|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Section Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most frequently asked questions about Icon Library and their answers.
Introduction
Installation
Using Icon Library
Customization
Advanced Topics
Registration
Copyright
Introduction
What is the purpose of Icon Library?
Back in the early 1990's, it was difficult to find useful collections of Windows
icons. There were many icons available, but they were usually random collections
of unrelated images. They were often stored in DLL files making it difficult to
find an icon to suit a particular need. Other collections consisted of many hundreds
of individual icon files which were easy to display in Windows folders, but these
collections used up a huge amount of disk space because of the cluster size of disks.
These early collections of icons also contained many duplicates.
Icon Library was created to overcome these problems by:
- Bringing together a wide variety of icons into a single collection.
- Removing thousands of duplicate icons to create a unique collection.
- Sorting all the icons into categories so they are easier to find.
- Storing all the individual icons into "libraries" to save disk space and speed up disk access.
- Making the background transparent if it improves the look of the icon.
- Cleaning up messy images within icons.
- Creating new icons to complete icon sets; eg. same image in several colors.
- Providing a viewer program to look at the icons and extract individual ones.
Icon Library is not an icon editing program. It is not able to edit icons or to
change the contents of ICL icon library files. There are other well written
programs such as MicroAngelo which
perform these functions. Icon Library does not try to compete with these top quality
products.
What is new in this version of Icon Library?
Here are the new features of Version 5:
- Added many additional icons. More than 20,000 icons are now available in
the full, registered version of Icon Library. This is double of what was available in the previous version.
- Reorganised categories, with many new ones added.
- Added the ability to handle 256 color icons.
- Added the ability to handle multiple sizes of icons.
- Added the ability to handle icons containing multiple images.
- Provided an installation option which enables a feature where double clicking
on ICL files will open Icon Library showing the contents of that ICL file.
- Removed animated icons and the animation option to prevent user confusion. The
animated icons were ot really of much use and many people often asked me how they
could be used on the desktop. I do not know of any practical way to have animated
icons, as opposed to animated cursors, on the desktop so it is best for me to not
have this option available.
- Documentation and help files are now written in HTML format for easy access both
online and offline. The documentation is much more detailed than in previous versions.
- Some technical papers have been included describing several Icon Library applications.
- This FAQ was written and included with the new documentation.
- Various minor bugs were fixed.
I have temporarily prevented the ability for the program to save icons from
EXE and DLL files because of their varying formats. Trying to save icons
from these files often caused Icon Library to crash. I know that it can be done, so
a future version of Icon Library will re-instate the ability to save icons from these
files. In the meantime, I wanted to get this version out as soon as possible!
Where can I get the shareware version?
The shareware version of Icon Library can always be downloaded from
http://iconlibrary.com. There are also many other
software archives that distribute Icon Library, but they may not always have the latest
version.
Where can I get the registered version?
The registered version of Icon Library can only be obtained by paying a
registration fee. You can register by going to http://iconlibrary.com
and clicking on either the Digibuy or PayPal links. You will be required
to pay a US$19 registration fee if you are purchasing a single license. When I have
been notified by Digibuy or PayPal that you have registered, I will
email you instructions on how to download the full, registered version of Icon Library.
How can I contact you, the author?
You can contact me either by email or the post. My email address is
steve@its.monash.edu.au and my postal address is:
- Steve Balogh
- PO Box 414
- Caulfield East
- Melbourne, Victoria
- Australia. 3145
I do not use any instant messaging service such as IRC or ICQ.
Do you provide telephone support?
I do not provide telephone support. Since most of the Icon Library users seem to live
in the USA and I live in Australia it is not very practical to provide telephone
support.
Do you listen to suggestions regarding Icon Library?
Yes. I am always open to suggestions on how Icon Library can be improved. The best
way to pass on your suggestions is by sending email to
steve@its.monash.edu.au
Is the shareware version of Icon Library time limited?
No, there are no time limits on the shareware version of Icon Library. It will
continue working indefinately.
How is the shareware version of Icon Library limited?
There are a lot fewer icons available in the shareware version of Icon Library. The
full version has more than 20,000 icons but the shareware version only has approximately
3,000 icons. The shareware version of the Icon Library viewer program displays a popup
window when it is started to remind the user to register. The full version does not.
