Freeware icon editor.

[Rydian]

So I used to use IcoFX and it worked great. My main uses were the ability to import an image (either from the clipboard or from a file) and crop/scale it down, and then use the base image to create all the smaller and lower color-depth icons within the main one (the main one usually being 256x256 for the fancy windows large-icons view).

Unfortunately starting with 2.0 IcoFX went paid, so I'm sticking with 1.6.4 (last available free version) for now, but I'm curious about what else is out there.

 

[finkmac]

Couldn't you edit them with a normal image editor?

 

[Rydian]

The point isn't to edit the actual images, but to produce the icon from an end-result image made through other means. Yes to get "an icon file" I could just change the extension of a bitmap for windows or use the save-as function in a higher-end editor, but that wouldn't produce all the sizes (and bit depths) needed to display across a variety of systems. I apply icons to my MicroSD cards and flash drives and stuff so I can tell what and where they are on any computer.

 

[finkmac]

The point isn't to edit the actual images, but to produce the icon from an end-result image made through other means. Yes to get "an icon file" I could just change the extension of a bitmap for windows or use the save-as function in a higher-end editor, but that wouldn't produce all the sizes (and bit depths) needed to display across a variety of systems. I apply icons to my MicroSD cards and flash drives and stuff so I can tell what and where they are on any computer.

I would think the OS would scale the image accordingly…

 

[Rydian]

New OSes, yes, but not every computer out there is running a new OS, and there's also other uses, such as the tab/bookmark icon (for older or less-standards browsers that still want a 16x16 ico file instead of grabbing an A/PNG).

 

[yusuo]

The point isn't to edit the actual images, but to produce the icon from an end-result image made through other means. Yes to get "an icon file" I could just change the extension of a bitmap for windows or use the save-as function in a higher-end editor, but that wouldn't produce all the sizes (and bit depths) needed to display across a variety of systems. I apply icons to my MicroSD cards and flash drives and stuff so I can tell what and where they are on any computer.

I would think the OS would scale the image accordingly…

Ive used paint and photoshop in the past, just saving as a png and changing the extension to ico and never had a problem and they always look pretty nice

 

[FAST6191]

For the record GIMP has a proper .ico export option and has done for a while- it does not have all the checks and balances (well some checks but no autocorrect resize stuff) that I imagine a proper icon editor will have (multires, multicon and what have you although I might have missed the option) but alpha and such is there and it is not a simple extension renaming hackjob. Should be available nowadays in the standard export options.

Frankly though I tend not to change icons other than maybe changing it to a known icon (IE icon when I install firefox for "those" people and similar things).

 

[finkmac]

New OSes, yes, but not every computer out there is running a new OS, and there's also other uses, such as the tab/bookmark icon (for older or less-standards browsers that still want a 16x16 ico file instead of grabbing an A/PNG).

My computer from 1993 will downscale pasted icons... And even then, you can manually lower the resolution...

 

[Rydian]

My Windows 98 computer doesn't recognize 32-bit icons (24-bit color with the 8 transparency layers) at 256x256, the native for Vista+ large-icon view.

And if I use a low resolution it looks like crap when things try to use that size, since they're just upscaling with filtering instead of having multiple images to pull out of the icon file.