Icons & photoshop

[stonemason]

For those who have photoshop, and wish to create icons now and then but do not want to install any extra software for this purpose, there is a freeware addin at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat. It adds the .ico extension to the save as choices in photoshop. I have tried this in cs3 and it works fine. Even created a transparent icon to use as favicon on my web site. I can't say if this works in elements as I don't have it installed, however the web site say's it does work with paintshop pro so I would think that there is a good chance it will work in elements.

Geoff

[fh1805]

Geoff,

Thanks for that link. I've installed it to Elements v5 on my Vista desktop PC and can now see file extensions ICO on Open and Save As dialogues, so it does seem to work.

I had a bit of a fight with Vista to get it installed but eventually tamed the beast! I was trying to extract the file straight from the zip into the PlugIns\FileFormats folder. It seemed to have done it, but when I checked, the file wasn't there. It had been placed in a sub-folder of FileFormats for "Compatability Files". I simply copied and pasted this file from there into the FileFormats main folder and deleted the file from the Compatability sub-folder. Having done that, when I launched Elements, the plug in appeared in the Help About PlugIns. All seems OK now.

I'll try the function later on today. If I hit any problems I'll come back and post details here.

regards,

Peter

[peterandjean]

For those who have photoshop, and wish to create icons now and then but do not want to install any extra software for this purpose, there is a freeware addin at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat. It adds the .ico extension to the save as choices in photoshop. I have tried this in cs3 and it works fine. Even created a transperant icon to use as favicon on my web site. I can't say if this works in elements as I don't have it installed, however the web site say's it does work with paintshop pro so I would think that there is a good chance it will work in elements.

Geoff

Hi Geoff

Sorry to be a bit slow on the uptake but what do you mean by an icon in photoshop. I produce transparent png in photoshop CS2 for text to put into PTE but what is an icon used for please

Jean

[fh1805]

Jean,

Icons are those little picture-type things that clutter up your PC's desktop. You can assign your own icon to each PTE sequence that you create, if you so wish. There are many software products out there that can create and save icons (files that have the file extension of ".ico") but strangely enough, Photoshop cannot - or rather could not until Geoff brought this little plug-in to our attention.

Icon files have some severe restrictions on what they can be (in terms of size and colour space and things like that).

regards,

Peter

[stonemason]

Jean as Peter says icons are used as shortcuts. or included with exe files in some cases as in pte shows. Windows also uses them to indicate file assosiations by placing the icon of say media player in front of a music file. You can also use icons on a web site to replace the "e" for internet explorer in the address bar. these are called favicons. To see an example of a favicon take a look at my web site, the GS in front of www.geoffstone.com in the address bar is a transparent icon.

Geoff

[peterandjean]

Jean,

Icons are those little picture-type things that clutter up your PC's desktop. You can assign your own icon to each PTE sequence that you create, if you so wish. There are many software products out there that can create and save icons (files that have the file extension of ".ico") but strangely enough, Photoshop cannot - or rather could not until Geoff brought this little plug-in to our attention.

Icon files have some severe restrictions on what they can be (in terms of size and colour space and things like that).

regards,

Peter

Many thanks for verifying icons

Regards

Jean

[goddi]

Greetings,

I gave this a try and I am having a bit of a problem getting PTE to recognize my icon file. I installed the icoformat.8bi file in my Photoshop CS folder. I changed the size of one image to 32x32 (and I tried 16x16). Only after I reduced the size of the original image would the ico format show up in the Save As listing. Ok...I saved them.

I have never tried this in PTE before but I went to the Main/Assign Icon and tried to "Add" the icon. I browsed to the location but I get an error message from PTE. With a 16x16 sized file, I get "Icon must be "16 or 256 colors"; with a 32x32 sized file, I get "Invalid icon file, number of images must be one."

Can you tell me what I am doing wrong here???

Thanks... Gary

[stonemason]

Hi Gary

I think that the problem may be with the number of colours in you image. As Peter say's further up this topic .ico files are very strict in their requrements. I have just assigned a 16 X 16 transparent icon to two of my shows with no problem. The icon was created in photoshop using the icon addin. I will try and create one from a picture and let you know how I get on.

Geoff

[stonemason]

Hi Gary the following is the procedure for creating a picture icon using photoshop.

1 Open your chosen image and crop to a square format.

2 Go to image>image size and resize to either 32 x 32 or 16 x 16 pixels (I used 32 x 32)

3 Go to image>mode>indexed colour. You then get a popup window which you can leave as defaults but check "Preserve Exact Colours" also make sure that colours says 256. (I'm going to try and upload a screen shot but this explanation is in case that fails)

4 Then File>save as> .ico format. Make sure you select .ico not .png from the addin popup

You should then be able to use these in your exe slideshows. Hope all this is of some help.

