IconJar for Mac

Collecting icons is easy; finding the right one six months later is not. Folders of unnamed SVGs and PNGs do little to help, and a designer’s time is better spent designing than digging through Finder. IconJar turns that scattered library into something you can actually browse.

Check: will it run on your Mac

Version 2.11.4 requires macOS 10.14 Mojave or later and runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel machines. If you are still on an older system, this build will not launch.

Organise: tags, sets and native files

Icons live in collections you can tag and license individually, and the native iconjar.file format keeps that metadata intact. QuickLook support means you can preview an icon by tapping the spacebar without ever opening the app.

Export: six formats for any handoff

When an icon needs to leave the library, it can do so as PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP or SVG. Icon font exporting rounds out the list, useful for web projects where a single weight‑adjustable file replaces a folder of bitmaps.

Default library location: set it to a backed‑up folder first

A fresh install works immediately, but three preferences deserve attention before you drop in your first icon set. Open Preferences > General and set the default library location to a folder you actually back up — the default sits inside ~/Library/Containers, which many people overlook during routine backups. Next, under Export, pin your most-used format and scale: if you hand off iOS assets at 3× PNG, setting that as the default saves a repetitive trip through the export dialogue every time. Finally, turn on QuickDrag in the General pane: it lets you pull an icon straight out of the library window and drop it into Sketch, Figma, Xcode or a Finder folder without touching the export menu at all.

Start with a tagged iconjar file: learn the structure before loose SVGs

The early hours with IconJar shape whether it becomes a true library or just a prettier folder. Start by importing one or two well‑tagged iconjar files before you drag in loose SVGs — a tagged set teaches the app’s structure faster than a pile of unnamed assets. Then take ten minutes to build a lightweight tag vocabulary: filled, outline, 16px, 24px and a client or project name go a long way. Searching “outline 24px” is far quicker than scrolling through a grid of 400 similar shapes. The third habit is less obvious: use the Set Info panel (⌘I) to attach a licence note to any icon set you did not draw yourself. Six months later, when a client asks about attribution, that note will be waiting.

QuickLook comparison: double‑click and arrow through a set

IconJar’s interface is quiet by design, and a few shortcuts hide just below the surface. Double‑clicking any icon opens it in a detached QuickLook window where you can flick through the set with the arrow keys — useful for comparing weight variants without losing your place in the main grid. The search field accepts partial matches on tags and filenames, but it also understands width:16 and height:24 as filters, which is helpful when you need icons at exact pixel dimensions. And dragging with the Option key held down exports the icon in the format you set as default, no dialogue at all.

For anyone who grabbed the iconjar mac full version to manage a growing collection, it is worth knowing that the app can watch folders. Drop a monitored folder into the sidebar and any new SVG saved there appears in the library automatically — a quiet bridge between your downloads folder and an organised set.

Version 2.11.4 is a maintenance release that stabilises the app on macOS Tahoe. The IJSVG engine was updated to fix crashes and rendering glitches and to improve performance; the app icon was refreshed for Tahoe; and several hangs and crashes specific to that system version were resolved.

• macOS 10.14 Mojave or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac