create-dmg

Create a good-lookingDMGfor your macOS app in seconds

Imagine you have finished a macOS app, exported it from Xcode, and now want to distribute it to users. The most common way of distributing an app outside the Mac App Store is by putting it in a.dmgfile. These are hard to create, especially good-looking ones. You can either pay for a GUI app where you have to customize an existing design or you can run some homebrewed Bash script and you still have to design it. This tool does everything for you, so you can play with your 🐈 instead.

This tool is intentionally opinionated and simple. I'm not interested in adding lots of options.

Install

Ensure you haveNode.js18 or later installed. Then run the following:

npm install --global create-dmg

Usage

$ create-dmg --help

Usage
$ create-dmg <app> [destination]

Options
--overwrite Overwrite existing DMG with the same name
--identity=<value> Manually set code signing identity (automatic by default)
--dmg-title=<value> Manually set DMG title (must be <=27 characters) [default: App name]

Examples
$ create-dmg 'Lungo.app'
$ create-dmg 'Lungo.app' Build/Releases

DMG

The DMG requires macOS 10.13 or later and has the filenameApp Name 0.0.0.dmg.For example,Lungo 1.0.0.dmg.

It will try to code sign the DMG, but the DMG is still created and fine even if the code signing fails, for example if you don't have a developer certificate.

Important:Don't forget tonotarize your DMG.

Software license agreement

If eitherlicense.txt,license.rtf,orsla.r(raw SLAResources file) are present in the same directory as the app, it will be added as a software agreement when opening the image. The image will not be mounted unless the user indicates agreement with the license.

/usr/bin/rez(fromCommand Line Tools for Xcode) must be installed.

DMG icon

GraphicsMagickis required to create the custom DMG icon that's based on the app icon and the macOS mounted device icon.

Steps usingHomebrew

brew install graphicsmagick imagemagick

Icon example

Original icon → DMG icon

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