DockArt

Eye-Candy for iTunes in Mac OS X

** New Version 1.2.1 **

About DockArt

So I was reading Usenet on the morning of March 9 and saw someone ask if anyone knew of a program that would display the cover art for the current iTunes track in the dock. He had looked at a couple of things that were close to what he wanted, but they all fell short in some way. I thought it might be a fun project. Here's the result. It's fairly small and very focussed.

Installation

Copy DockArtPlugin.bundle to ~/Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-Ins. If iTunes is running, stop and restart it. You'll see an entry named DockArt added to iTunes' Visualizer menu, but you don't have to select it. Any time you play a song that has cover art, it will replace the iTunes icon in your dock. When nothing is playing, or whatever is playing has no art, the normal iTunes icon will appear.

DockArt has a settings dialog that will be displayed if you select DockArt as your active visualizer and then choose the Visualizer Options command (which has moved a few times in iTunes' history).

Skew Art In Dock

Check this box to tilt the dock tile a bit so it fits in more with the feel of many other application icons.

Show Unread Podcasts

Check this box to display a badge in the upper-right corner showing the number of podcasts that have not been listened to.

Show iTunes Badge

Check this box to use the original iTunes icon as a badge on the dock image to help remind you what that picture actually is. You can use the slider to adjust the size of the badge. I think it looks best in conjunction with the skewing option.

External Art

If DockArt does not find artwork embedded in the current music file, it will look for an image file with this name in the folder that contains that music file. If you have opted to keep, for example, a single JPEG file in the directory iTunes maintains for each album to reduce space consumption, just enter the name you use for that artwork here. At the moment, this function only supports a single file name. I'll probably get around to supporting "any image in the song's folder" in v1.2, at the same time as I add support for multiple embedded images.

Display Art On Desktop

Check this box to display the art on the desktop as well as in the dock. It may not be pretty; it's not distorted but the OS will scale it to fill your screen.

Download alternative podcast badges here.

DockArt requires iTunes 4.1 or higher and at least version 6.4 of QuickTime.

License

The DockArt package was released as freeware and remains so. It was a quick, fun project that someone else inspired. That said, its development has consumed some significant time and, as those who've contacted me know, it's well supported. If you use DockArt - and possibly even find it useful - please consider making a charitable donation to Fidelco.

Someone who feels compelled to give me money might want to check out my trash automation utility, Compost.

Credits

• Originally suggested by someone on Usenet going by the name of jere7my tho?rpe.
• Plug-In image type problem reported by and fixed with the help of Brian Sommers.
• Desktop display requested by David Glover.

Feedback

Download version 1.2.1 now.

Home Page Downloads

Last Update: 2007-06-21 (Release of 1.2.1)