# converting .gif to an icon file?



## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Does any one know how (or if possible) to convert .gif files into icon files? Sometimes I will want to change an icon and want to essentially make my own. For instance... I have a link on my desktop that goes to the last post on the "ramblin discussion" thread (some of you might know why) and it has the gay "internet icon" instead of the tech guy icon. I want to change it but put something "Tech Guyish" there instead. ...actually that is the only reason I want to know why but might serve usefull in the future. I tried changing it to a .dll file but that doesn't work.


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## rhettman5 (Dec 3, 2000)

Look here: http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-1476516-100-7601396.html?tag=st.dl.1476516.unav.0

This is a shareware Icon maker/editor, I don't have it , and didn't see anything about gif, but jpeg was listed, anyway, check it out and see if it helps...Rhett


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

deuce,
Try IrfanView, a free graphics viewer, editor that supports most all graphics formats, including .ico files.

Haven't tried it myself, but i'm downloading it now as it has been highly touted by several members here, esp. RandyG.

It also suports animations for the avatar inclined 

You can get from ZDnet or here:

http://www.irfanview.com/english.htm

(ps, check your PMs!)


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Well if gif doesn't work I can always save it as jpeg. I will try that. Also, I am downloading IrfanView as I have been wanting to for a while for those same reasons... and just never did.

"check your pms" ok I will but that is strange because I haven't gotten the pop up when I came just to TSG the other minute saying I had any new pms. Another glich, Mike?


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ah... I see now. (nevermind Mike... ) You sent it last night and last night I was replying to pms and fell asleep and didn't see yours because it was the newest. Thanks... interesting site.


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## rhettman5 (Dec 3, 2000)

Just got infranview also, don't know if I will use it, but don't wanna be left out  ....Rhett


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## buck52 (Mar 9, 2001)

Irfranview will convert gif to ico for use on your desktop quite easily.

Not sure exactlly why but if I save a gif that I have downloaded as .bmp rather than .ico the background remains transparent when I use it on my desktop

Another note...As of yet I have not figured out how to make the backgrounds on my custom icons transparent on XP yet 

buck


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

rhettman,

Don't mean to be pissy  (read picky) 
but I\'ve spent half my life reading about RandyG's _Irfan_View
and always thought of it it as _Infran_view as well ....seemed more natural to think of it that way.

Didn't sink in till the download 

Easier on the brain and the tongue, eh?


So in this case, you're not left out, but included!


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## rhettman5 (Dec 3, 2000)

I've read about it for months,

Ive Downloaded it,

I've played with it,

I would have never noticed if you hadn't told me.

I wonder how many other boo boo's I make daily ??
 

Now you got me thinking  ...Rhett


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

Was it Yoda that said something like 
"there is no boo boo's,
only doo doo's." 

Something like that?
 

Sorry, got overly blown about spelling...
IN my mind it was always Infranview...
go figure,
was sorta let down by the true name...


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

yeah the real name doesn't sound as good.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

Here this is icon size.
I made it an icon but can't post it but you can change the format.

Go here for image programs.
http://www.sover.net/~whoi/pricelessgraphics.html


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Hey thanks hewee... I may also use that for an avater, maybe try to do somthing alone the line of davey's avatar.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Hummm... that might make a nice replacement for the "My Computer" computer.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ok thanks everybody! Got it done... real quick and easy. This is my desktop for now. All three TSG icons were done with IconCoolEditer, and the wallpaper is courtesy of Hewee.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

Glad you like it. I have the avater's turn off but when I find davey's I will look at it.

Cool you got the wallpaper I made.
I got the full 800x600 and 640x480 verion if you want it. I never made one for my new PC that I use the 1224x768 on but that easy to do.
The 800x600 is 270KB so I can't post it.
You want a cup with your name on it or Random Discussion. Maybe just Random so I can make the text bigger and have it show up better. Could leave it black and you can just name as you have it now. What color cup you want?
Your TSG came out better then mine. 
I just opened it and saved it as a icon may be why. I never tried resizing it first.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Say hewee... could you email me the 800x600 version? [email protected] It's in my profile too but I put it anyway. Well I used a 64x64 pixel icon and pasted davey's TSG logo into it and saved it was 64x64. The icon size on my desktop is 32x32 so I guess it reduced it according, and for some reason this round-about method came out better than yours. Ohhhhh... actually I think that it came out better because I pasted the transparency tile over that off-white (or whatever color it was) that was around the TSG circle so you might be getting the original outside color and I get the color of my desktop. I will attach it anyway in case you want it. It is saved as .ico but I renamed it as .jpeg for the purpose of posting it. All you have to do is rename it back to .ico. Humm... what color eh... white to ash-gray would be good...


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ok well that didn't work. It has before, but oh well. Couldn't save it with the transparent in any other than .ico so this is 64x64 but doesn't have the transparent stuff in it.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ok made a new one for the "Rambling Discussion" thread. I think I like this one better than the arrow but I'm not sure.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

Hey the 800x600 wallpaper is in the mail.