Do you provide additional previews of the full Icon Library?
The Icon Library website contains a list of all
icon categories and the number of icons contained in each one. There are also slightly
blurred screenshots of all the icons contained in the full version of Icon Library.
Why don't you include more 256 color icons in Icon Library?
Icon Library was originally created when only 32x32 16 color icons were in common use
and I concentrated on collecting that particular format. The viewer program could
always display 256 color icons, however, there were problems when trying to extract them
as individual icons. Starting with version 5 this is no longer a problem and all formats
of icons can now be successfully extracted. There are more than 20,000 icons in Icon
Library so I expect that there are not too many 16 color icons remaining that are
not already in the collection. The only path forward is to look at 256 color
and larger format icons so I will be expanding in that direction. I am always on the
lookout for suitable icons, including 256 color and larger format ones. All
contributions are welcome of course!
Installation
How do I install Icon Library?
An installation guide is available here
How do I remove Icon Library from my computer?
Instructions on how to remove Icon Library from your system are available
here.
What versions of Windows does Icon Library support?
Icon Library has been tested and is known to work with all versions of Windows
including Win3.1, Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2K and WinXP.
Can Icon Library use the new Windows XP icons?
The new format WinXP icons will not work with Icon Library.
I have installed Icon Library but cannot find any icons. Why?
This used to be a problem with previous versions of Icon Library. When the files were
extracted from the distributed ZIP archive it was possible to switch off the
option which reconstructed the required folder structure. If the Icon Library files
were not in the expected folders, the viewer program could not find them and it
appeared as if there were no icons available. The new self-extracting archive will
automatically recreate the correct folder structure so this problem should no longer
appear. If it does happen to you, please let me know by
email.
Why am I asked which program to use when clicking on ICL files?
Windows does not yet know what program handles Icon Library files with the
ICL extension. If you double click on a file extension that Windows does not
recognise, you will see a window appear asking you to specify which program will
open that file type in future. Enable the option labelled Always use this...
and then click on the Other... button. Browse to the Icon Library viewer
program, eg icolib5_shar.exe, and select it by double clicking on the program
name. Click on the OK button and you should no longer be asked which program
to use. There is another method which overcomes this problem described
here.
I get an error asking for the location of Icon.exe. Why?
Windows has already associated ICL files with a program called icon.exe
but this program either does not exist or has been moved on your system. You may be
able to solve this problem by following these instructions.
The first icon in each category was replaced by a single icon. Why?
I suspect you may have changed the icon association for the ICL extension in Windows Explorer.
Open your Registry Editor regedit and look for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/iclfile/DefaultIcon.
You should see a (Default) StringValue entry containing %1. Chances are that it will be
pointing to some other pathname containing the currently displayed icon. Change the (Default)
entry back to %1. Windows Explorer does not always respond to this change to your registry
because it caches the icons it displays. You may have to restart your PC to display the
original icons.
Using Icon Library
How do I start using Icon Library?
A User Manual has been provided which gives you
detailed instructions on how to use Icon Library.
Where are all the icons in the shareware version?
The shareware version of Icon Library only comes with a small number of all the
icons available in the full, registered version. Some of the categories will contain
all the available icons, while many of the other categories will not contain any icons.
The categories without icons will instead display a reminder to register the program.
The menu names which contain icons will have (SHAREWARE) appended to the
menu name. The Icon Library web site will
contain screenshots of all the icons available in the full version of the program
so you can see what you will receive when you register.
Why does the shareware version have two ICOLIB.INI files?
The Registered Menu will load all of the categories, including the ones
that are only available in the registered version of Icon Library. The
Shareware Menu loads only those categories which contain icons. This menu is
provided for your convenience so you don't have to search for categories containing
icons. The registered version of Icon Library only provides the full menu.
Why would I want to change the display background color?
Try it! Display a collection of icons using a white background and then change the
background to a another color. The icons will appear to be quite different especially
if you change from a light background to a dark one. This option allows you to see
what the icons look like against different backgrounds.
What is the purpose of the BMP transparent color option?
