Previous Chapter : Next Chapter : Top
The Icon Editor is a standalone application that you can launch within the Desktop from the Desktop Window, from the Icon Bar, or from the Edit External Command Window. It can also be run as a separate program outside of the Desktop. The Icon Editor lets you create and edit icons, masks, icon galleries, and libraries.
In this chapter you will learn how to use the Icon Editor to:
For a general discussion of icons, refer to "The Desktop Icons."
Desktop icons are stored in files called icon galleries. You can create as many icon galleries as you want. When you start the Icon Editor, you can open any galleries you have created from the Galleries Menu of the Icon Editor Window. Shortcuts are provided to four important galleries:
Only a super-user or system administrator can make changes to the System Icon Gallery, the Icon Bar Gallery, or the Local Site Icon Gallery. If you do not have write permission for these galleries, you cannot save any changes you make to the icons in these galleries.
You can, however, copy icons from either the System Icon, Local Site Icon, or Icon Bar Gallery into your personal gallery or any other icon gallery you have created, where you can edit, save, and use them. (Copying the entire gallery or using the Save As... command in the File Menu is not recommended.) You can put new or modified icons into the System Icon, Local Site Icon, or Icon Bar Gallery with the help of your system administrator.
There are four ways to start the Icon Editor:
The Icon Editor Window is always displayed when the Icon Editor program is running. You can use the File Menu in the Icon Editor Window to open and create icon galleries and libraries as well as to exit the Icon Editor program. Refer to "Working with Icons in Gallery Windows" for more information on creating and modifying icon galleries and on editing individual icons.
Here is an example of the Icon Editor Window:
vice &This assumes that vice is in your search path; otherwise, type the full pathname. Refer to Chapter 7, "Running Programs."
When you start the Icon Editor from a command line, you can also specify arguments that control how the Icon Editor operates.
The following table describes the arguments you can specify at startup..
Table 8. Command line arguments for starting the Icon Editor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This argument: Does this:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-background color Specifies a color for the user interface elements that are in the
or background. Use a color from the system's color database or
-bg color specify a color's Red, Green, Blue (RGB) value in hexideci
mal notation.
-bold font Specifies a font for bold text. You can use any font available
or on your system.
-fb font
-bottomshadow Specifies a color for the bottom shadow of the user interface
color elements. Use a color from the system's color database or
or specify a color's Red, Green, Blue (RGB) value in hexideci
-bs color mal notation.
-display machine Specifies the hardware display name for the machine whose
display will be used by the Desktop. The machine name sup
plied is used to set the DISPLAY environment variable.
filenames Opens the icon galleries you specify at startup automatically.
-font font Specifies a font for plain (nonbold) text. You can use any font
or available on your system.
-fn font
-foreground color Specifies a color for the user interface elements that are in the
or foreground. Use a color from the system's color database or
-fg color specify a color's Red, Green, Blue (RGB) value in hexideci
mal notation.
-iconsize h w Specifies the default size (in height and width) for the icon
editing area in the Icon Editing Window.
-mono Forces a monochrome display on a color monitor.
-shortcuts Places the Galleries Menu on the menu bar of the Icon Editor
Window.
-topshadow color Specifies a color for the top shadow of the user interface ele
or ments. Use a color from the system's color database or specify
-ts color a color's Red, Green, Blue (RGB) value in hexidecimal nota
tion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For information on saving an icon gallery, refer to "Saving Icons."
When you open an icon gallery, the icons and their names are displayed in a Gallery Window. The gallery name also appears in the Icon Editor Window. You can create, copy, and edit icon galleries as described in the following sections.
You can open four important galleries directly from the Galleries Menu in the Icon Editor Window:
By default, the icons in a Gallery Window are displayed alphabetically by name. You can use the Sort Menu to change the display order of the icons. For information about changing the order of icons, refer to "Changing the Display Order of Icons in a Gallery Window."
You can create a new icon gallery using the New Gallery command from the File Menu in the Icon Editor Window.
From the Edit Menu in a Gallery Window, you can cut and copy icons, which you can then paste in other galleries. You can also clear, duplicate, and select icons within the same Gallery Window or move icons from one Gallery Window to another.
