We've gotten a plethora of tips asking that we make a WebClip icon for iPhone & iPod touch home pages for TUAW. And we hear you. In fact, one sleep-deprived Macworld-covering TUAW blogger created a webclip icon (pre-empting all the tips -- which we're eternally grateful for nonetheless). As our server gurus get the icon fixed in place, we thought we'd share with you some handy links both for making icons for your own site, and perhaps to find one for TUAW in the meantime.
Waiting for a website to gain a WebClip icon? There's a load of sites available to either help you find an icon that's already been made -- such as WebClipMe! or the WebClip directory. clipalizer goes one better, allowing you to upload your own (correctly sized) PNG image and then use that as a webclip icon.
So how do I create my own WebClip icon? A WebClip icon is basically a 57-pixel-square PNG image called apple-touch-icon.png placed at the root of your server's web-content directory (though the Apple Developer Connection site lists a way that code-savvy users can specify a custom location for it, should they so choose). Whilst the icons appear rounded on the iPhone, you don't need to worry about creating curved corners, or even apply a button-esque mask in Photoshop: iPhone takes care of all of that -- "Safari will automatically composite the icon with the standard "glassy" overlay so it looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application."
Thanks to all those who sent us pleading emails!
Waiting for a website to gain a WebClip icon? There's a load of sites available to either help you find an icon that's already been made -- such as WebClipMe! or the WebClip directory. clipalizer goes one better, allowing you to upload your own (correctly sized) PNG image and then use that as a webclip icon.
So how do I create my own WebClip icon? A WebClip icon is basically a 57-pixel-square PNG image called apple-touch-icon.png placed at the root of your server's web-content directory (though the Apple Developer Connection site lists a way that code-savvy users can specify a custom location for it, should they so choose). Whilst the icons appear rounded on the iPhone, you don't need to worry about creating curved corners, or even apply a button-esque mask in Photoshop: iPhone takes care of all of that -- "Safari will automatically composite the icon with the standard "glassy" overlay so it looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application."
Thanks to all those who sent us pleading emails!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-22-2008 @ 8:09PM
Peter Zich said...
You can use my script too: http://pz2.ucls.uchicago.edu/webclipIcons.js
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 8:27PM
Mike Keen said...
Try http://hsicon.com/
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 8:36PM
Peter Zich said...
Beautiful site, but I still dislike all the refresh stuff, but most people seem fine with it.
1-22-2008 @ 8:51PM
ironknee said...
can i post my site here for people to test my icon?
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 9:29PM
cualexander said...
Easiest way to get custom icons to appear on your home screen without doing the whole refresh thing.
1.) Make an icon that is 57x57 and save as a PNG. I use Preview on Mac and its really easy for cropping existing jpgs and saving them to PNG.
2.) Get a googlepages site. Really easy, if you have a gmail address you have one. Goto www.googlepages.com and login.
3.) Upload created PNG to the googlepages and make it a short name so the address will be x.googlepages.com/bd.png. Its really easy to upload files to googlepages.
4.) Save the javascript above to a bookmark and sync to Iphone. If you click on it, you will see detailed instructions.
5.) Visit your favorite site, click on the javascript bookmark you made, and type in the address to your googlepages account.
6.) Click + Button to Add to Home Screen.
Voila. No more refresh lag. You have a custom icon that actually points to the real site.
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 9:34PM
Corey said...
Wasn't it decided that 59x59 was a better size?
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 9:41PM
pegler said...
the article is wrong. WebClip Directory also allows for image uploads. It even converts gif and jpg to png format and has a cropper online to crop large images down to size.
Reply
1-22-2008 @ 11:09PM
cb said...
how do you change a file size to 57x57 once you have the picture?????
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 1:34AM
Fritz Laurel said...
Use something like Photoshop or Pixelmator to change the image's size.
1-23-2008 @ 8:56AM
Michael Rose said...
Or ImageWell (it's free).
1-23-2008 @ 12:18AM
Bill said...
any idea how to get this to work on .mac pages? I tried uploading the image to the root of my idisk and then the web directory and then the site directory inside the web directory.... blah blah blah...
Has anyone been successful?
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 1:33AM
Fritz Laurel said...
You have to add the "link ..." tag to the head of the web page.
See Apple's iPhone dev page for more:http://developer.apple.com/iphone/devcenter/designingcontent.html
1-23-2008 @ 1:48AM
Bill said...
Replying to myself...
I found this link.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1350127&tstart=0
1-23-2008 @ 1:28AM
Fritz Laurel said...
I created my own TUAW webclip icon last week (seems like 10 years ago -- geez, TUAW, you're sooooo slow) and implanted it with a modified version of Peter's script (listed above). Looks great on my iPhone.
Here's a link to the icon I made if anyone wants it:
http://www.dyspersion.com/misc/clippngs/tuaw.png
Cheers,
FL
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 8:57AM
Michael Rose said...
Fritz, in fairness, Nik was all over this and actually created the webclip icon within hours of the keynote (all while shooting pictures and writing posts from the Macworld show floor). Since then we've been working with our infrastructure team (who have a lot of other sites to support) to get the webclip icon where it needs to be to work properly.
1-23-2008 @ 9:43AM
Patrick Melton said...
This works much better:
http://www.nobodylikesonions.com/clipclick
It allows the use of other image types, higher resolution images, and allows you to make use of other's webclips. This should be added to the original post as it's the best tool out there!
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 11:16AM
Steven C. Chang said...
There is a nice implementation of a webclip icon at www.paulchangdesign.com
Works perfectly!
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 11:27AM
Steven C. Chang said...
http://www.paulchang.com
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 12:25PM
Otsego_Undead said...
So did i miss it, or is there no way to associate the webclip icon with the RSS feed (my preferred way to view sites)?
Reply
1-23-2008 @ 12:55PM
Sam said...
APPLE-TOUCH-ICON.com
GREAT resource for sites that have an actual icon. Seems to be updated automatically and they let you add your own site to the listing.
Reply