not Cereal Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 ok long one here goes: on OSX there is an icon i like. for the sake of discussion i'll pick one everyone has seen, the hard drive icon. follow me so far? know what it looks like? this: [img]http://www2.netvigator.com/services/techsupp/bb/images/macx1.gif[/img] neat huh? thats not the one i want. but its very similiar. ok, so i can transfer the icon onto os 9.1. i did that, its on my 8600/g3 thingy. ok. it works. it looks JUST LIKE the one in OSX. exactly the same. heres the problem: i want to have a different color to the icon. [i]This doesnt work[/i] what happens is this: i open the icon in photoshop 6, and can view it. the hard drive example is a sqaure picture (however the icon is NOT square, this is the problem; more on this later). fine. thats ok. i can now "save as" a different document, then open that, copy, paste onto the folder i want the icon on. this works. its the same icon, its not a square, its the picture of the hard drive. follow me? all that works. what doesnt work is this: the moment i try and change the color of the icon, i run into a problem. when i paste the newly colored icon onto the folder i want, the icon IS A SQUARE and not shaped like the hard drive picture. the hard drive is still there, and looks nice, but ITS IN A WHITE SQUARE, not the neat looking hard drive-only icon. this has to be some type of transparency issue, where the outside of the squre without the picture is transparent. how do i do this? HELP! i tested this with the OS9.1 hard drive icon also; its the same exact thing. if you change the color of the icon in photoshop, then the newly pasted icon is the old icon in a white square. i need some help to figure out how to make the icons color change without getting the ugly white square. why am i doing this? i have 14 partitions on my desktop. i want to have the same icon for all partitions, color coded. right now they are different icons. not a big deal, BUT I WANT TO KNOW HOW TO DO THIS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 You need to choose "transparent background." And only save the "selected item." Something like that, I forget the exact lingo. https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisDude Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Hmmm... sounds like the alpha channel is not being saved with the new icon. Did you check if the bit-depth is correct? I think "png" files are 24 bit (vs. 16) and with that extra data, the alpha channel carries over too. I would try saving as a png and then copying/pasting into the "Get Info" dialogue box, after of course making your color changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 ok, sounds good. can you dumb it down a little for me? alpha channel? png? explain a little more? i'm a little deficient in graphics apps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisDude Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 OKay, I've never done this before and I'm not sure if it'll work. But it sounds like something I'd like to do too, so at work tonight, if I have time, I'll try it. In a nutshell, an alpha channel is an extra channel of info (in addition to the red, blue, and green) that usually decribes transparencies or clipping paths. If an RGB image with an alpha channel is saved as a traditional file format (like jpg), the alpha channel does not get saved alongside it, hence the ugly white box. Go view>channels to pull up your channels palette and click on the channel that says "alpha" or "clipping". It will look like a B&W outline of your HD icon. If there isn't an alpha channel then my theory is shot. Make sure all channels are visible and save the file as a 24-bit png. Close out and try copying the icon and pasting into the icon dialogue box for the icon you wanna replace (Apple-I with the old one highlighted in your finder). I'll try it later. Get back to you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Coaster, I'm not sure if that can be done with jpegs. You may need to save that pic as a gif. In Photoshop 6, when you start a NEW file, it will bring up a dialog window titled "New." At the bottom of that window is a box that says "Contents." Check transparent, and hit "OK." That should start a file with the grey-and-white checkerboard background, which signifies a transparent background. Paste your image into your new file, and change the color. Then save your file as a CompuServe GIF. When you push "Save," it should bring up a dialog window called "Indexed Color." Make sure there's a check next to "Transparency." Hit "OK." Then, FWIW, I usually chose "Interlaced" Row Order in the GIF Options window. And that should do it. I think. Here's an example: [img]http://www.420recordsgroup.com/images/nevermindbaby.gif[/img] Hope that helps a little. https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 yea you guys know exactly what i'm talking about. thanks. i'll try looking for that stuff tonight when i get home. the alpha channel thing....sounds a lot like making skins in soundjam...ya gotta have a transparency layer in the skin to do that, i havent ever done it in photoshop because ive never tried doing this before, live and learn. hopefully we'll get this figured out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salyphus Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Hey dBunny, why don't you animate the 'ladies' in your avatar? :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salyphus Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 [quote]Originally posted by dBunny:[b] Here's an example: [img]http://www.420recordsgroup.com/images/nevermindbaby.gif[/img] [/b][/quote]DUDE, you can't post things like that here!! Remember what happened to Pete Townshend :eek: Whatever happened to him anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Yeah, and my avatar has naked little girls in it, too. WTF is my problem??!!??!! :eek: :confused: :freak: I better change my avatar now... d'oh!!! https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salyphus Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 [img]http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:4ijZ8P-weMAC:www.classicalbums.co.uk/images/physical.jpg[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 There we go. Hey, Sal, HOW DID YOU KNOW??? ;) https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salyphus Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Hey...YOURS IS THE WRONG COLOR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 OK, OK. I'll use yours. I just chose that one because it was a slightly smaller file. But yours is better. There we go. :) https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salyphus Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Boy, I sure can't wait for you to get to this one [img]http://web.stargate.net/zeppelin/images/thumbnails/covers/albums/14.jpg[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunny Knutson Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 AAAAAAaaaaaaggggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! :eek: What the HELL is THAT??!!??!! :freak: https://bunny.bandcamp.com/ https://theystolemycrayon.bandcamp.