Where are all those new icon packages?

Windows Vista a double-edged sword

Friday, August 24, 2007 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

Windows Vista delivered some outstanding icons.  The new icons in Vista are natively 256 pixel by 256 pixel images.  This is great from an aesthetics point of view.

But there are some downsides.

First, any icon (whether in a program or elsewhere) that doesn't have a 256x256 version gets its 48x48 version used even if a higher resolution icon is available (such as 128x128 icons).  This means that many of the great icon packages of all time that supported the 128x128 Windows XP icon format won't look great under Windows Vista.

Secondly, as you can imagine 256x256 is pretty big.  To put it in perspective, the icon in this news item is only 128x128.  A 256x256 image is FOUR TIMES bigger.  So you're talking about a lot of artwork needed to make it look good (a lot more detail needed). This vastly increases the artistic capability necessary to make them.

The article linked below talks about some of the challenges. What do you think is going to happen? 

17 Reply 16 Referrals
Josephs
Reply #1 Friday, August 24, 2007 9:49 PM
Stardock have made some pretty nifty developer dodads in the past. Take a look at SkinStudio Classic.

That program has some pretty neat features in it, such as Batch Image Recoloring. Well.. What if IconPackager had Batch Image Resizing. And with one click of a button, WindowsXP 128x128 Icons where converted to Windows Vista 256x256 Icons.

Why would I say such a thing?
Well I don't know about you other Vista Users, but browsing through explorer with 256x256 icons is just ridiculous. So, with IconPackager offering a sort-of -Quick Fix-, I suppose we could see more IconPackages being used with Vista.

Just an idea guys

thomassen
Reply #2 Saturday, August 25, 2007 5:43 AM
I was making some icons the other day for a gadget I'm working on. And to my frustration Vista didn't seem use use any icons larger than 48x48, even though I had very size uptil 256x256. I had created every variation in Illustrator, not just resized one image.

I found that to make Vista use the 256x256 icon I had to compress it.

However, the default icon size you see on Vista is 96x96, so when Vista uses the 256x256 image it becomes fuzzy where you have straight lines because some of the pixels ends up in between the pixel grid.

Astyanax
Reply #3 Saturday, August 25, 2007 11:27 AM
Forget the new iconpackages with 256x256, what about support for Vista 64 bit?

nicksick
Reply #4 Monday, August 27, 2007 9:21 AM
Is stardock just not doing anything else for xp? just vista?

Zoomba
Reply #5 Monday, August 27, 2007 9:34 AM

We're continuing support for XP.  WindowBlinds 6 brings a lot of enhancements to XP such as the blur effect, the animated start menu and more.  Just because we discuss Vista and what it means for skinning doesn't mean XP has been abandoned.  A lot of us still run XP here at the office and at home.

There's still plenty going on with XP.


Astyanax
Reply #6 Monday, August 27, 2007 11:13 AM
....Which still leaves my question. Where is the 64 bit support for Iconpackager on Vista? Vista ready Iconpackages are useless to people on 64 bit.

Zouly
Reply #7 Monday, August 27, 2007 2:10 PM
indeed, I am into 64 bit under Vista with a icon package of finished and a large wall in front of me….

That paralise I supose much of anybody…

Is there news for this compatibility between Iconpackager and vista64??

Astyanax
Reply #8 Tuesday, August 28, 2007 2:55 PM
Completely ignored!
I appreciate the fast responce to my original question 3 days ago. I'm guessing Iconpackager for Vista x64 will be released upon the next Blue Moon?

MetalHellssAngel
Reply #9 Wednesday, August 29, 2007 5:15 PM
Apparently they don't even want to discuss 64 bit compatibility as I wrote them and was quickly turned in a circle and told by the support department "This is not my department and I can not give you and answer to this question." Which really ticks me off. Icon packager has always been a major part of why I like OD so much. So I really wish they would get on the ball with this.

ZubaZ
Reply #10 Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:02 AM

Giant OS X Icons from the Future: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/08/30/giant-os-x-icons-fro.html

I guess Vista is nto the only OS with HUGE frickin icon options and the same types of issues.

Frogboy
Reply #11 Thursday, August 30, 2007 11:00 AM
64-bit IconPackager should go into beta in the next week or two.

Astyanax
Reply #12 Friday, September 14, 2007 2:59 PM
Well its been just over 2 weeks and still no beta....   

Astyanax
Reply #13 Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:13 AM
And that's nearly another week down.... how many more to go?

ZubaZ
Reply #14 Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:34 AM
And that's nearly another week down.... how many more to go?

I'd rather have something stable later than something buggy on time.

Astyanax
Reply #15 Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:01 PM
Vista x86 has had iconpackager for 5 months now, is it really that seriously unstable?

Astyanax
Reply #16 Thursday, September 27, 2007 3:19 PM
Another week... still no beta as said above. I understand it *may* take some time to do but its been over 5 months since the Vista x86 version was released.

cyberrage
Reply #17 Wednesday, October 3, 2007 8:20 PM
We are still waiting IconPackager for Vista 64...

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