App Icon
Beautiful app icons are an important part of the user experience on all Apple platforms. A unique, memorable icon evokes your app and can help people recognize it at a glance on the desktop, in Finder, and in the Dock. Polished, expressive icons can also hint at an app’s personality and even its overall level of quality.
Things 3 is a brilliant MacOS to-do list and task management app. Thanks to a full redesign, Things is more useful than ever, connecting to your tasks and Calendar in a seamless interface. You can now use the Google Home assistant on your Mac. Read on to find out how to do it! Building Google Assistant on a Mac. If you're using an iMac or Macbook you can have Google Assistant up and running in 5 minutes or less. Here's a step by step guide to getting Google Home working on a Mac computer.
In macOS 11, app icons share a common set of visual attributes, including the rounded-rectangle shape, front-facing perspective, level position, and uniform drop shadow. Rooted in the macOS 11 design language, these attributes showcase the lifelike rendering style people expect in macOS while presenting a harmonious user experience. To download templates that specify the correct shape and drop shadow, see Apple Design Resources.
![Home App On Macos Home App On Macos](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134125637/913389809.jpg)
IMPORTANT When you update your app for macOS 11, use your new app icon design to replace the icon you designed for earlier versions. You can’t include two different app icons for one app, and the macOS 11 app icon style looks fine on a Mac running Catalina or earlier.
Design a beautiful icon that clearly represents your app. Combine an engaging design with an artistic interpretation of your app’s purpose that people can instantly understand.
Embrace simplicity. Find a concept or element that captures the essence of your app and express it in a simple, unique way, adding details only when doing so enhances meaning. Too many details can be hard to discern and can make the icon appear muddy, especially at smaller sizes.
Establish a single focus point. A single, centered point of interest captures the user’s attention and helps them recognize your app at a glance. Presenting multiple focus points can obscure the icon’s message.
To give people a familiar and consistent experience, prefer a design that works well across multiple platforms. If your app runs on other platforms, use a similar image for all app icons while rendering them in the style that’s appropriate for each platform. For example, in iOS and watchOS, the Mail app icon depicts the white envelope in a streamlined, graphical style; in macOS 11, the envelope includes depth and detail that communicate a realistic weight and texture.
macOS 11
Consider depicting a familiar tool to communicate what people use your app to do. To give context to your app’s purpose, you can use the icon background to portray the tool’s environment or the items it affects. For example, the TextEdit icon pairs a mechanical pencil with a sheet of lined paper to suggest a utilitarian writing experience. After you create a detailed, realistic image of a tool, it often works well to let it float just above the background and extend slightly past the icon boundaries. If you do this, make sure the tool remains visually unified with the background and doesn’t overwhelm the rounded-rectangle shape.
Make real objects look real. If you depict real objects in your app icon, make them look like they’re made of physical materials and have actual mass. Replicate the characteristics of substances like fabric, glass, paper, and metal to convey an object’s weight and feel. For example, the Xcode app icon features a hammer that looks like it has a steel head and polymer grip.
If text is essential for communicating your app’s purpose, consider creating a graphic abstraction of it. Actual text in an icon can be difficult to read and doesn’t support accessibility or localization. To give the impression of text without implying that people should zoom in to read it, you can create a graphic texture that suggests it.
To depict photos or parts of your app’s UI, create idealized images that emphasize the features you want people to notice. Photos are often full of details that obscure the main content when viewed at small sizes. If you want to use a photo in your icon, pick one with strongly contrasting values that make the main subject stand out. How to remove apps in mac pro. Remove unimportant details that make primary lines and shapes fuzzy or indistinct. If your app has a UI that people recognize, avoid simply replicating standard UI elements or using a screenshot in your icon. Instead, consider designing a graphic that echoes the UI and expresses the personality of your app.
Don’t use replicas of Apple hardware products. Apple products are copyrighted and can’t be reproduced in your icons or images. Avoid displaying replicas of devices, because hardware designs tend to change frequently and can make your icon look dated.
Use the drop shadow in the icon-design template. The template includes the system-defined drop shadow that helps your app icon coordinate with other macOS 11 icons.
