Icon-A-Day, Icon #3, The Text File

Simple but imporatnt, everyone is going to see this one.

Monday, January 10, 2005 by mormegil | Discussion: Icons

 
Icon 03 (Text File)

      Today I am going to cheese out a bit. I am kind of short on time, so today we will knock out another simple icon; the Text File. The Text File icon is actually very important as its look tends to be carried over into a lot of other files and folders. We shall see this as we continue on through the rest of the pack.  So with that, lets get started. Like I said this one is going to be quick.

 
Step 1:

I copy our Default icon from yesterday. I am going to be putting some text on it so I want to make sure that the surface of the icon is a bit more opaque, so I tweak the main objects fill with the Interactive Transparency tool, and stick a dark background behind my Icon so I can tell how it looks.

 Step 2:

Now, using the Rectangle tool, I place one slightly transparent black box on the page And duplicate it down the page. I am going for that Notepad kind of feeling. This is a kind of tired look, but like I said this icon is going to be quick. I also copy the last box, rotate it and turn it red for our margin line.

 Step 3:

Now using the Text tool we simply put in some text, because I am doing this as a tutorial I just grabbed some from the day one article and pasted it in.
I am making the top text white on the blue background, this will probably end up being a standard for the pack.

Step 4:

Now using the same technique as the last two days, I copy the main image and convert it to a bitmap, flip it, crop it and fade it out. To get our reflection.


 		 Finished Icon Image.


 



Download Finished Icon Here

This is the Text File icon; its not a real wow icon, but it is more important then most people think. Tomorrow I will try and do something a bit more impressive.

Someone suggested I do a video of this. I think I will try and do a few videos showing some of the techniques I am using a lot, so keep an eye out for that.

Read other Icon-A-Day Articles. Icon # 1, Icon # 2,

And don't forget to check for all the Icon-A-Day icons as they get made, in the Miscellaneous Icons Gallery at Wincustomize.com

4 Reply 46 Referrals
Stupendous Man
Reply #1 Monday, January 10, 2005 3:42 PM
Mormegil, maybe for you this is "not a real wow icon", but for those of us who wish we had just a fraction of your talent this is a VERY cool icon. Thanks for the tutorial and keep 'em comin'!

Corky_O
Reply #2 Monday, January 10, 2005 8:04 PM
Day #3 and I have learned so much.

Thanks, Teach.

retiredmaster
Reply #3 Tuesday, January 11, 2005 4:30 AM
This is a great series of tutorials and a good encouragement for non-icon people (like me) to get on and do some icons. I'm looking forward to the more difficult ones (like my computer and the drive icons).


Will_Uknight
Reply #4 Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:44 AM
i always longed to learn how to do graphics work, and extend my digital techniques.

Thankyou !

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