IconBox 2 - whether there is an alternative to CandyBar?

When it comes to storage of icons in large numbers first of all recall CandyBar from Panic. But few know that the first manager icons on Mac OS was IconBox program, version 1.0 which appeared in 2003. During this time IconBox experienced several Restayl this year with version 2.0 has found its present form. The changes affected not only the appearance of the application, IconBox obtained through the efforts of developers are several possibilities that could not even boast of his famous opponent.

The first thing you have to do any manager in the fine - is to provide convenient and flexible tools for viewing and file management, is no exception and icon manager. IconBox cope with this task c by so-called «Boxes», thus disparate icons can be combined into a library. «Boxes» may contain subfolders for more detailed sorting, which can be arranged in the desired order by dragging up or down. It is possible to create similar iTunes smart «Smart Boxes» folder, whose work is in many ways similar to those in the media processor.

Ample opportunities for export and import of the library contents. The program works with the following formats: ICNS, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, or as a package of icons in iContainer format. By the way, the availability of support last Candybar allows users to transfer his or her library into IconBox without too much difficulty. In addition, a large number of icons is distributed in this format, which has become for makintoshnikov almost standard in this area.

None icon manager can not be considered complete if its board is not a function, so-called interface customization. With IconBox possible to replace system icons, folder icons, and various icons, there is a section to replace the application icons in the "Programs" folder and change the master texture identical to that in the dock CandyBar. Replacing all the icons of the system from the final set takes a few seconds and requires only an administrator password, and perform user logoff or restart the Dock.

In my opinion, CandyBar stopped in its development and lost the initiative, the reason for this, I see that there is no full-fledged competition. With the advent of IconBox 2 from Panic manager began to give way to a competitor in terms of functionality. For example, in IConBox introduced a feature called XRay. Using it for a split second, you can view the contents of the folder Resources of any program and export files in the proper format.

Another blow to CandyBar is the appearance of «Online» mode oriented professionals graphic design and simple lovers of beautiful images, because sometimes the icon on the qualities borders with art. In the "Online" appears every day "icon of the day" selected out of hundreds of others. I liked the image can be immediately downloaded, Retweet, or go to a page designer for more information.

Of «Online» section you can get access to the most famous and popular foreign resources dedicated icon. Links are located in a nice block, which gives a list of the usual charm. Lacks the ability to add their links to related resources, we hope soon to guess about it and the developers.

It may be useful built-in search of the largest repositories iconfinder.com. It should collect the keyword in the search bar and in front of you, right in the window, you will see several options for the desired object, executed in pixels.

The program interface is made very high quality. To some extent, it is even more accurate than the Panic, but perhaps it is still vkusovschina. Browsing experience on the well-known foreign resources, faced with conflicting opinions on this subject. In any case, that CandyBar that IconBox will be very convenient to use and the choice is likely to have to do on the preference icon to the application itself.

Icon Box vs CandyBar

This review I started with a certain amount of skepticism. As the owner of a large number of icons and the person tracking the trends in "ikonostroenii," it seemed to me that there is a CandyBar is everyone else. However, the developers of ChickenByte & The IconBlock Ltd literally half an hour turned my idea of ​​the best managers of icons. All of these online modes and a very nice interface outweighed my attachment to CandyBar.

project page IconBox (24.99 $)
project page CandyBar (29.00 $)