Re: Icons

[Aaron Morrison <AaronM -at- MEDCMP -dot- COM>]

This may sound like an over-simplified solution, but the color problem
may have nothing to do with your .ico files.
The icon probably just contains too many colors. What is your color
palette set to on your PC? My guess is either 16 or 256 colors. If so,
move it to 16- or 24-bit.
Another solution would be to reduce the colors and color depth of the
icons to 16 or 256 colors. That way all your users will see the icons
correctly, regardless of their pallete settings. It limits your
creativity, but it prevents the problem you are having.

Just a thought.

Aaron W. Morrison
Senior Technical Writer
aaronm -at- medcmp -dot- com
Medic Computer Systems, Inc.
8601 Six Forks Road, Ste 300
Raleigh, NC  27615

My views are my own and not those of Medic.


> ----------
> From:         Tracey Moore[SMTP:traceym -at- APPLIEDMAPPING -dot- COM]
> Sent:         Wednesday, May 20, 1998 3:18 PM
> Subject:      Icons
>
> I have been given the responsibility of creating icons for our
> programs. Does anybody out there have experience with .ico files? This
> is my situation:
>
> I photographed a scroll with a digital camera and saved the image as a
> .tif file (the only option with the camera software other than .kpg).
> I downloaded Microangelo from the web. The only files you can open
> with Microangelo are .gif and .ico. So I opened my .tif file in Paint
> Shop Pro and saved it as a .gif file. Opened it in Microangelo, saved
> it as an .ico file. Guess what?! The icon looked fine until I tried to
> put it on my desktop. Then, voila! It looked like crap. (the colors
> were all out of whack and washed out)
>
> So what gives? Any suggestions how I can take a .tif file and turn it
> into an .ico file without going through all this hoopla? Any ideas why
> the colors got all messed up?
>
> Is Microangelo not the best choice? Help!!!! I've got to get this icon
> done by June 8th!! Yikes!
>