| Tutorial Title: How to make icons |
| Program: PSP 5+ and Icon Shop |
Step 1: First, open up PSP and create a new image. Icons are generally either 16x16 pixels or 32x32 pixels, for this walk through make your canvas size 32x32 in PSP and make your background color transparent.
 |
Step 2: Draw out a shape or an image for your icon. You can make your icon as complicated or as simple as you want, its up to you, just keep your design within the canvas and try to imagine how it would look on a desktop or computer.
 |
Step 3: When you have finished creating your icon, save it as a .psp file so that you can have the original file with all the layers and what not. Now do a save as and save the file as a .bmp file.
|
Step 4: Now we are going to convert the bmp file you just saved into an icon file for Windows. To do this, you could use any of the many icon programs out there. The best being Microangelo. But if you do not need all the features of Microangelo, try Icon Shop by Lion Tech. The Icon Shop interface is extremely easy to use. Just drag and drop the files that you want to convert into the bottom frame and then export as a .ico file. You can drag and drop many different file type as well as create icon libraries and even convert Mac formatted icons.
 |
Step 5: To export the file, simply right click on the file you want to convert in Icon Shop and then select export as and select icon. Click on the image below if you want to download that icon.
 |
Note: You have just created an icon. Now if you want to make transparent icons. Just make sure that you have a magenta (255,0,255) color for the background layer in your original file in PSP. When creating your icon, avoid using the magenta color anywhere in the design because that is the color you will use for the transparency. Then just save the file as a transparent .gif file and then convert the .gif file in Icon Shop.
 Download the icon file created in this tutorial.
Download Icon Shop from the Lion Tech website. |
