Digital Workshop

Spent ages creating a nice icon - however, when I publish, Opus turns my nicely defined icon into a piece of pixellated rubbish.

Any ideas?

Have attached (I hope) a section of screen dump shwing Opus on left and my original on right.

John

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

We have received no other reports of this problem, but it looks as though the colour depth of the icon is being reduced, and the soft blue drop-shadow is being shifted to the white end of the spectrum.

Could you possibly provide me with your original .ico file so that I can try to reproduce this issue on our test machines?

Kind regards,

Hi Robin,

Thanks. Icon attached.

Created a new icon, and re-published the app just to check, but got same degradation.

By the way, is there any obvious reason why sometimes I can see attachments and 'vote now' items in the forums, but other times it's as if they don't exist?

John

Umm - Forum won't let me attach a .ico. I'll send it direct via email.

I believe you have to be logged in to see everything. At least that's how it works for me. It was a mystery to me too. I would see posts that said "take a look at the attached..." and not see it. But when I log-in, I can see everything. I'll bet that is your issue as well.

Yes, you are correct.

Logging in or not being logged in seems to be the key.

Not convinced such a restriction is necessary. But I guess that's a different debate!

On the other hand - just checked The Lounge Forum - can see the Submit Vote in Brendan's poll, but not in Melanie's!

And I was logged in.

John

Hi John

Re: Icons

I frequently develop my own icons.

I usually make these in Opus. export the file as a JPG, and then use Irfanview to convert it to ICO format.

To date, I have had no problems such as those you describe.

HTH

Ray --

What size (pixels WxH) do you make your initial images which you import into IRView? I usually take a client's logo in PSP, make it about 100x100, save it as a JPEG file, then open it in IRView, then do a SaveAs an ICO file. I've had problems if the initial JPEG file is much larger than a mere 100x100 pixels.

Tell us your secret size! TIA

Hi Fred

I don't know that I can claim to have any secrets. More likely a case of ignorance being bliss

I've had a good look at the files I use to make icons.

1. The source files are any of: BMP, JPG, and PNG. Some of the PNG have transparent backgrounds (created in PSP 5), others don't.

2. The sizes of some current source files are: 100x108; 100x158; 100x99; 200x150; 400x300; and 800x600

I set up the 800x600 specifically as a result of reading your post. I produced icons from BMP, JPG and PNG files. I could notice no discernable differences between the icons.

I don't know what help this is to you, but let me know if I can help you further.

Ray --

I thought the source file had to be closer to the end ico size (which is pretty small), so I've always taken logos from 400 pixels wide, for example, down to 60 or 100. I was afraid there would be too much distortion if I didn't. If I read your post correctly, you've been able to take an 800x600 image and directly make an ico file which is still legible? That will save me work in the future. Thanks!!!

Yes Fred, that's exactly what I do. I take whatever file is available, ignore the size and convert it to ICO.

Maybe I've just been lucky

had the same problem here,

i was using win xp to develop my icon set and i fixed the problem by developing the icons in windows 98 first. i know that sounds very strange but it worked. also ensure that you're not making 24x24 pixel icons as this size aren't designed for icons. and before someone asks it is possible to develop 32bit icons with transparency in windows 98 with iconworkshop 5.

also i find axialis iconworkshop ($35 win) or can combine icons ($10 mac) to be much better than microangelo for creating windows icons.

another solution is to create a shortcut which uses the pure .ico icon, just include this file along side your publication and set it as the icon for the shortcut. also if you want an autostart cd set your autorun file to:

--------------------------
[autorun]
OPEN=Publication.exe
ICON=Publication.ico
LABEL=My Publication
--------------------------

the label tag is for win xp only and allows you to name your cd in my computer, more reliable than the filename.

also within the icon file you need to create different version of the icon, this is possible using an icon development application. You need sizes: 48x48, 32x32 and 16x16. Each of these should than have three different colour depths. 16.7m colours (32bit), 256 colours (8bit), 16 colour (4bits). So in total there should be 9 icons within your .ico file, this will provide a got range for windows to use no matter what colour depth the end users pc is. you can also add a set of 16.7m colours (24bit) icons to that too if you want.


luke

Only Windows XP supports icons with 32-bit colour depth and 8-bit alpha channels, so if your icon has been created with these properties, Opus will convert the icon to 8-bit (256 colours) to ensure compatibility with all versions of Windows and this may cause semi-transparent drop-shadows and anti-aliased elements within the icon to deteriorate.

I would therefore recommend loading your .ico file back into your icon editor and reducing the colour depth to 8-bit. The icon editor will most likely display the problem you originally observed, but you can now use the tools within the editor to correct any discolouration. When you are happy with the changes, save the new .ico file and try publishing an Opus project with this new version of the file.

Please see http://www.glyfx.com/article_application_icons.html for more information about icon sizes, colour depths and compatibility.

Kind regards,

Hi John,

I have received your .ico file, have checked its properties and can confirm that this icon has been created at a 32-bit colour depth and obviously includes alpha-channels as the drop-shadow is semi-transparent. As stated in my previous post, only Windows XP is capable of displaying 32-bit icons with alpha-channels. Opus therefore automatically converts the icon to 8-bit colour to ensure compatibility with older versions of Windows and this is removing the antialiasing (smoothness) from the icon and replacing the semi-transparent area with a solid white colour.

If you want to ensure that the icon displays the same on all systems, you will need to create the icon at 8-bit colour depth and use no transparency. The icon should now publish without problems. If you know that all of your end-users are using Windows XP and want to take advantage of its support for 32-bit transparent icons, I would recommend trying Luke's advice and specifying the icon within the autorun.inf file.

Kind regards,

Wow!

What a wealth of information - I always thought there was more to this computer programming than I actually knew.

Guess I shall go back to the beginning as far as icons are concerned.

Ray, I shall investigate your approach without delay!

Very many thanks to everybody for such a useful bunch of informative replies, and thanks Robin for identifying my actual problem.

Now what % of users have moved over to XP? !!

John

hi,

this web site is good fro web stats:

http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2005/February/os.php

shows how popular win xp is these days, but then again it's been around for over four years.


luke