What's the structure of an icon? How are icons distributed? What's the difference between Windows XP icons and older icons? To understand this article you should already know basic terms related to computer imaging, namely pixel, image resolution, color depth, and image file format.
A computer icon is a graphical symbol that represents a property, function, or entity. In computer applications, icons are used to quickly execute commands or open programs and documents.
You access the functionality behind an icon by clicking or double-clicking it. Operating systems often allow you to customize visuals of various objects by applying your own custom icons. You may obtain icons from various sources for example from our icon library or you can build your own.
If you choose to pursue the more difficult but more rewarding path creating your own icons , you will need to know more than what was already said. In this introduction to Windows XP icons, you will learn:.
Icons are often compared to images. This comparison is not entirely fair. It is like comparing shoes to leather. Shoes may indeed be made of leather. Shoes may be considered a specialization of leather with some added bells and whistles. But then there are shoes that are not made of leather An icon graphical symbol can easily be represented by an image.
But this could, and probably would change. In future version of your operating system, icons may be using animations or even 3D models. Icons would still be graphical symbols, but not images anymore. For now, let's get back to year , where icons and images are closest friends. A computer image is a raster composed of pixels or vector composed of lines, rectangles, circles, etc.
It may have arbitrary size, resolution and color depth. Icon is composed of arbitrary number of images. This is because icon must be usable under wide variety of conditions. Icon should look good on high-resolution LCD as well as on a ten years old monochromatic monitor.
There are multiple images inside an icon, each optimized for best experience under specific circumstances. Images usually have rectangular shape, icons on the other hand do not. When you put an icon on your desktop, it appears to have arbitrary shape and you can see background around that shape.
Internally, the icon still has a rectangular shape, just like an image. But icons always support per-pixel transparency, which means that any pixel can be marked either transparent or opaque. When a pixel is transparent, background is displayed on that spot. Transparent pixels are usually represented using chessboard pattern in icon editors.
We have already mentioned in previous paragraph, that an icon is composed of several images. They have different sizes or resolutions and color depths.
Pull down the Image menu and select the Attributes command. To make the image easier to work with, click the Magnifier tool and select the level 8 magnification setting. Press [Ctrl]G to add gridlines.
Use the tools and colors to create your icon. You can now assign your custom icon to any shortcut you wish. Miss a tip? Editor's Picks. The best programming languages to learn in The only thing that's left to look at is your desktop wallpaper. The best way to get back on your feet is by pressing ctrl-alt-del.
That will bring up the Task Manager. In some cases it brings up the Windows Security dialog, but you can click on the Task Manager button from there to go where we need to be. Then select "New Task Run Then click ok and watch a new incarnation of your desktop come to life in front of your eyes. In a lot of cases you can elaborate this technique a bit and use it to avoid a reboot when you have made modifications in the registry.
Generally you have to reboot your computer for registry changes to take effect.
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