Icon Machine is an icon editor- it lets you customize the icons of items in the Finder. To edit the icon of an item, just drag it onto the Icon Machine icon in the Finder, and Icon Machine will open a window in which you can edit the icon. When you’re done, use the Save command to apply your new icon. And there you are.
Also, Icon Machine is shareware. A paltry 20 bucks. If you decide you like the program and want to continue to use it, please pay for it as described at the end of this file. If you don’t think it’s worth $20, just delete it from your hard disk and wait around for the next version.
And what do you get for that $20, besides freedom from a guilty conscience? Why, my undying gratitude, of course! I will do my best to support all registered Icon Machine users by helping them with questions, notifying them of new versions of the program, and taking their complaints an bug reports much more seriously.
Why is Icon Machine?
When I first started using System 7 and saw how you could customize icons by pasting them in the Finder’s Get Info windows, I immediately said, “Hey, what we need is an icon editor!” And the idea of Icon Machine was born, and has been evolving ever since. Other people have made icon editors too, and I have tried out as many as I could get my hands on (because if I found one I liked enough it would save me a lot of trouble!) but I was never quite satisfied. If you want a thing done right....
How is Icon Machine?
Well, I think it’s pretty cool. I tried to make it as useful and usable as possible, and as a part of that I have included extensive support for Macintosh Drag and Drop. A lot of ideas have come and gone, many of which are reserved for upcoming versions of this program. If you have any comments or suggestions, I would be overjoyed to hear them. Really.
Editing Icons
Tools
Icon Machine has a pretty much standard array of painting tools: lasso, marquee, pencil, paint bucket, line, rectangle, oval, line, polygon, and text. The usual rules for each tool apply- use the shift key to constrain them, etc.
When using the text tool, the arrow keys don't move the insertion point; instead, they move all of the text by one pixel.
Various special things have been added to the tools for working with masks. What's a mask? I'm glad you asked.
Masks
The icon mask is sort of a black-and-white picture which defines which parts of the icon are transparent and which are opaque. Each icon family can have two masks- one for the large size, one for small. Technically, these masks are stored with the black-and-white members of the family, so if these members are missing then there is no mask. Also, if those members are missing then the Finder won’t use that size.
The mask is automatically updated as you edit the icon, and some tools let you edit the mask directly. More on this later.
Selections
If you hold down the option key while dragging a selection, it will leave a copy behind. If you hold down command and option, it will leave a trail. The shift key constrains dragging to horizontal and vertical movement (but you have to hold it down after pressing the mouse button).
Through the magic of Macintosh Drag and Drop, you can also drag a selection outside of the window, either to another editing window or to another application (like the Finder, to create a clipping file).
You can also use the shift key with the lasso and marquee tools to add to the selection, and the command key will subtract from the selection. It’s fun. Note, though, that you’re using the same keys as for making copies and constraining, as described above. The trick is this: if you want to modify the selection, hold down the keys before clicking the mouse; to make copies or constrain movement, hold them down after pressing the mouse.
The lasso has an additional behavior: if you hold down the option key as you press the mouse, it behaves like a "magic wand" - it selects all adjacent pixels of the same color. It works like the paint bucket (for filling), only instead of painting, it selects. A handy trick with this is if you have a white area that you want to make transparent, you can select it with the "magic wand", and then delete the selection.
Colors and Patterns
The middle toolbox lets you select colors (using the pop-up menu or the dropper tool) and patterns. The F box is the foreground color, the B box is the background color, and the P box is the pattern. You can also use the dropper to pick up any color you click on—a normal click sets the foreground color, and a shift-click sets the background color. If you are using one of the other drawing tools, you can quickly access the dropper by holding down the option key.
The foreground color is used for the pencil, bucket, line, text, the outlines of the shapes, and the “black” parts of a pattern. The background color is used for the “white” parts of a pattern, and also as the background color when erasing, either with the eraser or the pencil. If you select something and move it (without holding down the option key), the opaque areas will be replaced by the background color. This can be useful when you want an image that doesn’t have a white background, like the light gray inside the document icon.
When editing the 8-bit (256-color) icons (the first and third ones as displayed in the member selector), there are two color palettes you can choose from: the System palette (rearranged a little; shown above left), and the standard 35 icon colors (the colors you are recommended to use in Finder icons; shown above right). To switch between these, select the palette you want from the Colors menu.
The reason to use the standard icon colors is that they are the only ones that will darken properly when an icon is selected, or that will tint properly when an item is assigned a Label color in the Finder.
As you drag the mouse across the System palette, you will sometimes see other color boxes hiliting. This is because some colors were duplicated to complete the layout; when two boxes are hilited, it's because they contain the same color.
Drawing Mode
The next toolbox lets you choose between opaque and transparent drawing. When the mode is set to transparent, the shape tools will only draw an outline. When it’s set to opaque, shapes will be filled with the selected pattern.
Mask Mode
The final three-button toolbox is for switching between the three mask editing modes. The first is for normal mode, where tools may affect both the icon image and the mask. The second is mask mode, where the image is not affected, and the third is image mode, where the mask is not affected.