Thanks for the icon. Yes it better but still fuzzy.
Maybe it's just too much trying to down size it and keep it looking good. I have a real good copy in .bmp that I got from the store page. But look at the ad below and it's ok but you can get the text to look right that small.

I can't tell if the desktop 12-10-01.jpg is better ir not.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Does anybody know if you can change just the my computer icon and not the whole set?


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## RT (Aug 20, 2000)

Well, you can change it if you make a shortcut to My Computer...

Don't know if that's how you'd wanna do it, I don't think you are allowed to delete the original icon. There may be a way but I don't know it right now.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

If you are talking about the drives in My Computer then look here.

http://members.aol.com/don5408/aptiva.html

Create your own Drive Icons

http://members.aol.com/mbs1058/mycompico.html


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

No I was talking about changing the actual image that displays for "my computer". In other words... does anybody know how I can change the computer image to something else without changing the whole set? It sounds like it isn't possible. (by "set" I am talking about all the system icons... you can change everything from my computer to my network places to driver files to cursors all according to the same theme.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

Go to Display Properties, Click on the the Effects tab.
Click on My Computer and click on the change icon button.
You will see a window that pops up that you can pick from.
If you want another icon then browse to it. Once ou find 
your icon ok your way out. If the icon does not show up
then go to the Effects tab and put a check in the box that
say "show icons using all possible colors". You will be ask
tp reboot your PC for this to take effect. Then go back and
pick your icon. You can also use .bmp. When you click on browse
go to the "files of types" and pick "All files" then you can
use a .bmp. But on the .bmp it does not resize the whole image
right so you should do that it MS Paint first. It shows the
top left corner of the .bmp. 
The link I post before will tell you the files that icons.
I have IconTOY that will find 1000's of icons on your PC.
The one I have there is no install but the IconTOY2 and I
see IconTOY3.1 is out now.
http://www.lighttek.com/toy.htm


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ok I'll do that... thanks.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Well... made a new one that I thought looked better and then saw it didn't look better than the me one anyway once I did the switch... oh well. At least now I won't forget how to do it should I decide to again some day in the future.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

What type of Icon do you want?


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

I don't know... I have been trying to go through and replace some of these boring looking and ms'y looking icons and trying to liven my desktop up so to speak. Why... do you have a bunch of good libraries or know of some?


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Let me go find some sites for you.

I can make icons also.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

OK here are some sites.

http://freethemes.kr.psi.net/icons.html

Here this will keep you busy looking.

http://www.google.com/search?q=desktop+icon&chk=on


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Thanks I'm sifting through them. There's some interesting stuff out there.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Your welcome.

I was trying to find an old place that was really good but can't find it. It showed all the icons so you look. Lots of the places you have to download zips and open them to see them. 
The zips are small but you can get lot of one's you don't want. So make a folder and unzip them to it and pick out the ones you want, then trash the rest.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Yeah... that's kinda what I have been doing. You'd think it'd be nice to not have to unzip all the crap, but then again you have a lot more to choose from as far as picking the ones to keep.

BTW... how much html do you know Hewee?... can you tell me what's wrong with my sig? The colorizer stuff works in a post, but not in my sig. How do all those people do it? This is what I am trying to do: Mike.

P.S. ...at 1.4073 mi. already...  Man that little guy is fast!


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

You can get a lot of junk fonts but the zips are small and you know where the trash is.

I don't know any .html so. 
What you want to play with is the "HTML Font Colorizer" There is no install so just run it.

But it make a long list of code because you get one code for each letter. But it still gives you code so you can use the one code for a word.

http://www.theill.com/hfc/

Boy that mouse get getting in the miles.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

After looking at your html code I see you did not pick any font at all, but only the color of the font so try adding a font to the code.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Got it fixed Hewee, but thanks for helping anyway. Apparently you can't use < and > in your sig (because html is turned off) so < and > are replaced with [ and ] and I few words are switched.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Great to hear that.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Yeah it's always nice to solve a problem every once in awhile, even if it may be my own... especially when I periodically get sucked into the random board.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Yea you been have a lot of catching up to do here also and I see you have been all over.
I can here late last night but did not stay long because I needed to go to bed so I did just that.
What you said about [ and < at some sites you can use both and others just the < but this one you had to use [. See I just learn something.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Yeah that's what I like about this site... learning new things everyday.  I still have catching up to do. I'll get to me pms in a minute.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

deuce_mn,

Don't rush it there. I can even wait till next year on the PM's.


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## deuce (May 26, 2001)

Ok that's comforting... because I just lost 6 posts.  I had written them as replies to stuff in the rambling discussion archives that I missed from yesterday and wed. and then read about Doyce's stepfather and decided to wait on posting them as that was not the time to do so... and left my computer and lost my video for some reason...  and had to restart.  The computer went on standby and I got it off and could use it... just I didn't have video. Oh well, it's not the end of the world.  I bet DDDS and Chris are also waiting for some replies to a couple of theirs that they sent me.


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