JoJo

Hi!

Could somebody spare me some wisdom? ;-)
I need to know how to make a 16x16 icon out of a big psd file [somthing like 300x300 or 200.....]

thanks

Blinky2004

Right-click the TITLEBAR and choose "Image Size...".
Enter the new pixel value at the top, and click OK.

Be forewarned though that going from 300px down to 16 will most likely NOT leave you with a decent rendering of the original image. It "might" if the image were done in a Vector app... but not from PS. Not unless the image is very simple looking.

Do you have the plugin for PS (free) that allows one to save out an image as a Windows icon file? That's what you'll need unless you have another program for that.

Is this by any chance an icon for your Website that will show up when people bookmark it? Because that's one of the few places left whereby 16x16px is a common size.

It's sometimes better if the document contains layer styles to flatten the image first (layer/flatten image) before you resize, otherwise you could have some surprises.

JoJo

yes... I'm getting a litlle dot... ;-)
16x16 is really small...
can you help in making it look better?

what is the name of the plugin? will it help?

Blinky2004

The plugin won't have anything to do with making an image look better when it's scaled down to icon size... it simply helps Photoshop to convert your image into a 'legal' icon format.

A lot of people think they can create an icon by simply renaming a bitmap... but that's not true. That icon will have problems being recognized most of the time.

I've attached the filter here.
Save it, unzip it, and move it into your /Adobe/Photoshop/plugins folder.
When you're ready to save your image, use the "Save As..." option in the FILE menu. Open the FILE TYPES menu and you'll see the "Icon Format (*.ico)" option.

Just as a test... i saved out a 300x300 image to the icon format. It got saved in my system's default size of 42x42. The image converted fine but was a fair bit fuzzy. But as i said, that fact lies in how complex the image is. If it's a simple flat colour image then it'll convert fine.

PaulX

Thanks too.
I used to use Microangelo, but lost it on the last format.
However, Irfanview converts bmp-gifs to ico's.
Its a fiddle about compared to the proper prog tho.

wbiss

Hey, welcome to the forum Nuke_m!

Blinky2004

Hi Nuke_m...

Ya i have IrfanView too.
But with this plugin, we can now use PS with all it's bell'n'whistles. And it even works to create WinXP compatible icons too. [excited]

lilwicked805

Wow great info. Gonna give the plugin a try as well. Thanks Mark! 8}