IconWorkshop Reviewer's Comments
IconWorkshop 6.1 by Axialis Software, our “TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award“ winner makes creating, editing, converting and managing your icons achievable through one easy to use, powerful interface.
IconWorkshop is the only icon design software that can create icons for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac and Linux. This product offers more resources for creating icons than any other package. You can create icons with Image Object Packs from the Axialis Software website, drag & drop ready-made images from the built-in library, or download images from the web using the built-in browser. Import existing images from PSD, PNG, BMP, JPEG and GIF files.
The built-in librarian will manage your icons for you as you create, edit and sort icon images. Great tutorials are included in the help documentation and on the website. Anyone can use this application to create dynamic and unique icons. All of these functional features combined with a great price, makes this product the best on the market.
IconWorkshop can create Windows icons up to XP and Macintosh icons up to Tiger. You can also load, create and edit Windows Vista icons.
You can create icons several different ways. Use the drawing tools to design an original, or jumpstart the creation process by downloading Image Object Packs from the Axialis website. Object packs come from a library of 150 image objects that permit you to create icons by simply dragging and dropping the objects into the editor. The built-in librarian also contains ready-to-use images and step-by-step tutorials to show you how to create multi-layer icons.
Import images from a variety of file types: PSD, PNG, BMP, JPEG and GIF. Importing images from Adobe Photoshop, the Internet and other third-party application furthers your creation possibilities. IconWorkshop supports all formats containing alpha channel.
Editing Icons:
With IconWorkshop you can edit icons using a customized color palette along with various drawing tools like pencil, brush, a selection tool and more. Use the batch processing features to change the format of several icons at once. Capture an image using the snapshot feature and import the image into an icon.
You can copy or paste alpha channels as masks or you can extract an alpha channel from an icon to create a grayscale mask image. Images can be viewed in an adjustable preview window. You can also export an icon into Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro for modification while preserving transparency.
Managing Icons:
IconWorkshop's built-in librarian can be utilized through the main interface. It can organize icon files as well as import and export images. Even archived icons can be easily accessed for edit.
Ease of Use:
This application is fairly easy to use. Users will appreciate the simplicity and speed of this program's utilities. The unique drag and drop feature enables icon creation in seconds. Drawing and color tools are intuitive, and all functions are contained in the all-in-one interface.
Help/Support:
The help documentation is by far the most complete and concise of any of the products we reviewed. The tutorials are clearly written and easy to follow. An index and a search feature are included. For technical support they offer email support, FAQ and a user forum.
Summary:
IconWorkshop is indeed a complete workshop for creating, editing, and managing icons. The all-in-one interface provides a plethora of resources from which you can design innovative icons for Windows XP, Vista, and Mac.
