BarCat Help

What you need

• A Mac with macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
• Apple Silicon or Intel.

Install

BarCat is available as a direct download (DMG) from vodanex.net/barcat. Download the disk image, open it, and drag BarCat to your Applications folder.

Preview in the real menu bar

BarCat pushes each candidate onto a live NSStatusItem, rendered through the same NSImage + isTemplate path the system uses. The menu bar is the only honest place to judge an icon — not a Figma frame or a mock window.

1. Drag a PNG or PDF onto the window — or use File → Open to pick one or more files. Dropping a folder (including an .imageset) loads every image inside, recursively.
2. Your icon appears in the real menu bar, exactly as it will when your app ships.

Compare side by side

Tick several candidates and they all appear together in the menu bar, in order. Drag to reorder, untick to hide one — an instant A/B in the real context.

Light, dark, and pixel zoom

Switch the preview appearance to check your icon against both menu bar modes. Template icons (isTemplate) adapt automatically.

Use the 8× zoom to inspect edges, anti-aliasing, and fine detail before they reach your users.

Sizing

A slider gives fine control, with one-tap presets for the common menu bar point sizes:

• 14, 16, 18 pt (compact)
• 22, 24, 26, 28 pt (standard)

Toggle template image (isTemplate) on or off to test how the system tint affects your design.

Next steps

• Reference — input formats, vectorization, export, and accessibility.

Input formats

• PNG — raster icons, at any resolution.
• PDF — vector icons.
• Folders — drop a directory (including .imageset folders) and BarCat reads every image inside, recursively. You can also multi-select files.

Vectorization

BarCat traces a bitmap into a true vector path, producing a clean PDF that scales without the blur and aliasing raster icons pick up at odd sizes. Tracing runs live through a built-in tracer — no external tools or additional installs are needed.

While tracing, BarCat shows three aligned views:

• Original — your source bitmap.
• Vector — the traced result.
• Overlay — original and vector stacked, to spot where the trace drifts.

Tune the parameters until the overlay is tight, then export.

Export

BarCat exports assets ready to drop straight into an Xcode asset catalog.

Vector → a PDF imageset (the recommended format for template icons — crisp at every size, adapts to the menu bar tint). The .imageset folder contains the vector .pdf and a Contents.json configured for universal scale.

Bitmap → PNG at @1x / @2x / @3x, with Contents.json generated with the correct scale entries.

Batch — select multiple candidates or a whole directory and export them all in one pass. Each icon lands in its own .imageset.

By default, exports go next to the source file (or into a folder you choose). Drag the .imageset into your project’s Assets.xcassets.

Accessibility

BarCat is a native Mac app and supports standard macOS accessibility features, including VoiceOver, Full Keyboard Access, and Dynamic Type where applicable.