“Aqua offers a photo-illustrative icon style—it approaches the realism of photography but uses the features of illustrations to convey a lot of information in a small space. Icons can be represented in 512 x 512 pixels to allow ample room for detail. Anti-aliasing makes curves and nonrectilinear lines possible. Alpha channels and translucency allow for complex shading and dimensionality. All of these qualities allow you to create lush, vibrant icons that capture the user’s attention.”
That’s what Apple says in the Human Interface Guidelines document about icons. Icons are a great way to convey information about the application you’re using and give you some eye-candy at the same time. In this roundup I’ve collected 50+ of the most beautiful, well-designed icons of 3rd party apps for Mac OS X. Do you know more? Feel free to share them in the comments.
Enjoy! 
#1
That's what Daniel said 9 months ago:
I think you’re missing one of my favorite, that definitely belongs up there:
Espresso.
Good list though, thanks.
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#2
That's what Design Informer said 9 months ago:
These are great! Very high quality.
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#3
That's what HBB said 9 months ago:
Where, where can i download them, these high resolution icons?
i love them so much.
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Henry Bennett Reply:
November 26th, 2009
@HBB, Just drag those ones above straight on to your desktop…
…or to view awesome high quality icons of the apps you have, the best way to do that I think is to click on the app in the Finder, copy it, then open Preview. In Preview, go File > New From Clipboard. Yay awesomely huge icons.
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#4
That's what Henry Bennett said 9 months ago:
Wow all so amazing… I just can’t get enough of awesomely designed logos with such great detail!
Thanks for the great collection.
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#6
That's what Design Ideas said 9 months ago:
Some fo icons in zoom looking not well
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#7
That's what Robert said 9 months ago:
wow! Nice illustrations.
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#8
That's what Richard Cordle said 9 months ago:
Hi, I work for Walker Media Ltd, the media agency for KFC in the UK. If possible I’d like to use one of the images above in a campaign we are running for KFC – we are actually giving away Flip Video cameras a prize for people who enter the competition. Any objections to me using the image of the video with the camera in front?
Thanks
Richard
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Daniel Reply:
November 27th, 2009
@Richard Cordle, He does not own these. Contact the developers of the applications.
I assume you mean this one, http://www.riverfold.com/software/clipstart/
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Manton Reece Reply:
December 15th, 2009
@Richard, glad to hear you like the Clipstart icon (I’m the developer). Daniel’s right, I’d appreciate it if you contact me directly if you have any questions. I’m sure I speak for the developers and artists behind all of these icons in saying that they shouldn’t be used in a media campaign without permission. Thanks!
And thanks to MacStories for putting together such a great list of icons. Some of my favorite apps are on there.
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#11
That's what Wellington Grey said 9 months ago:
On of the best, most high quality collection of icons I’ve ever seen. Well done, sir.
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