Not a fan of the new look that iCal and Address Book are sporting? The following guide will show you how to revert to the ‘aluminum’ look for iCal, which is more consistant with the rest of OS X.
Before
After
- Make sure to quit iCal if it’s open.
- Note: this step is important. Start out by making a back-up of your current iCal. Locate iCal in your Applications folder, ‘right-click’ (ctrl + click) it, and select Compress “iCall.app”
- Now you’ll see an iCal .zip file in your Applications list. Select it, hold down the command (Apple) key, and drag it to your Documents folder (or any other folder you want to store the back-up of iCal).
- Download this .zip file and open it (doesn’t matter where).
- Back in your Applications folder, ‘right-click’ (ctrl + click) iCal again, and this time select Show Package Contents.
- Select the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
- In another Finder window, locate the zip file you downloaded and extracted back in step #3. Select all the files from that folder.
- Drag them from that folder, to the Resources folder. You’ll receive a message stating that the files cannot be copied – click the Authenticate button.
- When the Copy window appears, place a check in the box labeled Apply to All, and click the Replace button.
- Enter your password when prompted.
- Now open iCall. You’ll see that it has a much better ‘aluminum’ look that fits in with the other OS X apps.
- When iCal updates, it’s very likely that it will revert back to the previous ‘leather’ style. You’ll need to repeat the steps in this tutorial to get the aluminum style back.
- If you ever have issues, remember that you have the backup copy of iCal as a .zip file. Use it if needed!
- Thanks to macnix for creating all the necessary files!
Thanks!
Faux leather – what were they thinking? And thank you so much, it works perfect.
Anyone knows how to set the font to silver/graphite style?
Many Thanks much more Adult than the Childish Leather
Thanks a lot! Looks much better… :)
Thank you Ross. It now works perfectly.
Thank you very much.
Amanda and Lieke –
I’ve updated the tutorial so that the .zip files are now hosted here on Simple Help – so the link will work now. Thanks!!!
same here, file no longer available? would be great to have it because this ‘leather look’ doesn’t make my eyes happy…thanks!
tried to follow instructions but zip file no longer available.
Thank you for the instructions.
awesome! the new default chrome on ical (& address book) show a remarkable lack of taste on the part of certain apple product managers. i’m surprised jobs allows them to create this ugliness. thanks for the fix.
Hi! Thanks I just installed your skin! What was apple thinking. I don’t understand the new iCloud logo either.
There’s one more ‘problem’ though. In iCal, the font of ‘Day Week Month Year’ ‘Timezone’ and ‘iCal’ are still kinda brown/ yellowish.
Do you know a way to change this?