Any icon you cut or copy is stored on the clipboard. The clipboard can hold only one item at a time. Whatever you put on the clipboard stays there until you replace it with something else.
If you know the name of the icon you want to find or the letter it begins with, you can narrow your search or select the name by typing the first few letters.
The name of the first icon in the gallery beginning with the letters you typed is highlighted. The Icon Editor gives you two seconds between keystrokes as you type the name of the icon. For example, to find an icon named SAMPLE_ICON, you would have up to two seconds after typing the letter "s" to type "a" for the name SAMPLE_ICON to be found. If you take longer than two seconds to type the letter "a," the Icon Editor starts the search again and finds the first icon that begins with the letter "a."
You can display icons in a Gallery Window in three ways:
When you open an icon gallery, the icons are displayed alphabetically by name.
As you work with the Icon Editor, a check mark appears next to any icons that have been created, edited, or renamed, but not saved.
To change the order in which icons are displayed, select one of the following from the Sort Menu:
The icons are displayed in the order you chose.
Use the Revert command from the File Menu in the Gallery Window to discard any changes made to an icon gallery since the last time it was saved. The Revert command is only available when you have made changes to an icon gallery since last saving it; otherwise, the command is dimmed. You can also return to the previous version of a single icon as described in "Working with Icons in Gallery Windows."
A check mark appears next to an icon's name when the icon has been created, edited, or renamed since the last time the icon gallery was saved. You must save the icon gallery to save the created or edited icon.
There are three ways to save an icon gallery:
You can save icons using either the Save command, for existing icon galleries, or the Save As... command, for new icon galleries or galleries that you want to rename.
The Icon Editing Window is the main working area for creating icons or for editing icons that already exist in your Gallery Window. For information on Gallery Windows, refer to "Working with Icons in Gallery Windows." You can edit any icon from any icon gallery for which you have read permission; however, you can only save the changes you make if you have write permission for the icon gallery.
If you want to edit and save changes for the icons that came with the Desktop, it is a good idea to make a working copy of the icons that you want to edit. Copy these icons and paste them into a new icon gallery. This way, you can retain the original icons in their original galleries and edit and save the copies. For information about cutting, copying, and pasting icons, refer to "Using Edit Commands to Edit Icons."
You can create a new icon and begin editing immediately, or you can store several new icons in an icon gallery until you are ready to edit them. The icons can then be copied and pasted to other Gallery Windows or merged with the System or Local Site Icon Gallery using the icon_merge utility (refer to "Merging Icon Galleries.")
When you first create an icon, it must be created as a monochrome (black and white bitmap) icon. After you create the monochrome icon, you can use it to create a color icon. For more information on color icons and the color palette, refer to the section "Working with Color Icons."
If you are creating a new icon in an existing icon gallery, make sure that you have write permission for that icon gallery. For more information about access permissions, refer to Chapter 6, "Viewing and Changing Directory and File Attributes."
A check mark appears next to the name of the icon in the Gallery Window, indicating that the icon has been created or changed since the icon gallery was last saved.
The Icon Editing Window consists of a menu bar, a Tool Palette, a Line Width Palette, a Color Palette, an Icon Editing area, a Mask Editing area, and four preview boxes.
Here is a typical Icon Editing Window:
The menu bar contains the File, Edit, View, Options, and Icon Menus.
The Tool Palette contains the tools used to create and edit images.
The Line Width Palette below the Tool Palette determines the thickness of lines and figures created with the Line, Ellipse, and Rectangle Tools. The Line Width Palette does not affect the Pencil Tool.
The Color Palette displays 16 colors for creating and editing images when you open the Icon Editing Window. The Color Palette Window opened from the Options Menu also lets you create and work with up to 256 colors while you are working with icons. The Color Palette displays the 16 most recently used colors. There are two small boxes below the Color Palette. The left box contains the selected background color, and the right box displays the selected foreground color.
There are two editing areas in the Icon Editing Window, the Icon Editing area, where you create and edit icons, and the Mask Editing area, where you create the mask for the icon. Each editing area is a grid of squares. Each square corresponds to a pixel on a screen. When you create or edit an icon, you determine which pixels are on and off within the editing area.
