How to remove the faux leather in iCal for OS X Lion
Among the many changes to iCal in Apple’s OS X 10.7 Lion is a rather horrible leather effect.
Sometimes dressing up software in this way is useful – it makes it approachable, fun or easier to understand. But in this instance it clashes badly with the rest of OS-X which takes a minimalist approach. The leather-effect is distracting and out of place.
Fortunately, fixing this is fairly simple – just a matter of changing a few graphics files hidden inside your Mac.
What might go wrong
First, a word of warning. Alongside the graphics files you will have access to files that can have a profound effect on iCal. If you follow the instructions you should be fine. But if you accidentally move, rename or delete those files, iCal might stop working properly or you might lose data from your calendar. If you’re the kind of person who accidentally deletes files, don’t try this.
I’m not providing any technical support around this hack. If you choose to try it, it’s entirely your responsibility if you lose any data, waste time, need to re-install iCal or purchase any software or services to fix things.
How to get rid of the leather theme in iCal
You’ll need an administrator password. For most people this is the password they use to log on to their Mac, but if someone else administers your Mac (meaning you’re not allowed to install software and so on) then you’ll have to ask them for help.
- Make sure iCal is closed and that you have a backup of iCal.
You can do that by creating an empty folder on your desktop, selecting iCal and dragging it into the folder whilst holding the ALT key. If you do this, you’ll see a little plus sign in a green bubble when you drag it. Make sure you do it this way, otherwise you won’t copy the iCal properly, you’ll just get an alias. - In your Applications folder, click on your original copy of iCal while holding the CTRL key so you get a pop-up menu and choose ‘Show package contents’.
This lets you see ‘inside’ iCal and look at some of the files it’s built from.
- Open the folder ‘Contents’ and then within that, open the folder ‘Resources’.
Inside, you’ll find the icons and background images which are used to draw iCal on your computer’s screen. - Download ical_lion_silver.zip, open it up in your Finder and Select All.
These are plain grey versions of the background and buttons you will use to replace those that Apple shipped with Lion. - Drag the files into the iCal: Contents: Resources folder.
You will likely have to authenticate this action (i.e. enter your password). You’ll be asked whether you want to ‘Keep both files, Stop or Replace’. Click ‘Apply to all’ and ‘Replace’ then enter your password.
- Close the ‘Resources’ and ‘Contents’ folders if they’re still open, start up iCal and hey-presto! you have a plain silver theme.
And that’s it. Good luck!
(PS I’m not the first, or the only person to do this – MacNix has done the same thing for Address Book and Stu has a choice of red or silver themes at his website.)
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Thanks Giles – this is welcome news!
Any way to change the font color? I can still see the brown/beige hinting around the edges in the top bar… FUGLY.
No I don’t – but I’ll keep looking.
Thank you.
Good! … Thanks!
Excellent! Exactly what I needed. That leather tile definitely looked out of place. thx!
Awesome, much more like it. Don’t understand apple’s thinking with the leather – Thank you!
Great! Much welcomed. Now, if only the calendar box and calendar date numbers could be legible. The light-gray boxes and numbers are nearly invisible on my laptop. Has anyone replaced the calendar date box image using plain vanilla black?
THANK YOU!!!
How many animals had to die for Apple to create the new iCal out of leather? Disgraceful!
it’s lion hide!
Thank you!
Anyone know how to stop the all-events having to be scrolled if there are more than say 5? We use this feature extensively and so far, it’s the only bad thing with Lion.
Can anyone help?
Cheers
Jon
Great! Thank you! Now, can you do the same for AddressBook?
t.lo
excellent, thank-you.
surely apple are going to make this an option.
AHHHH! MUCH BETTER…… :D
Thanks!!!
Has anyone figured out the brown font thing yet… ??
Awesome! Worked like a charm.
Dead simple – thanks for the link
To copy the file from the Dock I had to hold down the Command key while dragging, not the ALT key. When I selected all the new files from the zipped folder and entered my password, the files simply moved over. There was no dialog asking if I wanted to replace the files. The relaunching iCal is unchanged.
Thank God for that! You’re a lifesaver!
Thanks for the instructions – I’ve updated 2 x Macs and it worked perfectly both times. The beige fake leather look is the most hideous thing I have ever seen on a Mac.
Hey, please don’t stab me for it, but is it possible to add the faux leather files to iCal 4 in Snow Leopard? If so, can someone post the files? Thanks, and again, I just have strange tastes in this sort of thing.