Consider using interior shadows and highlights to add definition and realism. For example, the Mail app icon uses both shadows and highlights to give the envelope authenticity and to suggest that the flap is slightly open. In icons that include a tool that floats above a background — such as TextEdit or Xcode — interior shadows can strengthen the perception of depth and make the tool look real. Shadows and highlights should suggest a light source that faces the icon, positioned just above center and tilted slightly downward.
Avoid defining contours that suggest a shape other than a rounded rectangle. In rare cases, you might want to fine-tune the basic app icon shape, but doing so risks creating an icon that looks like it doesn’t belong in macOS 11. If you must alter the shape, prefer subtle adjustments that continue to express a rounded rectangle silhouette.
Consider adding a slight glow just inside the edges of your icon. If your app icon includes a dark reflective surface, like glass or metal, add an inner glow to make the icon stand out and prevent it from appearing to dissolve into dark backgrounds.
Keep primary content within the icon grid bounding box; keep all content within the outer bounding box. If an icon’s primary content extends beyond the icon grid bounding box, it tends to look out of place. If you overlay a tool on your icon, it works well to align the tool’s top edge with the outer bounding box and its bottom edge with the inner bounding box, as shown below.
In addition to the bounding boxes and suggested tool placement, the icon design template provides a grid to help you position items within an icon. You can also use the icon grid to ensure that centered inner elements like circles use a size that’s consistent with other icons in the system.
App Icon Attributes
All app icons should use the following specifications.
Attribute | Value |
---|---|
Format | PNG |
Color space | Display P3 (wide-gamut color), sRGB (color), or Gray Gamma 2.2 (grayscale) |
Layers | Flattened with transparency as appropriate |
Resolution | @1x and @2x (see Image Size and Resolution) |
Shape | Square with no rounded corners |
Don’t provide app icons in ICNS or JPEG format. The ICNS format doesn’t support features like wide color gamut or deliver the performance and efficiency you get when you use asset catalogs. JPEG doesn’t support transparency through alpha channels, and its compression can blur or distort an icon’s images. For best results, add deinterlaced PNG files to the app icon fields of your Xcode project’s asset catalog.
App Icon Sizes
Your app icon is displayed in many places, including in Finder, the Dock, Launchpad, and the App Store. To ensure that your app icon looks great everywhere people see it, provide it in the following sizes:
- 512x512 pt (512x512 px @1x, 1024x1024 px @2x)
- 256x256 pt (256x256 px @1x, 512x512 px @2x)
- 128x128 pt (128x128 px @1x, 256x256 px @2x)
- 32x32 pt (32x32 px @1x, 64x64 px @2x)
- 16x16 pt (16x16 px @1x, 32x32 px @2x)
Maintain visual consistency in all icon sizes. As icon size decreases, fine details become muddy and hard to distinguish. At the smallest sizes, it’s important to remove unnecessary features and exaggerate primary features to help the content remain clear. As you simplify icons that are visually smaller, don’t let them appear drastically different from their larger counterparts. Strive to make subtle variations that ensure the icon remains visually consistent when displayed in different environments. For example, if people drag your icon between displays with different resolutions, the icon’s appearance shouldn’t suddenly change.
The 512x512 pt Safari app icon (on the left) uses a circle of tick marks to indicate degrees; the 16x16 pt version of the icon (on the right) doesn’t include this detail.
Working from home (WFH, also called telecommuting or telework) is becoming an increasingly common practice. In 2020, the necessity to effectively work remotely is crucial to productivity more than ever. Here at Parallels, we refuse to pretend as if remote work is a new trend. In 2019, the Business Harvard Review proved that remote employees are found to be more productive, have a lower chance of turnover, and are healthier in both their mental and physical well-being.
However, there is a delicate balance between working from home and effectively working from home.
This delicate balance boils down to the applications an individual could use to stay productive.
For macOS users, there is a nearly never-ending list of native features and apps to help stay on task. The team here at Parallels has researched far and wide to narrow down the most useful macOS apps for everyone who is working remotely.
