Converting bitmap to icon?

[eric_darling]

Anyone have a freeware suggestion for converting a bitmap into a legal icon file for Windows? Or is there a more simple way I'm overlooking?

[Corey]

Microangelo does that swimmingly... You can FILE > OPEN .ico & .gif and you can EDIT > IMPORT .psd, .png, and .bmp...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

Sounds groovy. I'll check it out!

[AGRO]

If I remember correctly, I think Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/english.htm) does that also.

[eric_darling]

Thanks... Will check it out as well.

[Corey]

Irfanview is an awesome app by an awesome chap, easily on my all time top ten favorite apps in the history of the earth.

That being said, Microangelo, which is nowehere near my top ten all time favorite apps list is still a much more robust icon studio and offers everything you need to make killer icons for all systems including XP icons, in a quick and easy manner which Irfanview doesn't.

That being said, these are both "must-have" apps for any serious developer or designer. The good news is that irfanview is free and Microangelo is pretty cheap, around $50. So it's a low cost addition to the family...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[The_Mechanic]

You may also want to take a look at "Axialis IconWorkshop". Two versions available a corporate and a personal, 30 day download trial is available. Has a lot of icons available, including many for XP. Also look under the help "About" section to find links to some sweet icons sites by artist who contributed to IconWorkshop. Has many tools for importing images to make Icons and has a nice user interface...just my 2 cents....Hope ya find what ya need....and a big thanks to all, for all your post in the forums.....helps us do things we could only dream about.....you people are the greatest......Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

Thanks again,

The_Mechanic

[yosik]

I'd like tu suggest even an easier way to do that.
Bitmap (BMP) and icon (ico) are in fact the SAME format!.
Just build/draw a 32X32 pixels BMP and change its extension from .bmp to .ico.
As simple as that.
Good luck
Yossi

[ovm]

I agree.
An just use Paint for this job.

[Corey]

I tried that just now and it generated an error message on WIN98SE saying that "this is not a valid icon file" so I would not reccomend that if reliable peformance is important to you...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

Yep. Same here. I'm using Win 2000 Pro. It must have something to do with file header? Anyway, I think I'm going to go with Microangelo - it works most seamlessly for me. Thanks for all the suggestions!

[ovm]

An icon-file must be in 16 colors..........

[Corey]

An icon-file must be in 16 colors..........



Not true. If it was true all icons would therefore be 16 colors and they aren't. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif Microangelo has 5 color settings and can create valid icon files freely in any of them, Windows XP, True Color, 256 color, 16 color, and monochrome...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[ovm]

ok try these....

in 16 colors (32x32 pix)
http://home.hccnet.nl/ovm.mmp/staff.ico

in 16 million colors (32x32 pix)
http://home.hccnet.nl/ovm.mmp/staff4.ico

all created in Paint...

[Corey]

Actually neither of those is a valid icon file... Plus the second one looks all glitchy in addition... Maybe this tool would help you:

http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/56430.html

Just for the record guys, the .bmp and .ico formats aren't identical. As evidence I offer the existence of bmp2ico.exe as linked to above which certainly would not exist were this the case...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[eric_darling]

Just to update everyone - I bought Microangelo (without OnDisplay), and it works flawlessly. It even interprets the Photoshop alpha channel perfectly. I'm very pleased - worth the $40 USD. I'm always happy to pay a slightly higher premium for a professional level tool - keep the junk, thank you.

http://www.impactsoftware.com/muangelo/muangelo.htm

[Corey]

Woot! Woot!

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[TJ_Tigger]

Ulead's PhotoImpact, I believe, will also allow you to create .ico files.