Where is the dock background image located in OSX?

Question

Just so you know, I have seen the other similar posts, like this.

Anyway, do you know where the background image is located in OSX Mountain Lion? Or at least a way to change the dock background image and/or color WITHOUT a third party application?

In all of the other posts like this, people have suggested things like CandyBar, but I need a solution without that.

Answer 1

Parts of the Dock background (at least the "plain" one mentioned in the linked question) are stored in separate files with all other Dock resources in /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources.

If your Dock is on the left, check out the image files whose names start with left, the separator between applications and documents is in the files with names starting with separator, etc.

Unfortunately, it appears that the yellow area is the extend of what can be changed by editing these files.

There doesn't seem to be a "center" image. Some people even resort to patching the actual Dock program (you should have a backup before doing this, just in case), as the color information now seems to be part of the Dock's code.

Answer 2

Mountain lion renders the dock through code; it no longer uses .PNGs to render it.

As of now the only way I have found to change the color of the Mountain Lion dock is to use dockmod which is an app that costs 8 dollars.

I like having a darker dock but seeing as it is August and mavericks is supposed to be out in the fall, I am not sure if its a good idea paying for multiple licenses to modify the docks on my two macs.