Creator Signatures

    The creator signature (or just "creator") attribute of a file is unique to the Macintosh file system.

    A file's creator signature:
    is always a four-byte (character) code such as 'FBud'.
    Even creator signatures that appear to contain less than four characters when displayed actually have four.
    Most creator signatures consist of four normal printing characters, but this is not required.
    is not visible without the use of a utility such as File Buddy, ResEdit, or other program.
    can be changed by a program such as File Buddy, most often to change the application used to open the file from the Finder. Files downloaded from the web, received via e-mail, or copied from a non-Mac computer may not have their creators set correctly and hence fail to open when double-clicked.

    When set correctly, a file's creator signature:
    is used by the Finder to determine what application should open the file when the file is opened from the Finder.
    is used in conjunction with the file's type to determine what icon should be displayed in the Finder.

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