Setting the Dock to Exactly 32 Pixels

Question

Setting the Dock to Exactly 32 Pixels

I want to set the dock to exactly 32 pixels, but the slider gives no numerical value. I have a set of sleek 32 pixel icons that look great when viewed on the desktop, but I just can't get them to the right size in the dock.

Message was edited by: playswithtigers

iMac 7,1, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jul 24, 2009 5:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

khassani

Level 3

952 points

Jul 24, 2009 5:54 PM in response to playswithtigers

You can manually edit the /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist. Set tilesize to 32, then type "killall Dock" into terminal.

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 27, 2009 5:17 PM in response to playswithtigers

Although the answer worked, there was a severe degradation in the quality of the icons in the dock.

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 27, 2009 5:26 PM in response to khassani

This worked for setting the right pixel size, but there is now a severe degredation in icon quality:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c243/cosmo007/Picture1.png

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 27, 2009 6:06 PM in response to playswithtigers

The Dock only uses the 128x128 icon resources, so even if you resize the Dock so that the icons are 32x32, it's going to scale down the 128x128 icon to that size. It does not switch to the 32x32 icon resource.

Also, I just checked and, even if you're using an icon that only has the 32x32 size, it will still not appear correctly in the Dock. It will still have a slightly blurred appearance. So, unfortunately, the Dock is not able to display icons in the way that you were looking for. I don't believe that there is a way around this problem.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 27, 2009 6:37 PM in response to Kenneth Douglas1

That is disappointing. Are there any Apple Dock alternatives that would have the functionality?

Reply