macOS app icon has opaque dark background (no transparency)

[Eddie0521]

Describe the bug

The Lanes app icon on macOS displays with a dark/black square background instead of the standard rounded-rect macOS appearance. This is visible in the Dock, Launchpad, and Finder.

Root cause

The app bundle's primary icon file (Lanes.app/Contents/Resources/icon.icns) has no alpha transparency. 100% of pixels have alpha=255 (fully opaque), and the background is filled with a solid near-black color rgb(18, 18, 20) — 73.7% of all pixels are this background fill.

macOS expects app icons to have transparent backgrounds so the system can apply its own rounded-corner mask and drop shadow. An opaque background causes the icon to render as a dark square.

Evidence

Extracted from Lanes.app.tar.gz (v0.41.8):

File	Alpha channel	Background	Corners
Resources/icon.icns	❌ All 255 (opaque)	Solid rgb(18,18,20) — 73.7% of pixels	Opaque dark
Resources/icons/icon-rounded.icns	✅ 0–255 (transparent)	49.7% fully transparent	Transparent

=== icon.icns (in use) ===
Alpha range: 255–255 (fully opaque)
Background pixels (rgb(18,18,20)): 193,217 / 262,144 (73.7%)

=== icons/icon-rounded.icns (correct, unused) ===
Alpha range: 0–255
Fully transparent pixels: 130,222 / 262,144 (49.7%)

The Info.plist references CFBundleIconFile → icon.icns. Interestingly, a correctly-transparent version (icons/icon-rounded.icns) already exists in the bundle but is not used.

Suggested fix

Option A: Change Info.plist to reference icons/icon-rounded.icns:

<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
<string>icons/icon-rounded.icns</string>

Option B: Regenerate icon.icns from source with proper transparency (ensure the icon export pipeline strips the background fill and preserves the alpha channel).

[sqave]

Thanks for sharing! We’ll have a look. Could you confirm which Lanes version you’re using? You can find it by clicking Local Private in the side menu.