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Tool icons
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 7:48 am
by lightnin
I have a few tool related icons I have made I though I would share if anyone would like them
click here to download them
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 7:44 pm
by holsgo
Very nice. The plane and the Stanley are very cool to me.
Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 11:45 am
by terrydowning
Awesome, the Shopsmith.ico is perfect for my Shopsmith Folder. Really easy to find now. Thanks
Too Icons
Posted: Thu May 17, 2012 10:47 am
by flashbacpt
Thank You! I have been wanting something like this for a while.
FlashbacPT
John
Posted: Sat May 19, 2012 1:58 pm
by lightnin
If you provide the the images I can create the icons as long as it does not become overwhelming.
Keep it tool related.
Don't think because an icon is small you need to start with a small image. Actually bigger is better
up to a point.
Or do it yourself if you have a little image editing experience and a program such as Photoshop.
Photoshop is the most well known for sure but I prefer and use Paint Shop Pro
My current version is Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 I paid about 30 bucks new on eBay.
All hot keys here are for PSP they may all work in Photoshop I don't know
Open your image Select all Ctrl-A, Copy Ctrl-C, Past as new image Crtl-Shift-V
You can close the original picture it's your back up if things go badly.
Now you have a Image to work on and save without changing your original.
Next I use the selection tool select the area I want then crop then Shift-R to crop.
This is a good time to save because next you need to edit the image however you want.
At this point it's best to save as BMP file not JPG even at lowest compression JPG format will
do some averaging where different colors have edges and give you fuzzy edges
Once you have edited it to satisfy your taste resize to 400 pixels the height or the width
whichever is the biggest Shift-S make sure to maintain aspect ratio.
The next step is making transparent areas in the icon if you don't want any transparency skip this
part and just save as a PNG (Portable Network Graphics file)
If you want transparent areas in your icon you will need to follow the next step.
Select all Ctrl-A, Copy Ctrl-C Paste as new layer Ctrl-L Now you have the same image one over the other.
Select the Background layer by clicking on it in your Layers toolbar next fill it in with a color
that contrasts every part of your image I use things like hot pink or bright orange.
Then select the top layer (Layer 1) by clicking on it in the Layer Toolbar
Using your selection tools select areas you want to be transpetent then hit the delete key.
Selection tools
Selection: Draws shapes rectangle is usually the most useful here.
Freehand: Surrounds areas while holding down mouse click.
Magic Wand: Selects connected areas with common values the best match mode to use is Color you will
find that changing the tolerance often will help a lot here. using this tool is why you need the contrasting
background if you delete to much it will be immediately obvious just hit Ctrl-Z to undo.
Sometimes you will have unwanted colors right around the edges when your done I often
fix this with the drop shadow tool Effects, 3D effects, Drop Shadow.
I'm sure all good image editing programs have one.
Horizontal and Vertical off set 0, Opacity 50%, Blur low try 3 at first, Color what ever matches best or
black if there is a lot of different colors to deal with.
Click the transparent area with Magic Wand if there are multiple areas hold down Shift and select more
Then use your Drop Shadow tool.
Ok now your image is beautiful and you love it except for that ugly background so lets get rid of it.
In the layers Toolbar right click the background layer then choose delete say yes it's gone.
Now hit Ctrl-F12, Save as Type choose PNG, Name it, click options, click Run Optimizer,
Under the Transparency tab choose Alpha channel transparency and Existing image or layer transparency.
Click OK and save. The hard part is done now.
OH after thought added You can skip the optimizer and transparency part if you didn't want any transparent areas in your icon.
To convert your PNG to an icon there is a great free website HERE
Sorry about not being a Photoshop user but things must be similar
I think PSP is better and a lot cheaper I haven't used Photoshop in years.
Like I said I'll make them for you...