Have you ever noticed that when you look at your browser favorites or bookmarks that
some entries have their own little icon beside their URL? Pretty neat trick, right?
It's called a favicon.ico file and it's placed in the root directory of the web site.
Everytime you bookmark a site that has its own favicon.ico file, it adds it to your
browser.
But how do you make little icons? Almost all of the big, complicated graphic packages
out there specialize in making big, complicated graphics. Surely there must be an easier
way.
There is. It's called IconForge
by Cursor Arts. This is a remarkably powerful but equally easy-to-use graphics tool.
Unlike the myriad of more complicated and costly graphic packages out there, IconForge has
but one focus: to help you to create icons. And not just simple little favicon.ico icons.
You can use IconForge
to create animated icons, complete icon libraries, stand-alone EXE icon albums, multiple
resolution icons, and more.
Like other graphic packages, you have a variety of paint tools available to you
including brushes, shapes, lines, curves, etc. If you are an artist, you won't be
disappointed by the quality list of tools at your fingertips.
But what if you are not an artist? What if you already have a logo designed, but don't
know how to create a favicon.ico file? Guess what? It couldn't be easier. Just watch:
All you need to do is import your existing graphic. You can even scan some
artwork (IconForge
is Twain compliant) or capture it from another source. View your artwork in IconForge's
preview window, crop it, edit it, touch it up anyway you want. Set the size and resolution
you require, click and save. You are done. Now all you need to do is FTP this favicon.ico
file to the root directory of your web site, and the next time a visitor bookmarks your
site, they'll also get your logo icon embedded in their bookmarks list.
Obviously, with a powerful package like this one, you can do virtually
anything you can imagine. Not being an artist (I'm known among friends as the "King
of Clipart") I can't show you examples of animated icons I created, but I can tell
you it is a relatively easy process. The accompanying manual clearly shows you
step-by-step how to use IconForge to do most anything you can imagine. You
can download a free trial here.