Here are the best macOS applications to help stay productive when working from home in 2020:
Utilities:
- Parallels Toolbox
- Alfred
- Google Chrome
- Snag-it
Project Management:
- Task Paper
- Todoist
- Asana
Knowledge Workers:
- Parallels Desktop
- BBEdit
- Grammarly
Communication:
- Discord
- Microsoft Teams
Mood-Boosting:
- Spotify
- Swift Playgrounds
- Yack for Reddit(in beta)
Breaking down our list into categories makes it a bit easier to find the app you’re looking for considering the vast landscape of available macOS apps. Now, let’s deep dive into how these macOS apps can make your work from home experience more productive.
Utilities Must-Haves for macOS:
Parallels Toolbox
Parallels Toolbox is a suite available of macOS of one-click tools that make everything easier. We do mean everything. While there are dozens of tools within Parallels Toolbox, I want to outline the specific tools used to help make my work from home life more productive. The tools Alarm, Stopwatch, and Timer are all fantastic for time management. During meetings, the Alarm Tool has found to be wildly helpful to stay on task – individually, and I can present without continually looking at the clock and becoming distracted. The Stopwatch tool in Parallels Toolbox is excellent when managing a large meeting. This tool gives each presenter the same amount of time, making it helpful to be respectful of everyone’s time and collective voice. The Timer tool has become necessary when it comes to time management because I give myself an allocated time for a task before moving to the next item on my to-do list.
There are a few more tools hidden in Parallels Toolbox that makes working from home a breeze. The tool, Energy Saver, can be used automatically when disconnected from the charger or when you enable it manually. Energy Saver consists of several different options to prolong a computer’s battery life by optimizing resource consumption such as pausing non-essential processes such as Spotlight indexing, AppStore updates check, and macOS updates check. Additionally, Energy Saver is intelligent enough to eject external devices, pause Time Machine backups, and hide non-active (idle) apps. It makes the hidden applications go to the built-in macOS App Nap mode, where they consume very little energy.
Pro tip: Parallels Toolbox tools Hide Desktop or Presentation Mode are game-changers during presentations. The Hide Desktop tool hides all the files, folders, and other icons on your desktop when you’re doing a presentation, sharing or recording your screen, or taking screenshots with one click. If you’re worried about push notifications that you may have enabled, your Mac going to sleep, or distractions from bouncing icons in your macOS Dock, check out the Parallels Toolbox user favorite, Presentation Mode. This endlessly helpful tool disables distractions for a better presentation experience. The Presentation Mode tool can automatically detect external displays and turn them on, too. Also available for Windows 10, but more Parallels Toolbox tools are available on macOS.
Alfred
Alfred for macOS is an award-winning app that can seriously boost productivity with efficient hotkeys, keyword shortcuts, quick text expansion, and so more, based on your needs. Similar to macOS Spotlight, Alfred enables an intelligent search through macOS and the web and encourages users to be more productive with custom actions to extend and automate the efficiency of your work on your Mac.
The team at Alfred also offers an additional add-on, the Alfred Powerpack. You can instantly enable more profound control your Mac with the Powerpack’s third-party app integration such as iTunes, 1Password, Shell. Plus, endless workflows and themes that make staring at your computer screen for 8-hours a day more enjoyable.
Google Chrome
Readers may laugh at a suggestion of a web browser to help boost productivity. Still, there’s a lot of power in Google Chrome that some primary users may not know about or be utilizing. While I was researching the best extensions for Google Chrome, I came across a supremely helpful article from Kyle Pearce over at DIYGenius. Kyle has an extensive list of useful Google Chrome extensions to stay productive, and I urge you to check it out ASAP.
My absolute favorite extension to Google Chrome was UBlock Origin, a free and open-source, cross-platform browser extension for content-filtering such as ad-blocking. However, the ad-blocker Kyle mentioned Ghostery is next-level and I believe it performs better on Google Chrome than UBlock. I’ve already made the switch, and I suggest you do, too!
Snag-it
I first stumbled upon Snag-it back in 2018 when a coworker here at Parallels suggested it to me for a presentation. It felt like just another tool to create a screenshot. Wow, I was SO wrong. In 2020, Snag-it is outperforming any other screenshot tool I’ve tried and has the smoothest user experience I’ve felt in a long while.
To summarize, Snagit lets you quickly capture a process, add your explanation, and create visual instructions without any frustration. Truly, I cannot emphasize how excellent Snag-it is at transforming your communication. You can save hours of your time to help visualize your ideas in ways other people can easily understand. Not to mention, my favorite feature of Snag-it is the panoramic capture. Capture wide, horizontal scrolls, scrolling webpages, and everything in-between.
