Convert multiple PNG icons into one .ICO icon - windows

I think I should start by saying that I am a UI Designer.
I am having a really hard time trying to convert 8 png's (same icon in 8 different resolutiona) into one single .ico icon for a Windows app. The png's resolutions are the fallowing x16, x20, x24, x32, x40, x48, x64, x80.
I have tried every convertor online there is and even some obscure softwares and nothing...

Since you posted this to Stackoverflow I'm going to start by linking you to the blog series about the icon format history, specifically the PNG entry.
The best choice for working with icons is special purpose icon editors, they give you full control of PNG compression and other details. A decent free editor you can try is IcoFX.

Related

Why do standard applications show slightliy different colors

I uploaded a simple png file with a overall fill color here: https://ufile.io/kx1mopq2
If i view this file in the windows explorer or in firefox the color displayed is slightly different than the color shown in Windows Paint, Paint 3d or several other applications i tested - including WinApi and Qt applications i developed myself.
In the screenshot below on the left you see firefox and windows explorer preview - we think that this display color is the correct one. On the right you see Pant and paint 3d. I modified the file in paint as i moved a strip from the left views into the right views in order to make the difference visible.
My question is: Where do these differences have their origin? I want my applications to show the same color as FireFox or Windows Explorer. It seems that there is a application setting or the like that influences that?
Any suggestion welcome.

exe icon is not full size (windows 10)

I want to set an icon for my program (exe file and desktop shortcut). I am using Qt 5.7 on Windows.
I followed the instructions from: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/appicon.html, that is in the pro file I put "RC_ICONS = logo7.ico".
When I install the program on my computer (Win8), it works well. The desktop shortcut's icon shows my logo perfectly and full size. However, when I install the program on another computer (Win10), the desktop shortcut's icon is not full size. Even if I CTRL-scroll on the desktop to change the icon size, this icon remains the same size.
Here is an example of two desktop icons (one full and the other one that does not scale).
image here
Is there something special I should do with my icon (I tried icon sizes of 128x128 to 512x512) so that its full screen ?
Or is it something to do in Qt ?
Thank you so much !
Alex
Most windows 10 .ico icons are multi layer files instead of them being truly scalable. Akin to animated gifs but no animation, just layers. Open a .ico file in Gimp Image editor, you'll see the different sizes in layers. Here is a quick link to the Windows Media center icon hosted on icon archive: http://www.iconarchive.com/show/mega-pack-2-icons-by-ncrow/Windows-Media-Center-icon.html
attached is a screen shot of what I am talking about:
screen shot of windows media player icon
you could use it as a template and replace their pic with yours

Adding custom Button to AppBarButton in Windows Phone 8.1

Just getting into Windows Phone 8.1 development.
I quite like it but I am struggling getting accurate development info.
I am working with the Page.BottomAppBar.
I want to use an png image I have created as one of the buttons.
Does this image I created have to be:
A certain size
A certain format
A certain choice of colors i.e. i can use multiple colors and not just black and white
I am looking to create a 'Login' button you see.
thanks
Please, check the official Microsoft guidelines for app bars for Windows store and guidelines for windows phone. Guidelines cover icons, sizes and formats. It's better to follow them in designing visual style of your app.

Why are the new (1.10.0) jQuery UI images the wrong color in Firefox?

I'm currently using jQuery UI 1.9.2 and want to upgrade to 1.10.0. I have a custom theme and used the URL at the top of my CSS file to visit the ThemeRoller.
My colors didn't look right, so I went through and double checked all my settings. I was using 3-digit hex colors and tried changing them to 6 digits, but that didn't help anything. I cleared my cache and restarted my computer. No change.
I started digging a little deeper. I opened the image in PSP, the colors are fine. They also appear fine in Safari and Chrome. They look fine in Firefox 12 on the laptop, but not in Firefox 12 on the PC (Win XP on both machines).
I thought maybe there was an add-on messing with my colors. But I opened the 1.9.2 image file in Firefox and it looks correct.
1.9.2 -> 1.10.0 ->
I just added the two images to this post from my own computer. I'm looking at the preview with the images side-by-side. The one on the left (1.9.2) is the one I want. The one on the right (1.10.0) looks much more purple on my screen. The background color is supposed to be #0066cc. I used a color picker to view the color displayed by Firefox. The 1.10.0 version has a background color of #4756c7. I see the same problem with all the new images, even the flat ones.
I looked at the two files with ExamDiff Pro and they are very different. Plus, all the new images are larger than the old images (more than twice as many bytes).
Luckily, I only copied over the CSS file and the new animated-overlay.gif, so I am just going to keep using the old images. But I want to understand what's going on.
So what did jQuery UI do differently when generating their images? And why did they change them? And why does Firefox 12 on my computer show them with different colors?
Hard to say exactly without seeing the actual files, but it sounds like browser variations in the way that ICC color profiles are being handled. More details on FireFox specifically over here. But it might not be FireFox being the problem & more connected to whatever your main development browser is & how it handles ICC profiles as well.
Like the FireFox article implies, the feature is fairly old in many browsers but what I have noticed is many modern browsers nowadays are actually paying attention to ICC profiles as a default, whereas before that feature was disabled by default.
Which is all to say I would see how these images look if you strip out all EXIF metadata using a tool like exiftool. Without an embedded ICC color profile, the images should render similarly between all browsers.
And to strip out all metadata with exiftool you would just run a command like this; assuming your file is named test.jpg:
exiftool -all= test.jpg
You will end up with a backup file tagged as test.jpg_original that still has EXIF data embedded and a cleaned test.jpg that now is 100% stripped of EXIF data.

How to make or get tile sized Windows Phone vector icons

I am familiar with the standard application icon images that come with the Windows Phone sdk, but I would like to use some of these images as demonstrated on the standard start screen, with the 173x173 dimensions for the application tiles. I've tried resizing these, but they are so blurry they aren't worth using. Is there a place to download the same (or similiar) images that come with SDK except in a larger size?
Also have a look at the Icons8 icon pack, they only ask for a link to their site or $199 without a link
Have a look at Metro Studio by Syncfusion. I use it in all my applications and its free.

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