The mask is comparable to a stencil. Any portions of the Mask Editing area that are black are like the cut-out areas of the stencil. That is, the original image will be exposed in these areas. For more information about masks, refer to "Creating a Mask" later in this chapter.
The Preview boxes below the Icon and Mask Editing areas show four different views of the icon. The information shown in the preview boxes varies depending on whether you are using a monochrome or color monitor. The previous illustration shows an icon displayed on a monochrome monitor.
On a monochrome monitor:
On a color monitor:
You can import an image file used by another program into an icon gallery and edit it just as you would any icon. Importing an image is a quick way to create a new icon without having to draw it from scratch. The Desktop can only import images that have been saved as Native (a simple bit-mapped format used internally by the Desktop), PPM, or GIF (see your system administrator for more information regarding these formats).
The Desktop icons are based on a 40 x 40 or 24 x 24 pixel grid. However, you can import images that are larger or smaller than 40 x 40. Importing an image file does not include a mask; create the mask after the image is imported as an icon.
When you import a color image, it first appears in the Icon Editing Window as a monochrome icon. To see the color version, select Color Icon from the Icon Menu of the Icon Editing Window.
If an imported image exceeds the size of the Importing Window, only a portion of the image is displayed. To view a larger area of the image, enlarge the Importing Window. Only the portion of the image that is displayed will be imported.
The Filter On Scale button becomes active.
The Icon Information Window lets you adjust the width and height of the icon and mask.
The default icon size used to display files and directories in Directory Windows and on the Desktop is 40 x 40 pixels. The default size of icons on the Icon Bar is 40 x 40 pixels, but you can also use 24 x 24 pixel icons. You can use the Width and Height fields in the Icon Information Window to decrease or increase the size of an icon. This changes the size of the Icon Editing area in the Icon Editing Window and lets you edit the icon within that area. It does not scale an icon to the editing area size.
Use the Revert command from the File Menu in the Icon Editing Window to discard any changes made to an icon since the last time it was saved.
After you create or edit an icon or mask, it must be saved.
The following tools are displayed in the Tool Palette on the left side of the Icon Editing Window:
Use the Hand Tool to move any selected area or to move the icon when it is larger than the Icon Editing Window. When the pointer changes to the Hand cursor, drag the mouse to reposition the icon on the screen.
Use the Dropper Tool to pick up an exact color in the icon to use for painting. The color in the area where you click the Dropper is framed in the Color Palette and displayed in the foreground color box.
To pick up a background color, hold down the Ctrl key when you click the Dropper Tool. The background color is framed in the Color Palette and displayed in the background color box.
Use the Selection Tool to select a rectangular area of an icon for cutting and copying. Dragging the mouse selects a rectangular area of the icon. When you release the mouse button, the area within the rectangle is selected. To select the entire editing area, double-click the Selection Tool in the Tool Palette.
To duplicate and move a copy of the selected area, hold down the Ctrl key, and drag the selected area. Release the mouse button to paste the copied area.
Use the Lasso Tool to select any part of an icon. To select part of an icon, click the Lasso Tool, and then drag the mouse to surround the area you want to select. When you release the mouse button, the selected area appears shaded. In contrast to the Selection Tool, the Lasso Tool selects everything that is not the current background color. This makes lasso selection useful for picking up objects. The Lasso Tool can also be used to select a whole icon. To select the entire editing area, double-click the Lasso Tool in the Tool Palette.
Hold down the Ctrl key and drag a copy of your selection to another part of your icon. Release the mouse button to paste the copied icon.
Use the Fill Tool to fill in any closed area of an icon with the foreground color. When you select the Fill Tool, the pointer cursor changes to a paint can. Click in the area of the icon you want to fill. You can fill in a closed object, or you can use any of the four sides of the Icon Editing area as one side of the closed shape.
Use the Spray Can Tool to spray a scattered pattern. When you select the Spray Can Tool, the pointer changes to a spray pattern. The Spray Can Tool uses the color that is selected as the foreground color. You can control the density of the sprayed dots by slowing down or speeding up the movement of the cursor.
