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Greetings,
does anybody have an idea how people come up with sometimes pretty descent looking pictures with only the size 32x32 and 256 colors ?
I spent a lot of hours today trying to create a new icon for a piece of software I am developing. When I look at some icons companies like M$ create I am simply amazed.
Let me show you what I came up with after some time. The leftmost is the current icon I use (it is from the Hemera CD that came with CorelXara 2 from i/us so nothing I created at all). For the next version I would like a new icon. Any feedback would be appreciated.
One of the really naughty problems is that I need the same in 16x16 as well.
juergen
http://herling.com/pictures/no0815l.jpg
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Greetings,
does anybody have an idea how people come up with sometimes pretty descent looking pictures with only the size 32x32 and 256 colors ?
I spent a lot of hours today trying to create a new icon for a piece of software I am developing. When I look at some icons companies like M$ create I am simply amazed.
Let me show you what I came up with after some time. The leftmost is the current icon I use (it is from the Hemera CD that came with CorelXara 2 from i/us so nothing I created at all). For the next version I would like a new icon. Any feedback would be appreciated.
One of the really naughty problems is that I need the same in 16x16 as well.
juergen
http://herling.com/pictures/no0815l.jpg
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Here are 2 programs that create icons from palleted artwork. They're pretty straight forward too.
They have a trial download period.
Iconforge here.... www.cursorarts.com
Microangelo here .... http://www.impactsoft.com/products/products.htm
Hope this helps, Wayne
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Hi Juergen,
Wayne mentioned two of the popular programs for making icons. I tried both trial programs and then bought the Microangelo. The best results seem to be in designing an icon at the 64 x 64 maximum colour option. Then select copy to new format (32 x 32). This retains the original colours and detail. You can then copy the 32 x 32 to a 16 x 16 size and get something that can then be hand edited to resemble the original. The best 16 x 16 images are created by selecting a 16 x 16 pixel portion of the 32 x 32 icon.
Soquili [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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You can create icons in XaraX too! Create the image and then export down to BMP at the desired size.
www.thelondonhouse.co.uk
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There is also Sean Sedwards BMP2ICO program in the Xaraxone Shareware area.
I too have recently been working on icons and designing down to 16x16 is a *****. Anyone have any tips for designing something that is actually recognizable at that size?
Mickie
"My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance."
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for the feedback.
Microangelo seems to be a pretty sophisticated package.
Simon: thats what I do right now. I design the pictures in Xara, export to .bmp and change them to .ico files inside my development package.
Mickie: that my biggest problem here as well which probably wont be resolved by ANY software sufficiently.
juergen
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Hello People
I've recently been looking into icons, simply because I spotted someone at work had changed the default Windows 95/98 icons to either Mac OSX or Windows XP ones.
It is hard to describe how the simple act of changing something you have stared at for the last years makes the OS feel. Anyway I digress as usual.
In the 32x32 icons sometimes there is a nice surround to the focal point of the icon (example the document around the W for Word Icons). In the 16x16 the surround is gone leaving just the focal point, the W.
In some cases this might be the best way to tackle the problem. Use the Big Icon to define what is meant and the 16x16 icon as reference to the big icon.
Peter
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Don't forget that BMP-2-ICO allows you to create bitmap copies in X and paste them without actually creating a bmp file.
Following a specific request, I've recently created a version which stays on top and is extra compatible with NT4. I'm happy to make it available in the Shareware Xone if anybody's interested. Please let me know.
I don't think there's an easy way of getting 16 x 16 icons to look right. It's probably best to start by exporting a bitmap (copy) from X, but it's usually possible to improve the appearance by hand tweaking in a pixel app. X's anti-aliasing can make the image too diffuse, so it might be better to turn it off for this size.
Don't forget that a 24-bit 16 x 16 icon is 894 bytes, 512 bytes _smaller_ than an 8-bit version (1406 bytes). You might be able to get away with a 4-bit icon at this size (just 318 bytes), remembering that you don't have to limit yourself to the system colours, as some programs make you.
Regards - Sean
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...to a Win NT 4 version.
Sean, I tried your BMP-2-ICO app, but it always crashed in NT - I never could figure out the reason. Sooooo, if you have a version for NT and W2K, I would love to have it.
Thanx in advance,
jens
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I can recommend Sean's NT version of Bmp2Ico - its terrific.
But the problem is worse than just 16x16 bits - the lowest common denominator here is 4 bit colour depth. The default windows setting for icon display is for just 16 colours; you have to go to Control Panel|Display|Effects and tick the box for "Show icons using all possible colours" to see them in glowing 8/24 bit technicolour. The chances are most users will either not know about this or will not have bothered to change it. I am aware of this because having created a very nice bitmap in 256 colours and converted it to an icon with Sean's program, I then tested the program on a friend's PC to discover that my lovingly created icon was displayed as a splodgy mess - the answer of course was that I was seeing it in 4 bit colour for the first time - moral create icons in both 256 and 16 colour versions as well as the array of various size options. Windows in 4 bit icon display mode will just choose the nearest available colour - the chances are this will not be what you intended.
Here is a palette file I use which contains just the 16 system colours. If you copy it to the Xara X palette directory it will appear in the colour gallery next time you start up Xara X.
Brian
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The feature that makes BMP-2-ICO crash on NT4 (but not Win2K) is the facility to change the number of desktop colours. Can all versions of NT4 set these colours independently? If so, I needn't bother trying to re-implement the feature.
Regards - Sean
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Brian,
your post made me sweat .....
all who use my software must be pretty polite or use their systems showing all colors.
I just removed that little flag and saw the icon of my program in 16 colors (blush)...
(Ross if you read that look at that horrible thingie on your screen [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img](
Guess its time to design a nice icon quickly.
Juergen
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Sean,
I use NT4 Sp6a and the option to change the Icon display colour depth is in "Start|Settings|Control Panel|Display|Plus!" where the option is to choose "show icons in all possible colours" or not.
Brian
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Sean,
looks like that. I can change the icon color in NT 4 SP 5 as well - on my machines it's always turned on.
Does it help? Do I have to turn it off to make BMP-2-ICO work?
jens
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Rather than make you wait for a new one, here's the NT4 version of BMP-2-ICO which stays on top. Anybody that likes the 'stay on top' feature can use it on other platforms too. The only thing it lacks is the ability to change the number of colours the desktop uses, but that seems to be available separately anyway.
Regards - Sean
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I can't contribute much to this thread except with regards to Juergen's maple leaf icons that reside on my desktop and its toolbar. They of course are shortcuts to Juergen's excellent program named Topics.
I like the leaf and find it pleasantly distinctive. I do find it looks small relative to my other shortcuts. If the long leafstem were reduced or eliminated, I presume that you could get a significantly larger leaf in the same icon size. IMHO I think you should just make them larger and forget adding the line around the icon.
Regards, Ross
<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>