For example: if you start off with an empty icon, and draw a line in normal mode with the pencil, you get a black line. In mask mode, you get a white line (against the field of dots that show transparency). In image mode, you get a black line, but only in the parts that are already opaque (like the line you made with the mask pencil).
The cursor, if possible (depending on its shape), will show the current mode: a regular cursor for normal mode, a solid black cursor for mask mode, and a transparent cursor for image mode.
You can also override the setting in the palette using the keyboard: Hold down the command key for mask mode; hold down the command and option keys for image mode.
Preview
Underneath all the toolboxes are the preview, and the selector to choose what mode you want to preview the icon in: selected, open, or offline (like on an ejected disk). You can select any combination of these, or select Normal to clear them all.
Member Selector
To the right of the painting area is the member selector, for choosing which member of the icon family you want to edit. You can also drag the icons from these buttons, as well as drop icons into them. This is handy for copying data from one member of the family to another.
The members you can select are, from top to bottom: large 8-bit (256 colors), large 4-bit (16 colors), large 1-bit (black-and-white), small 8-bit, small 4-bit, and small 1-bit. An empty, inset box on one of these buttons means that member doesn't exist in the icon family. To create it, just click on that member. To delete an existing member, use the Delete Member command in the Edit menu.
Name and Original Icon
At the bottom of the window are the name of the item you’re editing, and it’s orignal (non-custom) icon. The name dispayed is the full path name of the item, like “Hard Disk:Thingies:Grizzly Bears”. If it's too long, it will be truncated by taking out the names of some of the folders.
Icon Machine's Funny Little Things That It Does
Icon Machine has some limitations and rules that it enforces to make sure that your icons will work in the Finder. They might get in the way a little, but they seemed like a good idea at the time.
• You can’t erase the mask in places where other members of the same size have non-white pixels. Remember that all members of the same size share the same mask. If you have a stubborn spot of mask that won’t erase, switch to the other members and make sure they’re white in that spot as well.
• You can delete members of an icon family, but you cannot delete the large black-and-white member. If this one is missing, then the Finder will ignore the entire custom icon, so what's the point? Similarly, if you have one of the small color members you must also have the black-and-white one. Remember that the mask is stored with the black-and-white members, so they need to be kept around even if the black-and-white icon itself is empty.
• The eraser (in normal mode) will not erase the mask if the background color is something other than white. After all, you’re really just painting in this case. If you're wishing Icon Machine had a paintbrush, try just erasing with the color you wanted to paint with.
The “Edit Icon” Contextual Menu Plugin
In the PowerPC version of the Icon Machine package, you will notice a file called "Edit Icon". If you have Mac OS 8 or later, you can place this file in the Contextual Menu Items folder in your System Folder. This plugin will add a command called "Edit Icon" to the contextual menu of any file, folder, or disk which will open the item's icon in Icon Machine. If you don't have Mac OS 8, what are you waiting for?
A contextual menu, by the way, is the one that appears when you hold down the control key and click on something. But only in Mac OS 8.
Drag-and-Drop Summary
Currently the editing area and the member selector support drag and drop; other parts of the Icon Machine window will be joining them soon.
Dragging
- Drag selections from the paint area
- Drag members of the icon family from the member selector
Dropping
- Drop icons and pictures onto the painting area
- Drop icons onto buttons in the member selector to replace them
The Future of Icon Machine
Icon Libraries and the File Window
This feature has always been a part of Icon Machine's design, although it was omitted from this initial version because I was getting impatient to get this thing out the door. Icon Machine will be able to store multiple icon families in library files, as well as open other files (like applications) that have icons stored in them.
Tear-Off Palettes
The color and pattern palettes will be able to be torn off into floating windows.
Et Cetera
Contextual menus, new drawing tools, Appearance Manager support, and a rearranged window are also among the other things on the drawing board. Brace yourselves!
Money
As mentioned at the beginning, Icon Machine is shareware. Try before you buy; just don't forget to buy! You can register your copy for $20 through Kagi Shareware. The option of a site license is also offered; this allows you to use as many copies as you need at a particular site. If your company only has one site, that's all you need! A site license is $100.
Using the enclosed Register program, fill out your name, how many copies you're registering, and your payment method. Then you can print the from and mail it, fax the form, or copy and e-mail it. The addresses you need will be given in the form itself.
Alternately, you can register on the Web at the following address:
http://order.kagi.com/?2YD
Version History
1.0.1
- Updated to PowerPlant 1.8. The most visible result of this is that the Other Size dialog looks a little different.
- Fixed a crash in the polygon tool.
- Fixed a problem with the pencil's auto-erase in 16-color icons.
- Corrected a typo in the balloon help
That's the End
If you have more questions, you might try the Apple Guide file. Also, you can find the latest info at the Icon Machine web page:
http://www.kagi.com/dathorc/iconmachine.html
You can also e-mail me at dathorc@kagi.com.
When all else fails, you can try the old-fashioned method:
