This file was created to provide some useful tips on how to use IconArt and to explain some of its little quirks. This is my small attempt to reduce the number of help emails; if anyone has any suggestions of other stuff that should appear here, please do not hesitate to let me know.
-Alex@ConWare.org
::Content::
-Min Sys. Spec. For Icon Art
-Note on actually drawing icons
-Colour Depth
-Changes To the Way 8 Bit Icons Are Saved
-32 Bit Icons Explained
-Cursors
-Animated Cursors
-Bug Fix - Colour Counting
-Gradient Function
-Potential TODO List
::Min Sys. Spec. For Icon Art::
-Win 98 or above (not tested on 95, but may work).
-Reasonable processor - I tested it on a Pentium 2 400MHz and did not see any problems.
-A few MB of HD space (so little that you won't notice).
-800x600 screen resolution min, or the main window will not fit on the screen. 1024x768 preferred.
-System colour depth of 24 Bit (32 Bit preferred).
-Good, clean mouse (graphics tablet makes it easier to draw).
-Some inspiration.
::Note on actually drawing icons::
Many people will think the drawing tools provided in IconArt are pitifully basic - and they will be right.
The first reason for this is that they are only really provided for touch-up work, the best way to use IconArt is to draw the icon in another graphics package (I tend to use Photoshop Elements) and then import the image into IconArt by taking a screen shot (press Print Screen to capture the screen to the clipboard) and then use the import from clipboard item in the file menu.
The second reason is that I did not want to spend ages creating complex drawing tools when there are so many other programs that do the job much better.
::Colour Depth::
When a colour depth is selected in IconArt, it will NOT have any effect on the way that icon is edited. Instead the change will only take effect when that file is saved, and even then the change may not be reflected in the editor until the icon is reloaded.
It would have been possible to design the program to convert the icon every time a new colour depth is selected, but I decided against for the sake of simplicity. If you want to see the result before you save the file, then you can use the conversion functions in the Icon menu.
You can use the Icon Consistency Scan under the file menu to check for colour depth errors in your icon before saving.
The Different colour depths are:
1 Bit - this is very simple: each pixel can be either black or white with out exception. This is never really used for icons, but may be needed for cursors as it will greatly save on file size if your cursor has only these two colours.
4 Bit - this will save the icon using the standard 16 colour palette (alias QBasicColor). If there are any other than these colours, then the image will be converted. Expect some ghastly results.
8 Bit - The most commonly used depth as the palette it is saved with is specific to the icon: i.e. IconArt will go through every pixel in the image, and use the first 256 different colours that it finds. To prevent distortion, use the colour count function to make sure the count does no exceed 256 before saving.
24 Bit - At this level no palette is used, but instead every pixel is saved exactly as it appears on the screen. There will never be any loss of colour information.
::Changes To The Way 8 Bit Icons Are Saved::
I thought it important to point out that saving in 256 colours no longer forces the WebSafe palette - see above.
::32 Bit Icons Explained::
A 32 Bit icon is a 24 bit colour image with an 8 Bit alpha (transparency) channel. XP uses this to have icons with shadows. IconArt does not support these, but if any one knows how to support them in VB6, your help would be appreciated.
::Cursors::
All cursors must be 32x32 pixels, but can be any colour depth. The hotspot is the point on the cursor where the icon actually "clicks".
::Animated Cursors::
When saving, the colour depth for the cursor is determined by the depth of the first frame; and warning will be displayed if the frames have different colour depths.
When loading a cursor file, the hotspot and colour depth is assumed to be the same for all frames, and therefore loaded from the first frame only.
::Bug Fix - Colour Counting::
The bug that made IconArt appear to freeze when counting icons with lots of colours (> 500) has been fixed. It now gives up after 256 and just displays "256+".
A full colour count of each frame can be done by useing Icon Consistency Scan under the file menu.
::Gradient Function
The gradient function draws a gradient between the two active colours. To set the first colour, left-click in the palette in the normal way. To set the second colour, right-click in the palette. If the selection tool is selected then the gradient will be drawn in the selection box, otherwise the whole icon will be covered.