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisDude Posted March 7, 2003 Share Posted March 7, 2003 Okay, here's the dealy-yo. You're running os9.x and I beleive that os uses a different "flavor" of png's than the ones photoshop makes for some strange reason. I tried every file format that carrys alpha channel information, all at different bit depths, even the gif with preserve transparency (which works for the web) to no avail. There's a shareware plugin for photoshop called [url=http://www.iconfactory.com/ibc_faq.asp]iconographer[/url] that claims to do the trick for os 9.x. Get version 3.1. I didn't have time to try it, but let me know if it works, because color coded custom server icons on my desktop (still running 9.2) would make my life a little easier too. It just doesn't make sense to me that a plug-in can do something that photoshop can't. I tried one of our boxes running osX and it's much easier, and for purely academic reasons, here's how to do it. Highlite the icon you want to change, get info (apple-i), highlite the icon in the dialogue box, copy, go to photoshop, open new document (default size should be right) and paste. Make your color adjustments and hold apple down and click on the layer. There should be marching ants around the icon. Go to your channels palette and click on the tiny little arrow in the upper right hand corner. Choose new channel and accept the defaults. The new channel should appear under the rgb channels and be called "alpha". Click on the alpha channel in the channel palettes. You should now only see black with maching ants around the outline. Go to your pen or paint tool and paint white inside the marching ants. Black and white will represent what areas are masked and which areas will be visible. Turn all your channels back on by clicking on the topmost channel (RGB). Save as a native photoshop document (psd) and make sure "alpha channel" is checked off when saving. OSx will recognize native psd documents with alpha channel transparencies. You could even get cooky and use grays or gradients in the alpha channel for "ghost-icons" Okay I've wasted enough time tonight. :D Oh yeah, if you're not changing anything but the color... have you tried labels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 yea i couldnt get photoshop to do it right last night. i looked and looked and looked, and then under "help" there is an "export graphic as transparent" dialog that does exactly what we are talking about. i was able to make the icon i wanted, exactly like were talking about here, and pasteit into a new photoshop picture and it worked! however like you just said there must be something funny with os9.x because i couldnt paste this icon into the "get I " box correctly - that damn white box was still there. thats weird. i'll try the iconograph thing today and see if that works. also, yes i tried labels; they work "ok" i guess but after i tried that i decided that having a colored number on top of the colored icon itself would be the way to go (back to square one) thanks for yur help. its amazing that something so simple is so hard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 7, 2003 Author Share Posted March 7, 2003 IT WORKS! IT WORKS! IT WORKS!!! i got it to do exactly what i want! looks like it will do more, also if i can figger it out. heres the deal: 1. get I, copy, open new in photoshop. 2. THEN (important) create a NEW LAYER (just a normal layer will do) 3. paste into new layer. mess around and change this layer the way you want to see it. dont use the original layer for anything. 4. open iconbuilder 3.1 under FILTER menu 5. it creates its own mask and everything. i left the sizes alone for sake of ease and hit SAVE 6. it barks unless i have the bit mask set to ONE 7. places new icon on desktop. 8. get I, copy 9. paste it onto the drive you want IT WORKS! NO WHITE SQUARE!!! COOLYMOOLYO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisDude Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 Awesome! I'm thinking numbered skulls and crossbones for my servers. :evil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
not Cereal Posted March 8, 2003 Author Share Posted March 8, 2003 AAAHH! but there is always a but! after doing some extensive tweaking, i began to notice something! if your creating your own icons from scratch, your fine. create away. if your doing what i was doing, well, theres a noticable issue raised. (what the hell are you talking about, coasty?) um, well, lets take that hard drive picture in my first post: take the actual icon from osx, copy it onto a folder on your hard drive (on osx). boot into os9.x run photoshop 6, paste the icon into a new layer in a new document (this case its 28 * 29) dont do anything to the icon. run iconbuilder from filter menu, setit up the way you want (32 bits, 8 bit alpha channel, 32*32) ouput that. now go to your desktop and compare the original hard drive icon to the one you just did. they look really, really, close dont they. theyre not the same though. (close enough except for picky fuckers like me) see the angled lines that are the sides of the hard drive are not as smooth as the original icon. close, but no cigar. i tried capturing the original icon at many pixel depths, inculding a rediculous 388DPI instead of the standard 72dpi, no change. this is either a bug in the iconbuilder software (doubt it) or apple is doing something very sneaky that we dont know how to do. (hey coaster, your an idiot. everyone knows that osx icons are 128*128 and have higher resolution that os9.x) yes, BUT (always a but) look at the original icon in os9.x it looks exactly like the icon in osx. this particular icon fits into the os9.x limitations, however when we try to recreate this icon the lines get jagged. (ok, not by much, and 9 of 10 people wouldnt give a damn) my point is what you end up with is not what you start with. so far, i have a really fucking cool set of hard drive icons!!!! they rock and i can tell which drive the partitions are on! great! ALSO: if you DO have 14 partitions on your desktop, apple os's will NOT PUT THEM WHERE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO GO!!! but you can write an applescript to put them where you want. if your interested, ask me how. my machine was mixing up all the hard drives after rebooting, they would be in some bizzare order, and i wanted the partitions in logical order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisDude Posted March 8, 2003 Share Posted March 8, 2003 The aliasing you're getting around the new icon is probably as good as it's going to get for os9. I'm 94.99% sure that the plugin is basically doing the same thing that I described for osx escept it's making a "flavor" of png or targa that os9 recognizes. Yes, osx icons have a higher bit-rate and resolution than os9, which is why they look so much shnazzier. But you know how 16 bit audio sounds so great on a store bought cd... until you start mixing with it? I think when you bring an osx icon into os9, it's already been "dithered" down to screen resolution for display but the system is still keeping the "feathered" edge via the higher bit-rate/resolution that the original icon was created in and for. If anyone knows any better, I'd like to know, just for shits and giggles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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