Kitsuria Network

Gaming Arena => Gaming and Technology => Topic started by: Manda on Oct 16 2004, 12:11 PM

Title: Creating Windows Icons...
Post by: Manda on Oct 16 2004, 12:11 PM

So, are you tired of the Windows standard icons? Perhaps you want a beach-themed look on your Windows?

Well, you can create your own icons for Windows!

Remember, you need these image formats in your icon:

Truecolor 128x128, 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 (displayed by Windows 2000/ME/XP if screen is truecolor)
256 color 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 (displayed by Windows 9x if screen is 256 colors or more; 2K/ME/XP if screen is 256 or highcolor)
16 color 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 (displayed by Windows if screen is 16 colors (rare))
Monochrome 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 (displayed by Windows if screen is monochrome (rare))

My fave program for creating icons is Microangelo (http://microangelo.us/) (shareware, $49.99).

One tip: 128x128 is only used in XP for thumbnail view, so you can omit this and/or the 16-color/mono formats.

Title: Creating Windows Icons...
Post by: Yerix on Oct 16 2004, 05:37 PM

Mind if you find one that isin't shareware???

Title: Creating Windows Icons...
Post by: Manda on Oct 16 2004, 06:32 PM

http://google.com/ (http://google.com/)

What I personally do:

Start a blank 128x128 32BPP RGBA image in GIMP 2.0 (http://www.gimp.org/), then I create the icon, saving it as a PNG (BMP can't handle transparency, and XCF isn't supported by IrfanView), and then I open it in IrfanView 3.92 (http://www.irfanview.com/), and convert it to .ico format. I then open it with Microangelo, making a 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 true-color image, and then from these images, 256-color and 16-color images (I didn't bother with monochrome format), and then I test it on a shortcut to a file under 16-color, 256-color, high-color, and true-color modes.

Here is an example:

Title: Creating Windows Icons...
Post by: Samui on Oct 16 2004, 06:54 PM

You can download MicroAngelo. I have it, not shareware. You should buy it if you like it, though.  Support the people who make this software, so they can make more.

Title: Creating Windows Icons...
Post by: Manda on Oct 17 2004, 07:20 AM

Microangelo has a nasty bug that crashes the program if you try to create a 48x48 image from a 128x128 image under 95/98FE (not 98SE or higher). To bypass this, update your MSIMG32.DLL file in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\ directory with the one from 98SE.