How to make Mac icons

I am a first time user of macs and bought the mac OS X, my question is would I too have Icon Composer already somewhere on my mac? I searched in the finder and it didn't come up. I would really like to have it so I would really appreciate the help:)

thanks, dave and dimebag, for explaining about icon composer.

-mark

Mark,

Icon Composer is a free utility from Apple that you get when you install the Developer Tools:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Developer_Tools#Icon_Composer

@mark Icon Composer comes with the Developer Tools that came with the OS. Just install and you are on your way!

And where, dave (#4), does one get Icon Composer?

IMNSHO this is much more complicated than it needs to be and the article could be trimmed down to almost nothing. First of all, Apple's Icon Composer application will properly open Photoshop PSD files that include transparency. So there's no reason to export your icon as a transparent TIFF or anything else, this cuts out most of the article.

Basically the entire article could be cut down to this:

Create an icon in Photoshop.
Drag your .psd file into Icon Composer.

That's it. Forget about everything else, it's way more complicated than it should be.

Cool -- I just made (borrowed) some icons for Gmail.app:

http://osx.iusethis.com/app/gmailapp

While I could never justify Pixadex I have just about 200 megs of icons, about 100+ of those icons are my own.

You should also check out this tutorial about how to create icons from an artistic point of view by Cian Walsh:
http://creativebits.org/photoshop/keyfob_anatomy_of_an_icon

Also read these two interviews with two excellent icon designers:
http://creativebits.org/icon_designer_jonas_rask
http://creativebits.org/2005/03/cb-interview-cian-walsh.html

Ha! 3,000? I have nearly 26,000. I just love customizing, and I bet a lot of those are duplicates.