Icon personalization for a beginner

There are a few but this has always been my favorite.

http://www.irfanview.com/ 

Try this one--it's easy to use, is free, and if you want to add text to a .png (the icon image format), it's easy to do. It has texure packs that go with it if you want to try adding clipart as well. It supports layers, masks and image warping.

http://www.freewarefiles.com/Imagelys-Picture-Styles_program_27706.html

Website: 

http://www.imagelys.com/

Thanks alot for the suggestions ... I'll check them both out

I should have mentioned GIMP. If you're willing to take the trouble to learn a difficult program, it's highly capable and free.

Get it here: 

http://www.freewarefiles.com/The-GIMP_program_13556.html

or at

http://www.gimp.org/

There are a lot of tutorials for it.

Also nice work Paint.net ( link) for making Ico you need that plug-in ( link ) it is easy because you can save the ico complet in follow size with one suspension:

 ...32 bit.........8 bit.....

..256px².......256px²...

..128px².......128px²...

....64px²........64px²....

....48px²........48px²...

....32px²........32px²....

...16px²........16px².....

only the 4 bit you must make manuell that I make with IcoFX portable ( link )

Thanks for all the suggestions ... still fiddling around with it.

I decided to try Paint.net to handle all the cutting and such from images needd for my icons

Managed to finally make my first one, a DropBox folder icon. Used the Folder icon of some icon pack I found, and then found a DropBox Icon and removed the white background (took me a while to figure out). Then grabbed the text as an image from DropBox's homepage, since I couldn't find a font to match in Imagelys.

The result looks something like this .... very basic, but I am happy with it:

Edit: Now I just need to figure out where you can replace folder icons in Win7 ... apparently not the same place as in XP

Hey again ... I hope someone here is willing to help me out a bit

My first attempt was as I wanted it to be ... but I would like to make something a bit more like the original creator of the basic icons did .... like this:

But since his generic folder .png-files are not layered (anymore) and my skills at subtle modifications suck, I can't "re-layer" these.

The generic one I am working from is this (I cut off the black border from DropBox icon):

I think what he originally did (or ast least how I would have it work), was that the front of the folder i one layer, then the grey line at the bottom ans then the backside of the folder .... but I am not sure how to do that.

If it is made like this then I could put any picture on the front of the folder, and then have the line and back be on top of that, so the picture gets cut off without me having to do that manually.

Or maybe he did cut the pictures exactly to match the curves of the folder ... I am not sure.

Any hits or tips someone might have, would be greatly appreaciated.

Edit: Added other folder icons that look more like what I try to do

What you mean the front on one and the back on a second layer? If you mean this I load it for you here up: link

rezip it and open it with paint.net than you see what I mean.

Hey Martin ...

You did nearly what I wanted .... I really need to learn to use graphics programs with more proficiency

But the bottom part of the folder, you have kept as the back layer, so if I make the Back Layer Red and the Front Layer white, I get a Red line along the bottom.

Here is what I mean (rather crudely made with a pencil :D):

The "Black" part is my Front Layer, The Red is the Back Layer and then the blue is the "Line" Layer.

So I would put them as follows (bottom first):

1. Front Layer, so any image I would put on at the top edges would be "cut" as the parts exceeding it would be covered by the Back Layer

2. Back Layer, so I would may get images that look like the Firefox one from my previous post, where it is "cut off".

3. The grey line layer, so it would cut over any images I put on the Front Layer.

First of all this would hopefully allow me to make folders in the same style as the orginal creator, with "cut-off" images and difference in colour scheme between the front and back layers.

Edit: I think I figured it out myself .... I cut out the top by using the green/white Sony folder so it was easy to see where the white and green split ... then erased the grey bordering the green parts, and then used the magic wand in paint.net to cut the green part out and save it seperately.

Now I have the normal borderless generic folder, and I can then just copy the green top onto that in a new layer, so they are independent. Did the same with the grey line. Thus I can create an icon like I explain above, with graphics and overlays that only affect part of the icon ... or just move the overlay layer on top if I want it to affect the whole icon ....

This is just a little (ugly) test I made to see the final result of my fiddling around. Seems I need to use Imagelys first to get the overlay on the generic icon, then open that in Paint.Net, so I can add the graphics (barcode) and erase the parts that stick out over the edges. Then I saved that, and opened it again in Imagelys to finish up with the top part of the folder, text and the grey line.

Sadly Imagelys misses some of the editing options in Paint.net, and Paint.Net is missing the overlay and colouring options I have in Imagelys.