Change Apple Mail’s new mail badges
As well as changing Mail.app’s Dock icon, you can change the little red “unread mail” bubbles.
The result looks like this screenshot below, sporting my own very elegant blue bubble.
Here’s how:
- Quit Mail.
- Open up your Applications folder in Finder and locate Mail.app.
- Command-Click on Mail’s icon, and select “Show package contents”. Open the “Contents” folder and then the “Resources” folder.
- Locate the four badge files – newmailbadge1&2.tiff, newmailbadge3.tiff, newmailbadge4.tiff and newmailbadge5.tiff – and make copies by Option-Dragging them to the Desktop (just in case and to return things to the default state if you want to later).
- Replace them with four identically named files of your own.
I’ve knocked up two quick and dirty sets in blue and green. You can probably roll your own nicer ones in Photoshop. Apple’s originals have a light shading in the bottom right-hand corner. There’s also a multi-coloured set
on ResExcellence. - All done. Launch Mail and enjoy.
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Tags: apple GUI, Apple Mail, hacks, interface, mail.app, notification badges
October 20th, 2005 at 8:51 am
Off-topic, but I just *adore* the gold-rimmed Safari icon in your screen shot. That’s from the WebKit.org nightlies, right?
October 20th, 2005 at 9:02 am
Yes, it is.
Of course if you really like it, you could use the process outlined here to swap Safari’s default icon for the new shiny one.
October 21st, 2005 at 5:05 pm
I wonder if it’s possible to replace the badges with images that have a larger width and height? On my 12″ iBook, I sometimes have a hard time identifying the number shown, larger badges would help. Any clue, Tim? ;)
October 21st, 2005 at 5:40 pm
Hmmm…. I am not a programmer or developer, so my knowledge about these things is limited, I’m afraid.
My hunch is that you really want to change the font size inside the badges. Bigger badges with the same-sized font won’t help with visibility.
I would think laterally – maybe use a menubar notifier like MailUnreadStatusBar that would give you a bigger font size in the menubar (plus other features)?
Not much of an answer, but it would work.
October 22nd, 2005 at 12:46 am
You’re right, I didn’t think of the fonts inside the badges, my fault. :P
My menubar is already filled to the max – 1024×768 doesn’t provide that much space. Well, it will work fine like it did before. It’s merely a minor flaw. ;)
October 23rd, 2005 at 10:13 am
[...] So, you’ve replaced Mail’s Dock icon and got some shiny matching new mail badges, but you are still thirsting for more Apple Mail interface customization? [...]
October 25th, 2005 at 12:25 am
[...] The set contains five icons – junkmail.tiff, junkMailFlag.tiff, TB_Junk.tiff, TrashMailbox.tiff. TrashMailboxLarge.tiff – to replace the defaults in the Resources folder of Mail.app. Make copies of the original first. Then follow the same instructions for replacing Apple Mail’s new mail badges. [...]
February 1st, 2006 at 4:09 am
Hi, this whole badge thing, can it work with folders too? zo you get a badge with the number of files that have been added for a downloadsfolder or something
February 1st, 2006 at 7:22 am
Hmmm… I don’t think so.
The closest thing that I know of is Docktopus
, a utility that allows you to add Mail.app-style notification badges to lots of icons in your Dock.
Docktopus includes a “folder count” badge, which allows you track the number of files in a folder, but only for a folder that is in the Dock. You could drag your downloads folder there.
February 17th, 2006 at 7:06 am
[...] Hawk Wings ?Ǭª Blog Archive ?Ǭª Change Apple Mail?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s new mail badges ?ê¬ù?ë?í ?ê¬? ?ë¬ç?ë‚Äö?ê¬æ – ?ꬵ?ë¬Å?ꬪ?ê¬? ?ê¬??ê¬??ꬺ ?ê¬??ê¬??ꬥ?ê¬æ?ꬵ?ꬪ?ê¬æ ?ë¬Å?ꬺ?ê¬æ?ë‚Äö?ë‚Ǩ?ꬵ?ë‚Äö?ë?í ?ê¬??ê¬? ?ê¬??ë‚Ǩ?ê¬??ë¬Å?ê¬??ꬵ?ê¬??ë?í?ê¬??ë?í?ë?? ?ë‚Ć?ê¬??ë‚Äû?ê¬??ë‚Ǩ?ë?í ?ê¬??ê¬? ?ê¬??ê¬??ê¬æ?ê¬??ê¬??ꬵ ?ê¬ø?ê¬æ?ë‚Ä°?ë‚Äö?ë‚Ä? ?ê?ì?ê¬??ꬵ – ?ꬵ?ë‚Ä??ꬵ ?ê¬??ꬵ ?ê¬??ê¬??ꬥ?ê¬æ?ꬵ?ꬪ?ê¬æ [...]
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:12 am
[...] ? http://www.hawkwings.net/2005/10/19/change-apple-mails-new-mail-badges/ Wymiana plakietki ? http://www.hawkwings.net/2005/10/19/139-different-apple-mail-icons/ Lista zamienników [...]