Project Management That is Easy to Use:
Task Paper
TaskPaper is a plain-text to-do list that’s surprisingly adept and thoroughly modernized. Since 2006, TaskPaper has delivered an excellent and easy to use to-do interface. This tool makes keeping your lists, searching with palettes to filter your never-ending lists, scheduling future dates/events easier than ever.
Not to mention, the clean UX makes for a distraction-less experience. While the minimalistic UX makes Task Paper look a bit bare-bones, this intelligent to-do list is packed with much more than just a simple interface.
Todoist
Todoist is used by over 20 million users to organize, plan, and collaborate on projects, both big and small, since 2007. While Todoist isn’t exclusive to macOS due to support via a mobile and web interface, it’s been a favorite of mine for years now. Why? Well, they also have a Google
Chrome plug-in that has enabled next-level multitasking habits.
With extensive access to over 60 integrations with some big hitters like Google Drive, Dropbox, Zapier, Evernote, and Slack – Todoist will quickly become your hub for getting work and life organized. Plus, their Wunderlist importer can help you switch tools and get started in just a few minutes if you’re looking for a change. If you’re working across multiple Macs or devices, Todoist makes it easy to pick up and continue crossing your tasks off your plate!
Asana
Asana is a widely adopted project management system that allows project managers or individuals to map out each step and organize all the details of your work in one place. Many small, medium or large enterprise companies utilize Asana, Parallels included. Here at Parallels, we love Asana! With the ability to create tasks that are dependent on other tasks, it makes coordinating with your team a breeze.
Truly, Asana has quickly become one of my favorite collaboration tools. Simply because of the ability to visualize multiple stages of projects quickly, easily, and the beauty of the UX makes this for a refreshing project management system. Simplifying workflows means reduced errors, and ultimately, saving time for solving more essential problems means I can get to work quicker. Every day, I log in, see my projects, and act accordingly. Asana has vast integration across many systems such as JIRA, Salesforce, PowerBI, Slack, Tableau, Adobe Creative Cloud, and they’re adding new features often.
Knowledge Workers Need the Following:
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop for macOS has been used by millions globally to run Windows, Linux, or other popular OSes on Mac without rebooting. Virtualization serves healthcare to accounting, IT, CAD, creativity, and every industry in between. Parallels Desktop supports users to utilize the software they need on the hardware they already have to ensure you can get your job done faster without buying a second or third computer.
Since 2006, macOS users get the best of both the Mac and PC worlds on one device while you’re working remotely with virtualization. The best part? Parallels Desktop has thousands of supported applications within Microsoft Windows so that every industry can be supported. Plus, a free 14-day trial makes it easy to see if your specific needs are served with a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop. Not to mention, 24/7 support and our 30-day money-back guarantee.
BBEdit
BBEdit has one of the best marketing slogans, “It doesn’t suck.” And the reason why it’s one of the best slogans is that the product rings true and serves a consistent level of quality that is hard to match. While this specific suggestion is more particular to those who need HTML or plain-text editors for macOS, it is powerful because of everything else it can do for you.
BBedit has been crafted to serve the specific needs of writers, devs, and provides endless features for editing. For a power user, the advanced search, manipulation of prose, source code, managing bash data, and textual data is all wrapped up in BBedit. To be clear, BBEdit is not a word processor. However, it can replace several apps on your Mac to become one of the most invaluable macOS apps in your arsenal.
Grammarly
Grammarly is easily in my top five favorite apps of all time. Why? Simply because of the copious amount of time it has saved me during my writing process.
Grammarly is the best writing assistant available that goes much deeper than surface-level grammar to offer you comprehensive feedback on your writing. On the technical side, Grammarly is simply a digital writing tool that uses a combination of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Read: it makes the writing process more comfortable and much less painful.
Communication with Your Friends or Work Team:
Discord
Consider Discord to be my macOS guilty pleasure of choice. While it’s also available for Windows PC, the macOS app is clean. It allows me to connect with friends or coworkers without frustration. Creating my private server or linking to my friend’s server makes everything separate and easy.
