PROS: Simple interface; creates thumbnails from graphics files; good icon-editing tools.
CONS: No text tool.
COMPANY: Dubl-Click Software (503-317-0355).
ﾂ
Icon Mania is a delightful icon-editing utility that comes with terrific tools for building new icons, even if you have no artistic talent all all. Unlike some icon-editing programs, Icon Mania isn't a system extension or control panel; it's a small stand-alone application that makes editing batches of icons easy--and entertaining.
The program's main interface, consisting of three windows, is a model of clarity. The left window displays a library of custom icons; you can create your own libraries or dip into the 730 icons included with the program. The middle window shows the icons on any volumes currently mounted on your Mac. The window on the right is the pasteboard, a storage area where you can paste icons-in-progress or library items you access frequently. To apply an icon to a file, folder, or disk, you simply drag a custom icon--from either the library or pasteboard--onto the icon you want replaced.
The icons that come with the program are outstanding; the majority are colorful, sophisticated, and well designed. (The icons look fine in black and white but are spectacular in color.) You can go wild with icons of space creatures, animals, bugs, Elvis, Ronald Reagan, and the Marx brothers. On a more practical note, there are colorful 3-D versions of popular application icons and folders as well as a set of sharp-looking icons representing floppy disks, hard drives, and removables. Icon Mania also allows you to replace your default system icons with full-color, jazzed-up versions of folder, control panel, Trash Can, and alert icons.
But this isn't just an icon collection; it's an icon editor. Choosing the Edit command--or just double-clicking on an icon in the library or on the pasteboard--opens a window for modifying icons on a pixel-by-pixel basis. You can also create new icons from scratch. A row of Instant Tool buttons allows you to rotate, invert, and flip pieces of your icon designs with a single click. Still, a text tool would make it easier to add letters and numbers to icon designs.
Some of the program's icon-making commands are particularly noteworthy. First, the program lets you merge two different icons into a single new design using Paste Into Icon, a powerful command that enables you to take one icon and superimpose it within the boundaries of a second. Another outstanding feature is the Thumbnail command. Select a graphics file, choose Thumbnail, and Icon Mania builds a custom icon containing a thumbnail of the actual image contained in the file. The command produces great results and works with files in PICT, MacPaint, TIFF, GIF, PICS, EPS, and StartupScreen formats.
Icon Mania won't make you more productive, and it won't make your Mac more powerful. But after seeing how vibrantly Icon Mania can transform a window full of boring, generic folders, you may just decide you can't live without it.--Joseph Schorr
Copyright, Macworld Communications, Inc. 1994
ﾂ
ﾂ
20310 Empire Avenue, Suite A102 窶｢ Bend, OR 97701-5713 窶｢ 503-317-0355 窶｢ FAX 503-317-0430
