Icon Editor

Icon images are essential to a program’s identity. The artists who create these seemingly simple graphical representations have the difficult task of summarizing an app’s main function. Unlike logos, they are something the users interact with directly, and so they have to be designed appropriately.

On a computer, an icon image is saved as an ICO file, a format which can hold more resolutions of the same image, so that the icon can be displayed properly on in various situations. And some programs, like Icon Editor, allow you to edit ICO files.

One does not simply expect a free Java app to be an advanced graphical editor, but Icon Editor’s simplicity could also be its strength. At lower resolutions, trying to draw icons can be pretty fun, as you get to color them pixel by pixel, just like you would a math notebook in primary school.

However, just because it can be fun to work with doesn’t mean Icon Editor can actually be considered a professional GUI app. By far, its biggest drawback is the fact that there’s no undo function. There is a  Clear function, which deletes everything you have drawn or edited, and you can also erase drawings with a right click. But not being able to undo an action can be very frustrating, especially since graphic design is sometimes all about trial and error.

Another drawback we have encountered during testing is the fact that we couldn’t open some newer icon files in the editor. It worked with a few older files that probably had different types of content, but newer files, that a designer would use on a daily basis, could not be recognized by the program.

We can only conclude that, if you’re a pro designer, you may want to skip Icon Editor, or perhaps just keep it for when you are really bored and want to do some pixel by pixel doodling.