Which program to skin?

[Dreadlau]

Hi skinners:)

Which program do you use?

-To create/edit the images.
-To create/edit icons.

I'm a total noob in skinning so I need some guidance here, hehe.

Ty

[nohitter151]

-To create/edit the images.

There are plenty of options but I mostly use Paint.net. It's free, very simple to use, and expandable with plugins (sort of like MM!).

-To create/edit icons.

I only just started using IcoFX but it is a great icon editing program that is also free and easy to use.

[Dreadlau]

Thx for the links Nohitter .

I will try these programs.

[rovingcowboy]

i use a multitude of image editors to get different effects because none give you all the effects.

i like windows picture it for easy of making png files,
and for its easy way of adding effects like stained glass and water and metal and other stuff like that.

i use ulead photo editor for graphic over lays like bubbles. and for color syncing the images, if needed,
i use photofiltre for easy color hue and gamma adjustments,

i use ifanview for icons, all you got to do there is make the image the size you want and you can make it out of any image graphic or photo. i use photos a lot for it, just remember if you use that for icons don't add color to the image with ifanview if you are using a transparent background. it seems to add dithered dots to the transparent background and that makes it look like a thin film over the image or a lightly colored square around the icon image. so just do your color adding in a bigger image editor before you make it a transparent background image. you can then open it in ifanview and change the size to no more then 128 x 128 x 125dpi which is the largest for icons, then just save it to an ico file.

[Dreadlau]

Thx RV.

Seems I have lot of program to test.

I tried icoFX a bit yesterday. Really a nice program!
I will definitely keep it.

[monkey hi fi]

i have about 4 more here on their install disks. but they are pre windows me programs so you know how bad thier overlay's and effects are. so i just don't use them for anything but i could if i had the urge to make a pre winMe looking skin, but thats too old. even for me to make.

roving cowboy / keith hall / monkey hi fi.

[Morten]

Photoshop and Illustrator.

[gege]

I only just started using IcoFX but it is a great icon editing program that is also free and easy to use.

Hey! I didn't know that. It looks really good and powerful. I used to use Microangelo, but it sucks. And it isn't free.
I'll give IcoFX a try, for sure. Thanks for the tip, nohitter.

[Fraxav]

Well, but what's the point in using two different programs for images and icons? An icon is just a small image, you can make it and use it as icon. Just asking

[nohitter151]

Well, but what's the point in using two different programs for images and icons? An icon is just a small image, you can make it and use it as icon. Just asking

Obviously you don't know much about the icon file format

[gege]

Well, but what's the point in using two different programs for images and icons? An icon is just a small image, you can make it and use it as icon. Just asking

Obviously you don't know much about the icon file format

Although, in Linux, icons are PNG files

[Fraxav]

I never really studied anything about icons, but I know they are small images in a .ico file format, and that's all I needed to create my own icon for a file. I simply made the image and saved to .ico, and it worked...and this is why I was asking.
So, there has to be something I'm missing...right?

[nohitter151]

I never really studied anything about icons, but I know they are small images in a .ico file format, and that's all I needed to create my own icon for a file. I simply made the image and saved to .ico, and it worked...and this is why I was asking.
So, there has to be something I'm missing...right?

Well, first of all - my program of choice Paint.net does not natively support .ico files. But more importantly than that is that in a single .ico file you can contain multiple images at multiple different sizes and using different color palettes. Most image programs (other than those specifically developed for .ico files) cannot handle the multiple images and image types in .ico files, rather they'll only load one of the images that is in the file - and even worse, only have a limited option of how to save the .ico file.

Hope that's clear enough for you!

[rovingcowboy]

yep the programs i used didn't have native ico support either and could not save any. i tried active icon but did not like it. i found i could save a single icon from photos with ifranview and just started doing that.

how ever if you can program. you can take lots of icons and put them in a dll file and then point your app to that dll file to use the icons in it. i got 9 dll files of all the 3.1 to 98 icons i use some of them yet for shortcuts but i just don't remember how to make the dll file to put my xp icons in to so i dont. i use to have a program for that but can't seem to get it to work anymore, so i make the single icons and let the users pick which one to use. anymore the windows system will vector down the icon size from 128 to 16 if you really want to put it in a place that uses that small of icon when doing that the image has to be simple to see at the smaller size. so less stuff in the photo works.

[Fraxav]

So, I can save images as .ico and I can define palettes too. I don't know if there's a way to add different images sizes to the same file, cause I don't usually make icons, but if it's not supported in the program there's probably some plugin for it.
(UPDATE: after a little try I found out that I can add multiple images with different sizes and palettes to my icon file with the same editing program and without an external plug-in).
Btw, icofx has some good and interesting features that are not exactly related to image editing.