Hello,
This is a great tip that unfortunately has not worked for me. Now when I open iCal, though it looks lovely and leather-less, it becomes completely unresponsive after about 5 seconds. Can’t click on anything, can’t even quit it. Have to force quit.
Has anyone else had this problem or have any ideas to fix it?
Thanks.
I guess that’s the reason you started by making a back-up copy…
Good! Very good! One ugly visual removed from my Mac.
I can’t get it to work…it doesn’t say ‘Keep both files, Stop or Replace’. Help!
THank god someone has done this, I cannot believe apple have gone down this route of making their usually awesome UI so bad taste. What next, walnut and velvet curtains for dashboard?
Thanks Giles!
Thank you for this. Now why on earth don’t Apple make it easier by offering a range a ‘themes’ as they used to, allowing users to customise the appearance in iCal preferences? I recall that (once, long ago) Apple used to be rather good at this!
Thanks for this. I hate tacky crap like the leather skin or old brushed metal. I prefer the clean silver look.
The wooden borders on garage band make it hard for me to take it seriously. Apple never played the tacky crap card years ago but they have a few times in the last few years.
I don’t like the leather design either.
It does look better in fullscreen mode, however. In fullscreen, the leather border becomes much narrower, and on my widescreen monitor, the calendar looks kind of like one of those big old “month at a glance” desktop blotter calendars that people kept on their desks in the old days (20 years ago).
I think that’s what Apple was going for — not that that was a good choice :-)
Thanx for getting rid of the brownie….. Has anybody found a way to change the font colors back to the same colors as the calendar color ?
thanks ! my eyes were bleeding ! ouch Apple is really on a bad way
got it ..thanks
thanks! worked like a charm
worked great thanks (: the only thing I’d like to do now is stop that annoying page flip when I want to quickly flick through the months – ridiculously over the top animation!
THANK YOU! That is a relief – For a while there I thought I was stuck in a world of fake Louis Vuitton.
Thank you!
Thank you! Tried it and it worked great. I also tried using a tropical themed png file from Firefox but cannot seem to get the sizing right. Do you have any idea how to utilize a themed type graphic like that on the header in Firefox for Windows?
What a Relief !
Thank you so much
I truly appreciate your support.
that is so much better, thanks for an easy fix.
Thanks! I couldn’t believe my eyes when the need for iCloud sync forced me to “upgrade” to Lion. It’s unfathomable that the fake leather design of iCal and Address book could slip past whatever control mechanisms there are at Apples interface design department.
Apple was once a leader in user interface design (both in terms of usability and graphic design). This however I can’t find words for. I’m shaken and very very disappointed.
Thank you. What a relief!
Is it possible to communicate to Apple what a profoundly naff design that false leather calendar thing is? How can a company whose whole success is built on cool, minimalist design allow something like that to be put out as part of its newest OS?
Now to deal with Address Book!
Phew! Couldn’t bear to look at the faux leather. Thanks for a great tip.
Worked like a charm! Love the sew silver look!
God I’d never believe Apple would make anything this ugly – ugly ugly leather-look-a-like.
Worked very nicely – thank you. Now if I can just change the Address Book back to how it used to be… Gotta love progress!! ;-)
Thanks Giles. I knew I could rely on you.
This is a really great article on the subject of why Apple’s hardware is so fantastic and it’s UI is going backwards
http://madebymany.com/blog/apples-aesthetic-dichotomy
genial muchas gracias
Gee, thanks loads!!! What a relief that was horrible!!! Now I want to change the calendar!!! I sure hope Apple doesn’t go on with this kind of stuff!!!!!! Thanks, Elvi
I changed both the calendar and the address book and I’m soooo relieved!!!!! Thanks loads!!!!
Thanks very much – it worked like magic. Naturally it required a restart to take affect, but that’s common sense.
Would it be as easy to change the iCal gridlines and text to make it more visible (darker)?
Thanks again.
Probably not so straightforward – not something I’ve looked into, to be honest.
Thanks!! That was quick and easy.
fantastic…thank you.
Hey, I forgot to make a backup :S I know it’s stupid but now I want to change it back… Any way of doing it without reinstaling lion?
Thank you. It looks great.
It worked fine, so far, but, it didn’t change it in iCloud, which is what I use. Is there a fix for this?
Thanks
Thank you. I can start using Ical again.
Just curious – is there a way to restore the old look if you want to?