How can I get the actual image of an image file in OS X?

Question

When I use iconForFile: in NSWorkSpace class, I get the default Mac image file icon.

However, I would like to get the actual image that are previewed on the desktop.
How can I go about this?

Answer 1

[[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filename]

Answer 2

If you want the contents of the image file, use [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:filename] as in Wil's answer.

If you want the way the image file appears in the Finder — a preview of the image file's contents formatted as an icon — you'll need to talk to the QuickLook framework. Call QLThumbnailImageCreate and pass an options dictionary containing YES for the kQLThumbnailOptionIconModeKey key.