Re: Any tips on creating WinXX icons using The GIMP?
- From: Michael Soibelman <in-the@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:26:53 GMT
Frnak McKenney wrote:
Does anyone have any experience using The GIMP to render images
for creating Windows XXX icon files?
I write software and (on occasion) wield a soldering iron. I make
absolutely no claims to any kind of artistic sense, but I find
myself needing to create a not-overly-ugly WinXX icon file from a
very nice-looking customer logo image (JPEG, about 640x480 pixels).
Don't get me wrong. I do have the mechanics worked out, even if
Visual Studio's icon editor is not all one might hope it to be. I
have already created one really _ugly_ icon file from the logo,
including an assortment of images: 16x16 and 32x32 in 16- and
256-color and 48x48 and 96x96 in 256-color forms.
My problem is that, while the 48x48 and 96x96 images aren't too bad,
the 32x32 image is extremely poor, and the 16x16 might also be some
random bits of memory for all I can tell. (The 16-color versions,
predictably, look even worse).
Are there any good rules for this kind of "compression"? Right now
my process looks something like this (it was late <grin!>):
- Open original image
- Apply Unsharp mask (default settings)
- Scale to (e.g.) 32x32
- Image->Mode->Indexed, 220 colors
- Save as (e.g.) "Icon-32x32x220.bmp"
I tried a couple of variations, but didn't see any significant
results. Are there better ways of approaching the problem?
Or am I simply past the limits of recognizability, to the point
where it becomes a candidate for hand-(re-)drawing the image?
Frank McKenney
--
There are many definitions of what art is, but what I am
convinced art is not is self-expression. If I have an experience,
it is not important because it is mine. It is important because
it's worth writing about for other people, worth sharing with
other people. That is what gives it validity.
-- W. H. Auden
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)
1. Flatten image if there are transparent regions
2. scale image to final icon size (Lancos3 for best results !!)
3. Save with '.ico' extension. This will bring up a save dialog which
allows you to save in several bpp formats..
For more than 1 size use your 'original' image (before resizing !!) to
resize to other sizes (i.e. 32x32, 64x64, etc..) If you resize an image
from one size to another and then resize this already resized image
multiple times you will get degraded results !! Always start with the
original image if resizing to multiple sizes...
When you resize the image you can evaluate the quality of the result BEFORE
you save it as an icon (.ico) file. If it looks bad don't use it ! I
tried to make an icon from a complex image I created and it looks good so
this should work well.
P.S. I am not an artist either though some people disagree with me. What
do they know ??? LOL ;-)
.
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