IcoFX

When you start developing software, a very important step you need to take into account is designing your icon. This task can be simplified when using dedicated tools, such as IcoFX.

The main window of the application is highly intuitive and it makes it easy for you to choose the type of project you want to create: a Windows or a Mac icon, a cursor, a toolbar image strip, an icon library or an image. You can also extract an icon, a cursor or a mobile icon from a chosen image.

The next decision you need to make is the icon size that best suits your needs,a s well as the number of colors.

One of the things that makes IcoFX so easy to use is the fact that it supports numerous types of brushes, swatches, gradients and palettes. The brushes come in numerous shapes and sizes, and adjusting its parameters can be done by accessing the right-click menu.

You can switch from brush to pencil, use the color picker or insert text messages, as well as add lines or squares, You can blur or crop areas of the icon until you are satisfied with the outcome.

Once you are done with the design, you can move on to the fine-tuning of the icon, by applying one or more of the integrated effects: emboss, glow, sharpen, color enhancements and more.

You can also tamper with the opacity, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, levels and curves.

The output formats include options such as ICO, ICNS, CUR, ANI, BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF or TIFF.

To sum it up, IcoFX can be used without any issues even by beginners, due to the user-friendly tools that make designing an icon, a cursor or even an icon library a breeze.