Icons can have pixels designated as being transparent but bitmaps do not have that
ability. This option allows you to choose a color that represents these transparent
pixels. When you save the bitmap file, you will see the transparent parts of the
image set to this color. When you edit this image you can manipulate these pixels
as desired. For example, in Photoshop you can set this color to be transparent again
before saving the image as a GIF file, since GIF files can handle transparent pixels.
How do I find an icon I need?
The best way is to look through the Icon Library categories. They have been sorted
in a reasonably logical manner, making it fairly easy to find icons on for a
specific purpose. There are no search tools available with Icon Library. Searching
for images is an almost impossible task, while creating search keywords for each
of the 20,000 icons would be an enormous, tedious task.
Can I extract a single icon from the library?
Yes you can. Here are the instructions that
tell you how. You can extract an icon and save it as either an ICO icon file
or a BMP bitmap file.
Can Windows access icons in the ICL icon library files?
Yes. If you don't want to extract any icons but prefer to keep them in their
original ICL files, you can still point Windows to these icons. Most places
where you would use an ICO type icon, you can also use one contained in an
ICL file. The main difference is that you will have many icons to chose from
rather than the single icon normally found in an ICO file. When trying to
open an ICL file, you may need to select the All Types option within
the Open window otherwise the ICL files may not be displayed. You
should also be careful not to move or delete any icon file once it is used by Windows.
Should I store important icons in a dedicated folder?
Although you can use icons directly from within the ICL libraries, I recommend
that you extract and store in a standard folder any icon used within your system. I
created a folder called c:\icons for this purpose. It is much easier to find and
manage a smaller number of frequently used icons by having them all in one place.
There is also less danger of you moving or deleting this folder.
What formats can I select to save the icon?
You can extract and save icon images as ICO icon files or as BMP
bitmap files. If the original icon contains multiple images then the extracted icon
file will also contain multiple images. If you save such an icon in the bitmap format
then multiple bitmap files, one for each icon image, will be saved. At this time, it
is not possible to save icons as GIF or JPG images, so you would have
to use another graphics editing program to convert BMP files to these formats.
A future version of Icon Library will probably have the ability to save files in these
additional formats.
Why can't I save icons as GIF or JPG images?
I have not worked out how to do it yet. This new version of Icon Library has already
been delayed too long and I did not want to hold up the release further by adding
more and more options. The main purpose of this version is to release a library of
20,000 icons which is double what was provided in the previous version. Once this
version has been released, and a reasonable number of registrations indicate support
for the product, I will develop a new version which allows you to save icons as
GIF or JPG images.
Customization
Advanced Topics
How do I change various desktop icons on my system?
Follow these links to find out how to change icons for your
Drives,
Folders,
Files,
Shortcuts or
System
Can I use icons with more than 16 colors on my desktop?
Windows can display icons with more than 16 colors, but you may have to
change some properties to make it work.
How can I create my own icons?
You can either create completely original icons or use
existing Icon Library icons on
which to base your creations. Icon Library does not have capabilities to create or edit
icons so you have to use another application designed for the purpose. A program that I use
and highly recommend is called MicroAngelo.
This program will let you create and edit icons, and then merge them into ICL
library files.
Can I use icons as images on my web site?
Not directly. You first have to save the image contained within the icon as a bitmap file.
Icon Library has the option to extract and save bitmap images from icons in the collection.
There is an Application Note available which explains
in more detail how to use icons as bitmap images.
Some older versions of web browsers may not be able to display bitmap images. If this is a
concern, then you may want to convert your bitmap images to either the GIF or JPG format
using one of the many graphics manipulation packages that are
available.
What other programs are useful with Icon Library?
There are several programs which are useful companions to Icon Library. These programs will
provide you with the ability to create and edit icons, collect icons into libraries,
manage icons on your desktop using an easy GUI interface, convert images formats, and use
icon images as the building blocks for larger, more complex images. Here is a brief
description of a selection of these useful tools.
Where can I obtain more icons to use with Icon Library?
Over time, new collections of icons, especially 256 color icons, will be added to
http://iconlibrary.com.
Is it legal to use copyright icons with Icon Library?
It may be possible to use icon collections created by other authors with Icon Library. I
don't see any legal problems as long as you do not redistribute those copyright icons.