Geoff

[fh1805]

Geoff,

Thanks for those extra details. Like Gary, I was struggling to get past an error message. In my case I had done everything except tick the "Preserve Exact Colours" box. Once I ticked that, all the pieces fell into place beautifully.

regards,

Peter

[goddi]

Geoff,

Thanks for those extra details. Like Gary, I was struggling to get past an error message. In my case I had done everything except tick the "Preserve Exact Colours" box. Once I ticked that, all the pieces fell into place beautifully.

regards,

Peter

================

Peter and Geoff,

Yes, super thanks for the details. When I looked at the Mode for my file, it showed "color: 254" and it was greyed out. The only way to change it was to change the "Forced" setting to "Web," and change the "Palette" to "Local (Selective)."

Peter, it works with me whether I have the "Preserve Exact Colours" box ticked or not. The key for me was the change to the "Palette" setting. Anyhow...we found the steps to get the icon to show up. Pretty neat.

Thanks all, Gary

[rmstevens]

Thanks guys. It's worked well for me in CS3 using the Index Colour mode as instructed.

Roger

[Bobo]

I'm kinda at the bottom of the totem pole, but I have to suggest this free software:

http://icofx.ro/index.html

It does all you could hope for, quick and easy.

[stonemason]

Hi Bobo

Yes you're right about icofx but it's yet another piece of software to have installed for very infrequent use. As most people who produce slideshows use photoshop or similar to edit their images, the ability to produce icons in the same application is more conveniant

regards

Geoff

[deskjet1uk]

For those who have photoshop, and wish to create icons now and then but do not want to install any extra software for this purpose, there is a freeware addin at http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/#icoformat. It adds the .ico extension to the save as choices in photoshop. I have tried this in cs3 and it works fine. Even created a transparent icon to use as favicon on my web site. I can't say if this works in elements as I don't have it installed, however the web site say's it does work with paintshop pro so I would think that there is a good chance it will work in elements.

Geoff

Hi Geoff.

just want to say thanks as well for the link, works great.

I looked at your website also, you have some excellent shots, love the macro stuff.

Ralph (deskjet)

[denwell]

Here is a Photoshop action set to make 16x16px, 32x32px and 64x64px icons after installing the Icoformat.8bf file.

Extract the set to your PS >presets>photoshop actions folder.

Very useful shortcut to make PTE icons directly from PS - you can adjust the position of the crop before the action completes.

I've used Irfanview to make icons previously but directly from PS fits into the workflow better.

(See later post)

DEN (NE UK)

[stonemason]

Hi Ralph

Many thanks for your feedback pleased you enjoyed the images

Regards

Geoff

[goddi]

Here is a Photoshop action set to make 16x16px, 32x32px and 64x64px icons after installing the Icoformat.8bf file.

Extract the set to your PS >presets>photoshop actions folder...

DEN (NE UK)

============

Den...

Thanks for the action. However, the crop part of the action seems to be cropping to a rectangle shape, as opposed to a square. And then it squeezes the image vertically...for example, a tall person is squeezed down to a short person. I may be using it incorrectly but each time I try it, it comes out with the same strange behavior. I tried to edit the crop step but haven't been able to yet. Is this the way it should work???

Thanks... Gary

[denwell]

Apologies - I've reworked the action set and checked it out and it should now give a square crop!

Let me know if it's OK now .

Icons.zip

DEN (NE UK)

[goddi]

Apologies - I've reworked the action set and checked it out and it should now give a square crop!

Let me know if it's OK now .

Icons.zip

DEN (NE UK)

=============

Den.... Nope... it does the same thing. Maybe you posted the original instead of new one???

Gary

[stonemason]

Den it's working fine for me in cs3

Geoff

[goddi]

Den it's working fine for me in cs3

Geoff

==========

Geoff... Is yours giving you a rectangular crop or a square crop??? I dumped the old one and the new one is still creating a retangular crop.

Gary

[stonemason]

It gives a square crop although I must admit I only tried the 32 x 32 version

Geoff

Edit :- Just tried the other two and they both give the required square crop

[goddi]

It gives a square crop although I must admit I only tried the 32 x 32 version

Geoff

Edit :- Just tried the other two and they both give the required square crop

=================

Geoff... That is strange. I just dumped everything and reinstalled the action. When I look at each "Crop To" statement, it shows "rectangle", thought the final result is a square. (Take a close look at the final result and see if it is not squeezing the image vertically.)

So I don't understand how you are getting 'square' and I am getting 'rectangular' in the crop.

Any idea??? I am using Photoshop CS (ver. 8).

Garu

[denwell]

Gary

I've retried the actions (in CS2) and get a square crop on all sizes!

If you get a suggested crop that's rectangular, try accepting this and see if the resulting image is indeed a square by checking Image>image size.

Beyond this I'm at a loss to explain it further.

Actions are intended to make things easier but they can also be frustrating!

DEN (NE UK)