I'm not sure there's ever been a complete step-by-step process posted to lead
people through creating color icons for their project. So I wrote one; here it
is. (It will also be added to the Knowledge Base very soon.)
To use Constructor to create icons that work both in black and white, and in
8-bit color, do the following:
- upgrade your CodeWarrior r6 with the 3.5 SDK from
http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/tools/ and add the updated Constructor which is
in the seeding area of the Pavilion at http://www.palmos.com/dev/pavilion/
- remove the old icons from your project, so you don't confuse things by
having duplicate objects
- create a new App Icon Family, with ID 1000, by clicking on "App Icon
Families" and pressing control-k. Select the ID if it isn't already 1000, and
set it to 1000 since that's the ID you must use for the large application icon.
- Double-click on the new App Icon Family you created. Specify a width and
height of 32 pixels, then click where it says "Family Items" and press control-K
twice.
- Set the first family member to be a one-bit depth icon, no transparency, no
compression, and then make up a new bitmap ID (I usually use 1001 for this
icon.)
- In the second family member, set its depth to 8 bit, with transparency, then
choose a color that will be the transparent color (I use the bright green one
near the bottom left corner), turn off compression, and then make up a new
bitmap ID (I use 1008.)
- Click the "Create" button for the first (black and white) family member.
The dialog that comes up will let you edit that icon. (Its title bar says
"Bitmap ID 1001", that's correct.
- Go to the Options menu, and select "Set Image Size". Specify 32 by 32 and
click "Resize".
- Go to the Colors menu, and select "Black & White (1-bit depth)".
- Draw your icon. Even though the window is 32 by 32, you should only use the
top 22 pixels, and your drawing should be no wider than 22 pixels, centered
horizontally in the window. This is not strictly necessary unless you want to
maintain compatibility with all versions of Palm OS and all the known
application launching programs. 22x22 is the "proper" size, but using 32x32 and
centering horizontally but not vertically will make it work everywhere, at the
expense of a few extra bytes in your icons.
- When you're done with your black and white icon, repeat the process for the
8-bit version. (Click "Create", set the size to 32x32 and the color depth to 8,
and draw.) I find it saves time to copy the black and white icon's data into
the color icon, and then adjust the colors to look right.
- To create the small application icons, do the same except create an App Icon
Family with id 1001 and new IDs for the icons for the one-bit and eight-bit
bitmaps (I use 1011 and 1018), and set the sizes to be 9 high by 15 wide.
Then save and build your project. If you end up with a generic application
icon, make sure you're using ID 1000, and are using the 3.5 SDK with CodeWarrior
r6.
-David Fedor
Palm Developer Support
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