Make Google Chrome Extension Icons Black and White

Hi all,

I just implemented my first Hazel rule recently and I was very happy with the results. Hazel is so useful. Anyway, the basic story is that I prefer using Chrome over Safari (for various off-topic reasons), but I just can't stand seeing a colorful row of icons in Chrome's toolbar. I really like the way Safari forces Extension makers to have monochrome icons.

So using Hazel and an Automator workflow I was able to come up with a way to make Google Chrome's Extension icons monochrome, and to keep them that way for good, even if the extension receives an update.

Basically I use Hazel to monitor this folder and it's subfolders:

Code: Select all: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions

Then when Hazel finds a 19 by 19 pixel PNG (the specification for Chrome extension toolbar icons), it sends it to an Automator workflow to desaturate the image.

Here's the detailed step by step tutorial:
http://www.cloverfield.com.au/black-and-white-extension-icons-in-chrome/

I hope somebody finds it a worthy contribution to this fine forum.

As someone who also hates colored icons - this is a great hint. Thanks!

Ooh, thanks for this!

Actually, I was stoked for this but it looks like it's not taking. I did a Spotlight search in the Extensions folder (and I also tried going up two levels to just the Chrome folder) you point to for .png files with a pixel count of 361 (also tried just a height of 19) and it looks like it's finding some but not all of the extensions I have up in the toolbar. Do you know if there's a different location where they may be stored? Or might there be a different size for some of them?

Thanks!

Leefer,

I also tried to get this working without total success. It doesn't look like toolbar icons are standardized on one particular size anymore or the standard size just isn't adhered to. I'm not even sure if they were all png files for that matter.

After quite a bit of messing around inside the Chrome extension files I couldn't find any consistent attribute to base the rules on and gave up for now.

I am considering isolating each extension's toolbar icon (which will take a fair bit of work) and then creating my own replacement icons. Then I'd setup a new rule for each individual extension's icon and have Hazel replace update icons with my own.

The upside is that I could do a more standardized job of matching the style, not just desaturating the icons but the downside is that it's going to take a while and would really suck if you change your extensions often.

Ah… yeah, bummer. You poked around more than I did and it sounds like, well… it's just not worth the effort.