Extract graphics from application bundles with iPhoto

May 19, '05 10:15:00AM

Contributed by: smyklar

While attempting to drag a new application to my dock, my clumsy mouse movement mistakenly dropped the application icon on top of my docked iPhoto icon instead. I watched with surprise as iPhoto proceeded to launch and scan the application bundle for graphic components, and then successfully import them into its database! Icons, welcome screens. logos, custom interface gadgets and help screens all rapidly imported without a hitch.

At the end of the import, a status window pops up to indicate the number of files not able to be imported (the non-graphic bits), leading me to surmise that this might be an undocumented and perhaps unintended feature. Although not a particularly practical hint, it's an easy way to scan for useful or arcane graphic bits embedded in your programs. Maybe useful for software reviewers?

Discovered with iPhoto v5; I know it doesn't work with v2, but perhaps someone can test iPhoto v4 in a followup (don't have it here).

[robg adds: This is a pretty easy way to find all the graphics in an application bundle, and it even sorts them into albums based on the containing folder name. The dates on the album weren't today's date, though -- it's either the created or modified date of the application (they were the same for the applications I tested this with).]

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