Glancing at the title will definitely leave you impression like this "Ah, he will be talking about Quick Look.", which is not fully correct. Even though Quick Look glamorously brought along with Leopard, this single feature, which we called it Icon View, shouldn't be neglected.

The Benefit of Large Icons

By default, the icons for your files so small that you could hardly extract any information from it. Fortunately, it can be set up to the size of 128x128 which will clearly reflect what are inside the files.

Shown above is the folder that I use to store my HTML files. To my surprise, all the CSS Renderings are displayed exactly the same as when I displayed it with Safari, my default web browser.

Not only HTML files but also all other types of files that is viewable by Cover Flow are able to be reflected on their own icons. For example, the very first frame movie files are projected on their icons.

Enlarging Displayed Icon

Setting up the icon size, you will need to make the Contextual Menu appear and then click on Show View Options.

The size of icons inside current folder can be enlarged by adjusting the slider, which is clearly labelled. Here you can also adjust the Grid Spacing. Don't forget to enable Icon Preview.

Icon View vs. Cover Flow

In term of getting to know what is inside the folder, Icon View gives you the best solution which is obviously shown on comparison above.

But still, in term of the sophistication of technology and another supportive features, Icon View is still far away from Coverflow View to be called special.

Quick Look vs. Icon View

Then, why don't you use Quick Look? It's simple, if you use Quick Look Index Sheet, you will need to perform more keystrokes and you will get the same result as Icon View.

But of course, it depends on your own preferences. I, myself, prefer to see white solid background better than black semi-transparent background.