"For the longest time I was limited to only having the icons I could create artistically or existing icons I could reuse in my windows apps. I don’t know about you, but I am not artistic enough to make good icons from scratch. This article describes how to use Visual Studio and MS Paint to create icons for your windows app starting with an existing bitmap....
Background
I was creating a new windows app and I was faced again with having the default icon on the app. I had a little time on my hands and decided to try to make a new icon file from an existing bitmap file. I figured there may be a few other programmers out there that would like to know what I learned. ..."
I'm pretty a lamer when it comes to graphics... Reuse is my watchword. I do "okay" when it comes to compositing images, but starting from scratch is pretty much beyond me.
Also I've found "flash" is king. If your app doesn't look cool, it's not cool. Doesn't matter how uber-bitch'n it REALLY is, the user's first impression will be how it looks. Getting beyond that first impression takes time. Time that senior management or causal users don't usually put into using the app...
So I've started working toward having all my apps look at least semi-cool, to the best of my ability. No more FUBLY (FUnction But ugLY) UI's. But given my graphic ability sucks, well I need all the help I can get.
The above post is the kind of help I need. Simple ways to help me work around my personal challenges and toward Official App Coolness...
I like web based ICO generators that automate the scaling / conversion / multi-size stuff. This one's pretty good for both favico and desktop icons:
ReplyDeletehttp://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/
Oh yeah, that SO rocks.
ReplyDeleteGreat tip, thanks.