How to Add a Picture to a Folder on Mac

Last Updated: April 22, 2021

This wikiHow teaches you how to replace any of your Mac's default folder icons with your own custom image. This can be helpful if you have a particular folder you use often and want it to stand out from the others. You can replace any of your Mac's default file or folder icons with any image file saved to your computer.

Steps

1
Double-click the picture you want to use as your folder icon. This opens the picture in Preview.
2
Click the Edit menu and select Copy. The picture is now copied to your clipboard.

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3
Open Finder on your Mac
. It's the two-toned smiley face icon on the Dock, which you'll find at the bottom of the screen.
4
Click the folder you want to change. This selects the folder.
- Make sure you just click the folder one time so you don't accidentally open it.
5
Click the File menu and select Get Info. This opens some information about the folder.^{[1]
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6
Click the folder's current icon. It's in the upper-left area of the window.
7
Click the Edit menu and select Paste. Now you'll see the image you copied earlier replace the previous icon.
- If you want to restore a folder's original icon, just come back to this screen, select the current icon, and then select Edit > Cut.

Community Q&A

Question

What's the best scale of photo to use for folder icons?

Community Answer

Extra large icons: 256 x 256 pixels; large icons: 96 x 96 pixels (automatically rendered by Windows from 256 version); medium icons: 48 x 48 pixels.
Question

Will it look like a folder or just as a square ?

Fancyghost

Community Answer

It could be either, depending on what your preferences are set to. Either way, it'll work the same.