GRAPHIC CONVERTER
beats the icon editors
To make Favicon icon, mobile phone message pictures or other tiny images on a Mac, you don't really need to download specialised icon editors.
With each edition, Graphic Converter just gets better and better. It has a superb file browser, which tells you everything about your picture but what you had for breakfast when you created it. It plays movies, finds duplicates, batch converts images, whips up catalogues and has a host of filters and drawing tools. Graphic Converter certainly offers you many more uses than a dedicated icon editor.
...But back to our itsy bitsy drawings. If you want to make an emoticon, favicon, mobile phone graphic or other tiny image, this grandaddy of Mac art software gives you the tools to draw your picture on screen and then save your image in the appropriate format.
Graphic Converter, as its name implies, converts a long list of image file formats, including - .ICO, .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .WBMP and a long list of other less universal formats. It even converts screen grabs and drawings from Palm archive files.
TO USE GRAPHIC CONVERTER AS AN ICON EDITOR - OR TO MAKE ANY VERY SMALL IMAGE - TRY THIS...
1. Open Graphic Converter on your Mac and click File - New Image.
In the box that appears, if you're making a favicon select Width and Height both of 16 pixels. Color Depth: 16 (4 bit). Palette: System Color Table. For an emoticon you'll want an even smaller image - probably 15 x 15 pixels.
To make a black and white image - say to convert to WBMP for an older mobile phone - select two colours at the appropriate size.
Click 'new'.
2. On the Picture menu click Zoom at 1000%.
3. On the art tool palette choose the pencil. Below the tools on the panel you'll see a little line. Click it open and select a line width of one pixel.
For a black-and-white image, click to switch your pencil from black to white.
For a colour image like a favicon, hold down your mouse on the uppermost (foreground) colour square of the pair at the base of the panel. Click the colour you want on the popup palette.
4. Even at 15 x 15 pixel size with a one-pixel brush, you still get a grid to help you draw at 1000% magnification, just as in dedicated icon editors. Go ahead and make your tiny face or other image. For a special effect, explore the possibilities. Most fancy effects may not be possible at tiny size, especially if you only have two colours. But you'll see this software is very powerful. Control-click items to see yet more options.
The transparency tool is second from the bottom on the right of the tool panel. To make a colour transparent, click the wand on it in your image. (Graphic Converter will save your transparency for the web in a .GIF, though not in an .ICO file.)
5. From time to time, reduce your picture to normal view (100% magnification. Ensure it looks good at the size it will appear in public. You'll probably find it looks best if it's bold and not too spindly or fussy.
If it's a favicon, view it at 200% too, just to make sure it looks reasonable for the rare occasions when it appears blown up to 32 x 32 pixel size.
6. When you're finished, click File - Save.
Scroll down the long list of formats to Windows icon (*.ico) for a favicon.
Otherwise choose BMP, WBMP or whatever other file type you want.
On the Save panel that appears, choose your location.
It's usually best to select Save Web Ready without resource (see bottom of the panel). This saves the image only, uncluttered with preview thumbnail or notes, and gives the smallest file.
Done.
Graphic Converter does not include transparency or multiple images in .ico files, but has so many other uses that it's well worth using in preference to specialised icon editors.
Graphic Converter - mac icon editor
