Can I easily create an icon with Xara? - or should I just give up?

**jpdp** · 01 December 2010, 12:00 AM

I like using Xara, but I need to create some icons for our applications.
I thought it would be easy, but when you need to create a 16x16 icon, it seems that it can't be done.
I have had to revert to a bitmap editor, which is hard to use.

**zaphodeist** · 01 December 2010, 01:04 AM

You can save to png then use icofx and save to .ico ... is that what you want?

**gwpriester** · 01 December 2010, 01:13 AM

I use icofx and it works very well. But keep in mind that 16 pixels is not a lot to work with.

But check out the favicon for this site It did an excellent job of reducing the fire department symbol.

**gracehjs** · 01 December 2010, 03:49 AM

Do you have any tips that help in creating something so small.

**James Allen** · 01 December 2010, 07:15 AM

Originally Posted by gracehjs

Do you have any tips that help in creating something so small.

I think John's suggestion of downloading icofx is a good idea, and I found this page from 2006 with some handy hints and suggestions:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthre...in-Xara-X-Tips

**gracehjs** · 01 December 2010, 04:12 PM

I was thinking more along the line of making it in XDP6 and then converting it to an icon in icifx. Is this not recommended?

**zaphodeist** · 01 December 2010, 04:15 PM

That's what I meant in my post

**amoore** · 01 December 2010, 04:56 PM

I make the icons for our software in XDP6 and then convert using Axialis (not free). Works find. AFAIK, it should work just as well using icofix.

Note that, as Gary said, 16x16 pixels isn't much to work with. I generally start with 48x48 or 32x32, then create a copy at 16x16 and export that as a png to import into the icon app.

**ad1066** · 01 December 2010, 05:28 PM

I would recommend setting the screen units to Pixels, and make sure that your lines/objects line up on whole pixels. It will make for far less headaches when reducing the resulting bitmap/png/whatever.

-- Ben

**haakoo** · 01 December 2010, 06:47 PM

Create box 160x160 pix
zoom in>create the image(use a minimum amount of colors/shapes)
zoom to 100% to see if it's great,if not,alter it
>Reduce the boxed image to 16x16 or 32x32 pix(whatever you want)
>export as gif
download xnView(freeware) http://www.xnview.com
open the gif in xnview>batch-convert save as .ico

done

Hans