macOS Icon History
With macOS 26, Apple has announced a dramatically new look to their UI: Liquid Glass. Solid material icon elements give way to softer, shinier, glassier icons. The rounded rectangle became slightly more rounded, and Apple eliminated the ability for icon elements to extend beyond the icon rectangle (as seen in the current icons for GarageBand, Photo Booth, Dictionary, etc.).
With this release being one of the most dramatic visual overhauls of macOS's design, I wanted to begin a collection chronicling the evolution of the system icons over the years.
I linked to this in an update before, but I wanted to highlight it again since he’s been posting updates on social media and this post collects everything in one place. The new 26 icons will be GM very soon.
Previously:
- One Size Does Not Fit All
- macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 9
- Assorted Notes on Liquid Glass
- macOS Tahoe 26 Developer Beta 2
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I gotta say in almost every case, the current or 2020 icon is the best of all of them. In a couple of cases the ones they are introducing are good, but they mostly just look like blurrier versions of the current icons.
In a few cases, the simplified version of what they had already simplified in 2020 is a bit better, though Calendar now gives no hint that it's actually a calendar and not just a date widget.
Basically every example from Mail all the way to the end looks much worse though.
This page basically shows how they reached peak icon design around 2020 and are now throwing it all away.
That Pages inkwell icon is and always will be a work of art.
What a depressing slide into design hell this is.
I'm going to disagree with Bart.
I would suggest they all fall off a cliff around 2013-2014, and just keep getting worse.
Now what could have happened in the year or two proceeding that which could have allowed poor design and bad taste to proliferate in Apple's UI department?
Around 1995 is it for me, seeing those icons gives me a feeling of excitement and opportunity.
@billyok: the Inkwell icon would also well in the coming glasspocalypse.
Final nails in the coffin of skeuomorphism. They are concepts and not objects anymore. For users to memorise which colourful blob to tap and not to learn which function by looking at it.
Setting is dull and lacks contrast.
Folder is not recognisable as a folder anymore.
Notes could mean anything reduced as is to a yellow stripe and two lines.
Dictionary is better invoked from Siri / search anyway.
Maps looks blurry but perhaps it is the web optimisation.
Podcasts lacks contrast again.
Photo Booth is actually quite cute.
Chess was retouched just for the sake of it.
Time Machine looks ready to show off translucent effects. So do FaceTime and Mail.
Trash re-used the Disk icon with added transparency.
DVD Player is so hideous I wonder how it even went through approval. Luckily no much show time for it nowadays.
Text Edit lost the pen and we are now left with just our fingers. Apt conclusion.
Some are obviously iOS icons brought straight to macOS. At this point I am left to wonder why they wasted designer’s time for something that was not broken in the first place. Nothing better to do?
@Someone I wouldn't actually say I disagree, those were some great icons. Only reason I said that is that in some cases those were a little too cutesy, and I find that many of them were cleaned up to a suitable degree some time around 2020ish.
But I agree, after 2020 they started going way too far and now many of them don't look like anything.
