talking about, but the actual icon for the camera being talked about doesn’t seem to reside in the grab resources. If I have terminal open with the top command running, if I try a snapshot, “screencapture” application runs, not grab. Any more ideas where to look for it?

  32. 32 JayJay said at 12:15 am on August 18th, 2009:

    Found it!
    It’s in a binary file located at:
    /usr/sbin/
    I so wanted to change that icon too. I like a bit of history, but I also wanted to upgrade it. Anyone know if this is possible?

  33. 33 DiapepCal said at 9:28 pm on August 18th, 2009:

    yeh right.. great post, Thank You

  34. 34 Make Bigger said at 3:47 am on September 2nd, 2009:

    Particular utilitarian transmit but there are some place where I last wishes as not agree. But all-inclusive its pure good.

  35. 35 Yoshi said at 12:01 am on September 17th, 2009:

    System/Library/Coreservices/Coretypes.bundle/contents/resources has loads of OS 9 style icons in it. I haven’t found any other NeXTish style icons though :(

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