Discord lacks the messy UX that most other chat services offer. Sharing your gaming, your work, or whatever you need to share on your screen, is also cleaner than most other communication apps. Not to mention, it’s cheeky copywriting within the app makes me smirk every time I launch the app, making it easy to want to continue to use it.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is the professional-grade communication tool that my team wanted but didn’t know we needed until we had it. The ability to chat, meet, share, call, and collaborate from anywhere as a global team has increased our productivity ten-fold within the first couple of weeks we started utilizing MS Teams.
It’s not just a communication tool, either. Microsoft Teams is robust enough to support calls, workflows, and meets industry-specific compliances such as healthcare or education. With our world evolving to a fully global digital landscape, Microsoft Teams is here to save the day with endless productivity. Microsoft said it best, with Teams you can work remotely without feeling remote – and it rings true through my personal experience.
Mood-Boosting to Keep Your Brain Productive While Working.
Home App On Macos Catalina
Note: While this blog post is explicitly surrounding the topic of productivity while working remotely, it’s imperative to mention the balance that goes behind productivity. Working your brain without breaks for fun is an expressway to burnout. Let’s avoid burnout by taking fun breaks with these following apps:
Spotify
Spotify has always been my music-platform of choice due to release exclusives and social components, but Spotify is a secret weapon to a productive day for several reasons. Firstly, Spotify’s market share is massive, so that you can listen everywhere. From speakers to tv’s, cars, gaming, smartwatches, smart displays, and all the best personal assistants. Secondly, their licensing options are fantastic. Of course, Spotify comes free with ads.
However, if you’re looking to ditch the ads for a distraction-free listening experience, Spotify has several subscription options. Spotify Premium has several levels to the membership: Premium, Premium Family, and Premium Student.
Home App On Macos High Sierra
What are the differences in Spotify Premium memberships?
Spotify Premium:
- Unlimited high-quality streaming access to over 50 million songs.
- Travel abroad with no limitations.
- No ad interruption.
- Unlimited skips.
Premium Family:
- Up to 6 family members who live together
- Each member has their own Individual Premium account, so there’s no need to share login details.
- Plus Family Mix – a playlist based on the tastes of everyone on the plan.
- Plan managers can control explicit music for members.
![Home App On Macos Home App On Macos](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134125637/773426728.jpg)
Premium Student:
- 50% off discount
- Lasts 1 year at a time, with a 4-year limit.
- Available to students at an accredited college/university, verified by SheerID.
- Access to Hulu’s ad-supported plan and SHOWTIME for no extra cost.
Swift Playgrounds
Swift Playgrounds from Apple is an un-matched method to learn how to code. Avira free mac security. While it is available to both Mac and iPad, taking a break from your day to day to build with Swift Playgrounds adds a fun dimension to your overall productivity. It’s perfect for new-to-coding beginners and utilizes gamification to grasp the core basics of Swift – Apple’s powerful programming language.
The best thing about Apple is their curiosity for innovation and Swift Playgrounds continuously releases new integrations such as robotics, LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3, and even augmented reality (AR) to master our real 3D world. Apple is smart and understands as you learn, you’ll want more to play with. Because of this, Apple offers a variety of fun devices to shop.
Yack
Home App On Macos 10.13
Yack hasn’t quite hit the market yet. However, if you sign up for the beta, it’s clear why Yack is a must-have for macOS Redditors. Without opening your web browser, you can explore your favorite Reddit communities from a single elegant desktop app with a unified user interface.
Also, if you spend the day scrolling through YouTube, Yack also allows you to browse YouTube using the same beautiful, intuitive UI you use to browse Reddit. It’s an excellent and refreshing way to take a short break and check in on what’s going on outside your remote working space.
Home App On Macos Mac
The remote workday is envisioned with multiple hurdles of obstacles without any allowance for sanity. macOS users need flexible apps that are easily managed, quickly absorbed, and serves the need of the moment.
The best macOS apps for productivity during remote work should consistently serve the everchanging needs of the digital worker. It is not always easy to craft the best environment for productivity during working remotely. Still, I sincerely hope this list has helped you sort through the hundreds of thousands of macOS apps that are available.
Please, let us know what you think or if you have any suggestions for our list of the best macOS apps for productivity when working from home. Reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments below!