|  There
is an art to creating icons, and I'll try and give you some
pointers towards creating them. In many cases they can add
a little bit of polish to the programs/media content that
you've created. Typically these files are only 32 pixels
by 32 pixels with 256 colours. Thus we must select a graphic
which does not loose too much of its content when it has
been reduced. Let's say that we want to create a program
icon for the following graphic:
The original graphic is 100 pixels by 141
pixels, so there isn't too much scaling involved. First
the graphic is scaled so that it is square (100 pixels by
100 pixels) and then is reduced to a 32-by-32 pixel format
(this is achieved in Fireworks with Modify->Image Size
and selecting the width as 100 pixels). Finally the image
is saved as a BMP-8 format to give:
The file format is now small enough to be
imported into an icon editor (in this case I've named it
lock.bmp). Next you must use an icon editor, which allows
you to import the BMP file, and then paste it into the icon
file. this case I have used the icon editor in Microsoft
Visual C++:
With a little bit of scaling, the final ICO
file can be created. Finally the icon can then be easily
associated with a program, to give the following:
It is important that you keep your icons simple,
as complex images will loose their resolution when they
are reduced in size.
If you want to view the design files, they
are here:
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