How to Create Icon Files for Your Windows App using Visual Studio and Microsoft Paint.

• Download source files - 18.69 KB

Introduction

For the longest time, I was limited to only having the icons I could create artistically or existing icons I could reuse in my Windows apps. I don't know about you, but I am not artistic enough to make good icons from scratch. This article describes how to use Visual Studio and Microsoft Paint to create icons for your Windows app starting with an existing bitmap.

NOTE: I am using Tech-Pro’s logo with permission. I am currently employed with Tech-Pro and I asked to use it as the example for this article.
NOTE: If you are going to use someone else’s bitmap image, make sure that you have permission to do so.

Background

I was creating a new Windows app and I was again faced with having the default icon on the app. I had a little time on my hands and decided to try to make a new icon file from an existing bitmap file. I figured there may be a few other programmers out there that would like to know what I learned.

Icon Files

There are a few things I should mention about Icon files. First they can hold multiple sizes and color depths in them, i.e. one icon file can have 16 X 16 pixels, 32 X 32, 48 x 48, 64 X 64, 96 X 96. Each one of those sizes can have three color options: monochrome, 16 colors and 256 colors. Now if you only have a 16 X 16 image, your application will use that image in Windows Explorer, but you will get some default image for a desktop shortcut. You need a 32 X 32 or higher image for the desktop shortcut. So you need at least two images. One image 16 X 16 pixels in size and the other image which is 32 X 32 pixels or larger in size.

Creating the Icon File

First, you want to add a new Icon file to your Windows application project. Make sure you name it properly. In our example, I am just taking the default Icon1.ico name.

Next, you will want to open the bitmap file you want to convert to an icon in Microsoft Paint. We are going to strip off any text, get the file into a square that fits one of the above sizes. In this example, we are going for 64 x 64 pixels. Then we will copy the images from Paint and paste it into the correct image type in Visual Studio.

We need to create the correct new image type in the icon file. We are going to create a 64 X 64 pixels 256 color image type. So select the Icon file in Visual Studio and then right click and select New Image type. The new Icon Image Type dialog will come up so we can select the one we want.

Next, we will need to properly set the background color of the new Icon Image type. It defaults to a blue color. In this example I am picking white, but you should choose whatever color works best for your image. It is easiest to change the color all at once. If you go to the Image menu, then tools, then fill tool, you can then select a color from the palette and set the background color of the icon image type. Next go to Paint and do a select all and copy. Next, go back to Visual Studio and paste into the icon file.

We will be repeating this process for the other icon image sizes. Next we need to go back to Paint to create our 16 X 16 pixel image. If you go to the Image menu and stretch/skew, you can reduce the image by half, making it 32 X 32. We will do this again to get the image down to 16 X 16.

Next we need to change the image attributes to have a width of 16 and a height of 16. In Microsoft Paint, go to the Image menu, then attributes. Back in Visual Studio, we need to create a new icon image type of 16 X 16 pixels with 256 colors. Set the background color of the new icon image type. Copy the image from Microsoft Paint and paste it into the new icon image.

At this point, we have the two icon image files that are necessary for what we want in an icon file. Go to your Windows form and select the icon property. Select the icon we have just created. This will cause the form itself to use the icon. Next go to the project properties and change the icon to be the one you just created. This will cause the icon to be used in Windows Explorer, a short cut on the desktop and the application down on the tray.

Finally, you may want to delete the default icon image types. They are both 16 colors. Note that you may want to add a 32 X 32 pixel image as well. To switch between icon image types, just right click on the icon file and select current icon image types. That will allow you to select the existing icon image types in the icon file.

Conclusion

I am sure there are other ways of creating Icon files, but I have found this one to work well for me. I hope you have learned a little bit about icon files and find this technique useful.

History

• 6^th January, 2006: Initial post