Are you getting bored already with your monotonous looking Dock?
Invisible Dock
When I browse throughout my Leopard, I've found out that there are several image files in PNG format that control the appearance of the Dock. I tried to delete those files ( I made backup before that ) and I got invisible glass for my Dock. Let's see what are those files.
The glass where your icons sit is controlled by image files named scurve. It's separated into four files, scurve-sm, scurve-m, scurve-l and scurve-xl. I think scurve stands from super curve. I hope I'm not wrong. The one white line at the bottom of the Dock is controlled by an image file named frontline. A line that divide Dock into two parts is controlled by an image file named separator.
And all of them are located inside :
Macintosh HD ▸ System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices ▸ Dock ▸ Contents ▸ Resources
Each time you want to delete file from Dock, you need to be an administrator. Leopard will prompt you the dialog box for you to enter your administrator username and password. As usual, it's for security.
I believe you now can make your invisible Dock. Let's move forward.
Black Dock
The fastest way :
- Move out all files that I've mentioned before
- Open them with Preview
- Call up the Adjust Color Tool (you can see my previous article Leopard - New Preview Tools) and set the White Point at the same point as the Black Point for all image files
- Save your new settings and move them back to your Dock resource folder
- Enter valid administrator username and password
- Use Terminal command line
killall Dock - Now, you can enjoy your brand new Black Dock
You also can tweak around with your Preview to get different colors, such as Blue Dock by setting the Temperature Point to its lowest.
In case you forget to back up your original Dock files, you can download them again here : Dock Attributes.
And I won't forget attaching my Black Dock Black Dock.
8 COMMENTS (RSS)
Claire
November 12th, 2007 Time: 04:41 AM
Thats strange... i can't seem to see those folders.
Wendy
November 12th, 2007 Time: 10:48 PM
Macintosh HD is the default name for disk. It usually comes with disk image icon. Digging into System ▸ Library ▸ CoreServices shouldn't be any problems encountered. Entering the Dock folder is a little tricky. You need to Control-Click on the Dock application and then click on Show Package Contents. Now, you should be inside the Dock folder. And the rest of the path, Contents ▸ Resources should be easy enough for you to open.
Fabio Silva
November 24th, 2007 Time: 01:59 AM
I couldnt find the files... I could go till coreservices but after that I didnt see any folder called Dock... what should I do ?
Fabio Silva
November 24th, 2007 Time: 02:02 AM
ok ok! I got it... I just had to close the Finder and Start Again! I dont know why... well Thanks!!!
Peter
December 6th, 2007 Time: 07:39 AM
I'm now unable to right click or click and hold on the icons to perform any actions. No restart or repairing permissions could help. Be Warned: I HAD TO RE-INSTALL MY WHOLE OS!
Wendy
December 7th, 2007 Time: 08:14 AM
Peter,
I'd tried to removed all of those files mentioned on the article above from the Dock package and my Dock was still running well. Would you mind to share with us your experience?
Cubicula
December 8th, 2007 Time: 05:31 PM
I have same trouble as Wendy. Every my change will get back to normal automaticaly. Picture are replaced, but not really.
Wendy
December 8th, 2007 Time: 05:37 PM
Oh, I get it now. We should delete those files first (or send them somewhere else for backup purpose). Then we put in the modified files (replace cannot work). This works well for my Dock.