Contents
Icon Editor

Contents

Have you ever wanted to customize your Windows desktop?  Sure, we all have...  but what if you want to go beyond selecting wallpapers and color schemes to venture into the no person's land of the icon?  Admittedly, the Program Manager will let you freely associate existing icons in EXE, DLL, and ICO files with a program item, but you must already have the file which contains the icons.  You cannot easily create an icon for your desktop the way Paintbrush allows you to create bitmaps for your wallpaper because Windows is not packaged with a utility that creates or edits an icon.  Fear not! In your hands lies the solution to your desktop customization problems.  Icon Editor will allow you to create and edit ICO format icons which the Program Manager can attach to your program items.

Opening, Creating, and Saving

Editing

Toolbars


Opening, Creating, and Saving

Opening:  You may open any icon saved in an .ICO file by either selecting the Open Folder tool from the toolbar or the open menu item from the file menu.

Creating:  To create a new blank icon, either click on the New Document tool from the toolbar or select the new menu item from the file menu.

Saving:  To save a work in progress you may either click on the Save Document tool from the toolbar or select the Save or Save as menu items from the file menu.


Editing

Once an icon has been created or opened, you may modify it by either drawing colored pixels on it or erasing pixels from the icon.

Drawing:  To draw on an icon, select the Draw Tool from the toolbar and a color from the available colors then click on the larger version of the icon being edited.  You may drag the cursor around on the icon while holding the button to draw free-hand.  When you release the button, the smaller icon (the actual size icon) will be updated to allow a preview of the icon.

Erasing:  To erase pixels from an icon, click on the erase tool and erase pixels in the same way that you draw pixels.  Any erased pixel will appear as a black pixel with an x on it.  Any erased pixel will not appear in the icon being edited when it is used on your desktop. Instead, you will see through this pixel to view whatever is under the icon.


Toolbars

The following are (in order) the tools on their respective toolbars.

Program Tools:

New - Creates a new icon

Open - Opens an existing ICO file

Save - Saves a work in progress

Program Help - Help for Icon Editor

Draw Tools:

Draw - Draws colored pixels

Erase - Creates transparent pixels

Dot Grid - Overlays the icon with dots

Line Grid - Overlays the icon with lines

No Grid - Leaves icon blank

Color Tools

Colors - Contains the available colors for editing