|
Iconographer 2.0.1 ($15 Shareware) Icons have been an integral part of the Mac OS since the beginning. Although icons started as mere black and white images, they evolved, along with the rest of the Mac OS, to use 32-bit color. Sure, you can use a high-end tool like PhotoShop to create these images, but it is overkill for such a specific use. Plus, these tools may not know about other icons formats, such as those used by Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, and even Windows. Enter Iconographer... The Iconographer tools palette includes all the tools one would expect in a graphic application, including a standard suite of selection tools, paint (pen, dropper, bucket) tools and drawing (rectangle, oval, polygon, line) tools. If creating a color icon, you can use several of the standard Color Picker palettes.
A preview window will let you display the icon in any size from 16 x 16 to 128 x 128 pixels. There is also an Icon Members windows, which will show the icon in all of the formats that have been created, from 32-bit color icons all the way down to 1-bit icons. Icon creators who have icons defined for as many formats as possible can assure compatibility the widest range of operating systems and platforms. But Iconographer offers more than just icon creation. You can also convert icons to other platforms. The target platforms currently supported are Mac OS X (128 x 128) Mac OS X Server (48 x 48) and various Windows icon resolutions. In addition to being a great tool to create and convert icons, Iconographer includes some nice usability features, such as multiple undo levels, when that latest modification doesn't work out. It will also make sure that you save an icon mask, an important element of a Mac icon, when appropriate. So take some time to get into your icons, and give Iconographer a try. Have any other Mac Gadgets that you'd like to give someone as a present? Let John know via e-mail, so he can review it, or share it with the rest of us in the Mac Gadget Forum. |
||||||
