A Closer Look At Apple’s Icons: Secret Messages & Easter Eggs
Last week, we discussed the evolution, rhyme and reason behind some of Apple’s icons since the public release of OS X in 2001. This week, we’re going to take a closer look at some of the “Easter eggs” that are hidden in these icons.
Hidden Detail
An easy way to one up the competition when you release a new OS is to release your OS with bigger icons. Before Mac OS X, icons were limited to a paltry 32×32 pixels. It got the job done, but there wasn’t anything exactly spectacular about it. With newer versions of operating systems, Leopard brought about a new maximum size of 512×512 pixels and Windows Vista settled on a maximum size of 256×256 pixels. In the Windows world, that just meant your screen could be cluttered by large icons. But in the Mac world, larger icons meant they could take on a whole new meaning.
In a lot of these large icons, Apple has given extra detail, such as the flecks in folders, in an attempt to make them more photorealistic. (Cool tidbit: In Snow Leopard, a generic folder icon appears to open as you drag files into it.)
Here are a few examples where Apple has added Easter eggs to their icons.
The most recognized is the inclusion of Apple’s infamous Think Different poem on the TextEdit icon.
The Keynote icon from iWork ’09 references Q4 2009. Q4 stands for fourth quarter, the final quarter of a company’s fiscal year; results from both it and the full-year period are reported simultaneously. The writing depicted on the icon, quoted below, is actually lyrics from Spring Awakening. Thanks to Ken Drake for decoding it.
Hidden inside the Dictionary app icon is a reference to the Latin-esque placeholder text displaying “Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet Etiam.”
A closer inspection of the Disk Utility icon shows in tiny print, “Handle the hard drive carefully to avoid damaging the circuit board. Make sure you are properly grounded.”
Looking close at the iTunes icon, you can see “iTunes 7” and “Apple 2006” inscribed on the inside of the disc. (The file is a transparent PNG, so if you have issues seeing it, save it out to your computer and view it with a colored background).
The icon for Font Book features a book with an “F” and two type blocks for “A” and “K.” Was it intentional for them to read as “AFK,” or the abbreviation for internet slang “away from keyboard?”
The Mail icon is also “postmarked” with the phase “Hello from Cupertino, CA.”
Of course, even Apple’s own icon for Windows computers on a network takes on a very familiar sight.
Apple’s Dashcode icon features actual CSS code on the icon.
Interface Builder, Apple’s developer tool for creating user interfaces, also features extra detail, labeling its contents.
Jar Launcher, an application for loading Java JAR files, features code written on the napkin.
Apple’s icon for Aperture also features a familiar “Designed by Apple in California” line, seen on other Apple products. The other markings, 55mm and 1:1.4 indicate the lens has a large maximum aperture. Kinda fitting, don’t you think?
The Fun Goes On
Even other third party developers have been creative with messages hidden in their icons. For users of CSS Edit, look closely to find “ie sucks” on the icon. There are likely many other icons that feature these types of Easter eggs, so please use the comments below in case I might have missed some!
P.S. All of these icons were pulled from the original applications. If you’d like to explore and dig out your own, right click on an application and pick “Show Package Contents.” Inside the Resources folder you will find lots of glyphs and other images as well as a .icns file which contains the 512×512 version of the icon.
Tweet This (67)
Kenneth on July 27th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Been going through a few programs you haven’t mentioned and I’m noticing that while they don’t all have easter eggs, they are beautiful and detailed.
DC on July 27th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Check out the Stickies icon, pretty easy but what”s the phone number there?? we can call Mr Stickies? or Steve Jobs? lol
DC on July 27th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Another one : the Final Cut Express 4 icon.. The name of the producer is C. Stack and the Director is M. Abbink! Never heard of these people! working with Apple?
Bri on July 27th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
DC, the phone number on the Stickies icon is “555.7361″ for a Lou. Maybe thats Mr. Stickies first name.
Kyle on July 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
CSS Edit by macrabbit has the best, it says “ie sucks” on it.
The Eck on July 27th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
The 555 prefix is generally a fictitious prefix in the US and is used by Film and TV productions when a telephone number is needed in context. This is to avoid using actual working phone numbers that the curious among us might dial just to see who answers.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_(telephone_number)
Joe on July 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Even easier to view the large versions of icons by setting your Finder window for Coverflow, and then dragging the top half down so it fills most the window. For any file that isn’t previewable (such as app packages) you see a high resolution version of the icon. Of course, Leopard is a prerequisite – sorry Tiger folks.
Midnight on July 27th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Good article.
Just to let you know, the cool opening folder effect when dragging files onto a generic folder is nothing new in Snow Leopard. It’s been in Leopard all along.
Anskar on July 27th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
“A quick letter to Friends of Magnetism everywhere in the world” begins the letter shown on the FileMagnet icon. The letter–appropriately shown in an inbox–goes on to extol the virtues of this latest version of the iPhone to Desktop file transfer application. Very cool indeed!
David on July 27th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I wonder if the ‘A’ & ‘K’ on Font Book are Alan Kay’s initials. Apples little tribute to him.
He also has a nice little tribute in the movie Tron…
deathgleaner on July 27th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I think it just shows how Apple’s so obsessed with making their computers aesthetic, but not functioning well.
polarbear on July 28th, 2009 at 5:44 am
What planet are you from?
I just remembered…
Planet ME, XP, Vista, 7, NT, 2000 or maybe Zune.
You’re on the wrong planet.
If M$ spent a little more time on the minute details, they could produce something that actually works.
captain dingles on December 28th, 2009 at 11:27 am
well youre a bat so shut up bathole. What are you from planet batdon? how do bats even type? dont you have wings niggar?
Howie Isaacks on July 27th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
My favorite is the icon displayed for the Windows PCs on the network… old, drab, CRT display with a blue screen of death :)
Tice on July 27th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Wanna see all the “Big Icons” now (without grabbing ‘em and pasting, and ..) Click here: http://blog.tice.de/icons.php?sprache=englisch
Lucian on July 28th, 2009 at 6:41 am
@Bri — The phone number 555-7361 on Stickies stands for 555-PEN1. Lou Mazzeo is a pen & ink artist and also there are pens made by Linda Lou.
Mar on November 14th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Hi Chris, I would want to translate this module to the Russian language. Please tell me your email, simply reply to my mail. Regards, Marcis.
พระเครื่อง on November 16th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Thank you for this great information.
ข่าวพระเครื่อง ตะกรุด มีด