Question about editing individual icon formats in IconDeveloper

from WinCustomize Forums
I created an icon from a .png image & imported it in ID to 2 formats - 32x32 & 16x16, both XP - and the 32x32 looks fine, since the source image was 32x32. However, the algorithm used by ID to make the 16x16 left it looking really ratty.

I'd like to edit the 16x16 image. I could do a separate image to import into ID, but can you "mix & match" like that? Can the indivdual formats be edited & brought back in as part of the icon file? I haven't had enough experience with icons to know quite how to fix this.

Thanks!
icons
4,205 views 24 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
so I open ID and chose Convert Image to Icon. Selected a pic and chose Standard Formats and okay. Scrolled down to the crappy looking 16x16 on the left hand side and right clicked on it and chose 'edit with PSP8' - once I changed it up and clicked save, then closed PSP, it got replaced.

Even did one by select all, then clear all, then put in what i wanted. same thing - worked.

this what you're wanting to know?

don't forget to set your image editor in tools > preferences
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Exactly. Thanks, Bich.

It just so happens that the icon I want to change has a white image on a transparent background and when I loaded it up in PSP8 from ID the transparent area was white so I couldn't see where the transparent bits were (no checkered background). I just had an idea, though - I'll do up a separate new 16x16 image, right-click edit the crappy icon from ID in PSP8 & just paste the new image in. If it autoupdates the icon file, I should be golden.

Thanks again for helping me sort it out.

If that doesn't work, I'll be back.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If that doesn't work, I'll be back


and I'll be waiting with more useless suggestions

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I must be missing something.

All was well until I tried to "save" the image I edited in PSP8 from ID.

I created the 16x16 image I wanted in PSP8 first, saved it. Then I copied it to the clipboard. Opened the icon file in question in ID, selected the 16x16 XP image and right-clicked -> Edit & it opened in PSP8. Pasted the copied image as a new image. OK so far. When I tried to save it, it forced me to a "Save as..." dialog, which is where I'm stuck.

I'm ready for some more of those useless suggestions.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
let me look again, maybe i messed a step....
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
okay - i created a 16x16 image using a tube (red ball) I clicked save (auto as psp8 image) - then closed psp.

went to my Troll icon and opened in ID. clicked the 16x16, right click edit = psp opens up. opened my saved psp image. clicked on the one to edit, cleared it, copied the the new psp image, pasted onto the other as new layer and then just closed the edited image. it asked me if i wanted to save = yes. went back and looked in ID, new image was there, then clicked save in ID. closed everything down. went back to the icon, open with ID = it's still there.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm using a .png source image with transparency, in case that matters, but I did everything exactly as you did including saving the edited image in PSP but when I go to ID the old image is still there.

Plan B: I copied the PSP image (.png) to the clipboard and then imported it using "From clipboard..." in the dropdown menu of the "+" sign above the left pane. That "worked" to update the image, but the transparency was lost.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For some reason, even though I'm selecting the proper transparency settings in PSP when I save my image as a .png, the transparency is being lost & it's no longer there when I re-open the file in PSP. I've created images in exactly the same way & the transparency has been preserved. Not sure what's going on.

It looks like using the "From clipboard..." method works, I've just got to get the transparent image to the clipboard, something I'm having trouble achieving just now.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hmmm...

i created a 16x16 image with a red ball in the middle - transparency around - saved it as psp8 image. closed psp8. checked the folder for the image, it was there.

open my ico in ID, right clicked the 16 and edit - psp opens.
file, open - open the pspimage previously created. now have 2 open. click the one to edit, clear = now blank. click the other, copy - click the blank, paste as new layer (then move it to where i want it). the just click the x on it to close it. yes to save. closed psp. looked in ID, then clicked save.

just checked, it's still there edited.

let me check something else....
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The transparent areas are displaying as white when I re-open the saved .png image, despite saving it using the (apparently) correct transparency settings (alpha channel, single color) & the minipreview displaying the proper transparency during the save operation.

I know it's something incredibly simple I'm overlooking but I'm getting snowblind now.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
clicked the 48, created a 48, copied the created and pasted onto the old, clicked the x, saved, still have transparency.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
try alpha channel and existing
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
when i do a png, i use a tranparent background to start with - have tranparency set to grid (white/grey) in preferences so i don't get confused
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My mistake - I'm saving transparency to the alpha channel & have that set in the general program preferences. But even when I open files I've previously used that were saved with tansparency (& imported into ID with correct transparency) the transparent bits are showing up white now when I open them in PSP8. I also have transparency set to the grid. I am starting with a .png image that has no transparency, selecting the color I want to be transparent in the save as .png dialog. The side-by-side save dialog preview shows the transparency correctly but it somehow is getting lost when I finally save.

I appreciate very much your hanging in there with me, SB.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
are you pasting over the old or are you clearing to old first?

I'm not real tech savvy, so i wonder about things like, if the old had a transparent channel (no color to begin) then you paste directly over and save using a color as transparent, would the color tranparent then be so and in turn cause the other to no longer be so? sort of one cancelling the other causing no transparency?

now I gotta try something...
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
created a blue background png - put a ball upper left corner - saved with alpha/single color. created one with green background, saved with alpha/single color. closed them, checked in folder, preview - tranparency.

reopened both, copied one, pasted over the other and clicked save. I now have 2 balls, one with blue fuzz, one with green fuzz and nothing in between. (damn, that sounds so sad. Previewed my balls, still playing happy. opened in ID, grid shows, saved as, checked ico preview, still good.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Boy, Oh Boy. Nothing like happy balls.

Can't see what I'm doing different, but my balls are definitely not happy.
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
To bad Sleeping Dragon isn't posting right now, I believe he also uses PSP8.

I'm stumped and need rest. I'll puzzle some more later.

Bet it eventually turns out simple.

Cheers.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Argh.

Wondered if it was something on my rig, so I tried the same process on another machine running both apps under Win2k & I'm getting exactly the same thing - the transparent bits are white when I reopen the file in PSP8 after saving it with what appear to be the correct transparency settings. I'm wondering how I ever got the transparency to stick in the first place now - can't remember doing anything differently but I have the icons I'm trying to modify already saved with transparency & am using them (did it not 2 weeks ago) - the 32x32 icons look fine but the 16x16's look ratty. I had managed to do a 32x32 image with transparency & created the icon from that with ID (Create icon from image) & ID gave me a nice transparent icon. Now I can't get PSP8 to give me any image with transparency.

I'll be away for the next couple of days & may not get back to this until late Sunday or maybe Monday. Thanks a ton for your tenacity. I'll be back.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Daiwa... it's been a while since I used PSP 8, but I seem to recall having trouble with the transparency until I went to File Format Preferences > PNG tab, and disabled "Load and save transparency from / to alpha channel".
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for the tip, Koasati. Seems counterintuitive, but what about computer apps isn't?

It is currently enabled (but I hadn't changed it & it was working) so I'll give that a spin.

Thanks for chiming in. I'll post back but I probably won't get to fool around with it again until Monday.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
huh, mines been enabled since I installed it. Never knew that option was there until now.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Same here, SB. As far as I know "enabled" is the default for that option because I had never made any changes to that dialog, in fact had only found it a week a two ago when I was first troubleshooting this, and it was checked on both rigs PSP8 is installed on.

However, kudos to Koasati - unchecking that, counterintuitive as it seems, worked. PNG images save & reopen with correctly displayed transparency now and the images get imported to ID with transparency intact.

Thanks so much to the two of you for your kind help.