Can Icon Library handle icons with 256 or more colors?
Yes. Icon Library will handle icons with 256 colors or more.
Can Icon Library handle icons other than 32x32 pixels?
Yes. Icon Library can handle icons of any size.
Can Icon Library handle ICO files containing multiple icons?
Yes. Icon Library can handle ICO files containing multiple icons of varying color
depths or sizes, however, it will only display 32x32 pixel images with either 16 or 256
colors. All images will be extracted correctly into an ICO file or multiple
BMP files.
Can Icon Library handle icons in EXE and DLL files?
No yet. In the current version of Icon Library, there is a technical issue preventing icons
from being extracted from EXE and DLL files. I hope to have this problem
fixed in a future version of Icon Library.
Registration
Do I have to register?
Theoretically, you should register if you plan to use Icon Library for more than
30 days, however, I realise that there is no way I can enforce this condition without
including expiry dates with the program. This is something I have no plans to do.
I therefore rely on your conscience. You should register if you decide the product is
useful to you and you would like to reward me for the thousands of hours spent
creating Icon Library. Of course, by registering, you will also reap substantial
rewards. See the next answer.
What are the benefits to me if I register?
These are the benefits of registering:
How do I register?
You can register by going to http://iconlibrary.com
and clicking on either the Digibuy or PayPal links. You will be required
to pay a US$19 registration fee if you are purchasing a single license. When I have
been notified by Digibuy or PayPal that you have registered, I will
email you instructions on how to download the full, registered version of Icon Library.
How much does it cost?
A single license costs US$19.
Do you have multiple or site licenses?
Yes. I provide substantial discounts for multiple licenses.
-
1 license (no discount) .... US$29.00
2-5 licenses (15% discount) ... US$25.00 each copy
6-20 licenses (30% discount) ... US$20.00 each copy
21+ licenses (50% discount) ... US$15.00 each copy
I can also provide site licenses for larger organisations by negotiation.
Can I register with a credit card?
Yes. Both Digibuy and Paypal have facilities for secure credit
card payments. A link is provided on the Icon Library website.
Can I register using the online PayPal payment service?
Yes. A link is provided on the Icon Library website.
Can I register with a personal check?
Yes. I accept personal checks, bank checks or even cash. However, it may not be a
good idea to send cash in the post. Currencies other than US Dollars are accepted
as long as the amount paid is roughly equivalent to US$19. If you want to pay using
a check, you will also have to print, then fill out a
Registration Form.
Send the completed details with your payment to the address shown on the form. Download
intructions for the full version of Icon Library will be emailed to you as soon as
your registration is received. I can also email the program to you if you select this
option. Make sure that your email INTRAY can accept large ZIP-file attachments. Many
email providers have started to restrict incoming attachments as a form of virus
protection. It is probably more reliable for you to download the program yourself rather
than receiving it by email. Also, please note that it takes 1-2 weeks for postal mail
to reach me in Australia. Online registration is quicker!
Copyright
What are the license conditions for Icon Library?
Detailed license conditions are available here.
Do I have to pay royalties for comercial use of the icons?
After registration, no further royalty payments for the use of small numbers of
icons is required. Please remember that I do not allow a competing product to be
created using icons from the Icon Library collection.
Who owns copyright to the icons?
I am not a lawyer so the following may be complete rubbish.
- What value have you added to these public domain icons?
- Searching the net and other sources for public domain icons.
- Finding and removing tens of thousands of duplicate icons
from these combined collections, thus creating a unique collection of icons.
- Classifying these unique icons into categories to make
icons easier to find.
- Removing fixed (often white) backgrounds in icons by
making the backgrounds transparent where approriate.
- Correcting any minor flaws in the icon artwork.
- Creating variations on individual icons where there is
a need (eg. to complete a set of arrows, different colors, etc).
- Placing individual icons into ICL library files, thus
saving the huge amounts of disk space normally taken by
individual icons and greatly speeding up disk access to icons.
- Providing documentation and application notes to help you
use these icons in a meaningful way.
- Maintain my icon viewing software.
If have any questions not covered by this FAQ, please email me at steve@its.monash.edu.au.
|
|
|
|
