Lot of cool stuff going on with SkinStudio. The newest internal builds allow you to create your own icons.  Now, I haven't created a serious icon since the OS/2 days. Awhile back I started looking into icon editors and it turns out these icon editors are incredibly expensive. Why? Well because they include a whole load of image editing features.

But why? Why try to compete with Photoshop and Corel Draw? If I'm going to create a modern icon, I'm not going to use some icon editor's graphics tools. I'm going to use a real image editor.

So I asked our SkinStudio team to look into adding the ability to take say a .PNG file and create an icon out of it. I know how to make PNG files with Corel Draw and Photoshop. What I want to do is be able to take that PNG file and turn it into an icon.

For my first try at this internal preview, I downloaded a neat PNG file uploaded today in the ObjectDock section at Wincustomize created by "DockZone".

So I Opened that file and here I am. So now what? Well only 4 options so I clicked on "Cut Image".

Oh sweet. It automatically took care of the various icon formats.

Even has a ton of options for trying to find the one that does the downsizing the best.

So here I am with my various icons set up in all the various formats I could possibly ever want.

And here is the finished .ico.  So cool. Now even I can create icons.  Paul Boyer, Ed Deans, look out, here I come!