Custom Application Icon for processing app

Question

I've written a small Processing App which I'm planning to release soon. What's still missing is a sweet custom icon for Titlebar/Taskbar (Win) and Dock (Mac). Any suggestions how to do this?

Thx!

Answer 1

Meanwhile I figured it out on my own:

Obviously this works for Mac OS by replacing the sketch.icns file within the exported app, for win & liunx is done by adding this line to your setup method:

frame.setIconImage( getToolkit().getImage("sketch.ico") );

Answer 2

It depends if you have any artistic ability or not.

If not, then you can hire an icon designer to do one, or search the web for free icons - there are billions.

If you have a modicum of artisticness, then you could grab a free icon that is almost what you want and then tweak it. IcoFX is a great free application for doing this sort of thing.

If you think you have what it takes to draw an icon from scratch, then a good plan is to use a vector art package. This allows you to export the same graphic at multiple resolutions so you can get top quality at every icons size you need (from 16x16 to 256x256). Alternatively, draw a large (512x512) verison in a bitmap editor and then downscale it as required. As long as you start big and downscale, you shouldn't have any problems (although to get a good icon at 16x16 and 32x32 you will still need a good eye and a lot of manual tweaking).

Answer 3

In your code, just type this line:

frame.setIconImage( getToolkit().getImage("sketch.ico") );

For Windows/Linux, this will do it. For Mac/OSX, follow these steps:

1. Find your sketch in Finder
2. Right click > info, or CmdI
3. Find your icon and open it in Preview
4. In Preview, click on your icon and press CmdA or right click > select all
5. In Preview, press CmdC, or right click > copy
6. Go back to Finder. Click on the current icon of your sketch. You'll know you've selected it when a blue outline appears. Press CmdV, or right click > paste

Tips:

• The standard icon size is 512x512
• When making your icon, make sure that your transparencies are working