Use the Eraser Tool to erase part of the icon. The pointer changes to a square when the Eraser Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key before you start to drag constrains the eraser horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction you start to drag the mouse. To clear the entire editing area, click in the editing area, and then double-click the Eraser Tool in the Tool Palette. The Eraser Tool erases to the selected background color. This tool is particularly helpful when you want to erase a large area of an icon. The Pencil Tool is recommended for erasing smaller areas, such as individual pixels.
Use the Text Tool to place text into the icon. The Choose Font command from the Option Menu in the Icon Editing Window displays a font selection dialog that lets you select text fonts. For more information on adding text to an icon, refer to "Adding Text to an Icon."
Use the Pencil Tool to draw or erase one pixel at a time by clicking the mouse or to draw a continuous line by dragging the mouse. The pointer changes to a pencil when the Pencil Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key before you start to drag constrains the line horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction you start to drag the mouse. The Pencil Tool is best for detail work on the icon when you need pinpoint control.
Use the Line Tool to draw straight lines one pixel wide. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Line Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key when you first start to drag constrains the line horizontally, vertically, or to a 45-degree angle, depending on the direction you start to drag the mouse. The Line Width Palette in the Icon Editing Window is used to adjust the width of the lines created with the Line Tool.
Use the Ellipse Tool to draw an outline of an ellipse as you drag the mouse in the editing area. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Ellipse Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key when you first start to drag constrains the ellipse to a circle. The outline of the ellipse is the same color as the foreground color.
Use the Filled Ellipse Tool to draw a solid ellipse as you drag the cursor. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Filled Ellipse Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key when you first start to drag constrains the ellipse to a circle. The ellipse uses the foreground color.
Use the Rectangle Tool to draw an outline of a rectangle as you drag the mouse. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Rectangle Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key when you first start to drag constrains the rectangle to a square. The foreground color selection determines the outline color of the rectangle.
Use the Filled Rectangle Tool to draw a solid rectangle as you drag the mouse. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Filled Rectangle Tool is selected. Pressing the Shift key when you first start to drag constrains the rectangle to a square. The foreground color selection determines the color of the rectangle.
Use the Stamp Tool to duplicate an icon or part of an icon stored in a Library (refer to "Working with Library Windows") in the editing area of an Icon Editing Window. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Stamp Tool is selected. Clicking in the editing area duplicates the selection from the Library.
Use the Roller Brush Tool to use an icon or part of an icon stored in a Library (refer to "Working with Library Windows") to paint the editing area of an Icon Editing Window. The pointer changes to a crosshair cursor when the Roller Brush Tool is selected. Dragging in the editing area paints it using the shape and pattern of the selection from the Library.
As long as the cursor is in the Icon Editing Window, you can use any of the keyboard commands in the following table for invoking the tools.
Table 9. Accelerator keys used in the Icon Editing Window
-------------------------------------------------------------
Key Icon Editing Tool
-------------------------------------------------------------
a Spray can
b Roller Brush
i Stamp
| (vertical bar) Line
t Text
s Select
l Lasso
p Pencil
f Paint Can
r Rectangle
R Filled Rectangle
c Ellipse
C Filled Ellipse
e Eraser
d Dropper
h Hand
Enter Last tool used
Alt+key Use key once; then return to previous tool.
-------------------------------------------------------------
You can use the Edit Menu in an Icon Editing Window to cut, copy, and paste icons to other Icon Editing Windows or Libraries. From this menu, you can also clear icons, undo the last action performed, or create a mask for an icon.
The Undo command reverses the effect of your most recent editing action. Undo reverses the actions of the Icon Editing Window tools and undoes the Create and Clear commands. You can also undo modifications to the Color Palette in the Icon Editing Window. You cannot, however, undo actions such as saving or closing a window.
The Cut and Copy commands use the clipboard as a temporary storage place for transferring parts of icons with the Paste command.
Selected parts of icons can be transferred from one area of an icon to another area of the same icon and from one Icon Editing Window to another.
The clipboard can hold only one item at a time. You place an entire icon or part of an icon on the clipboard by selecting it and using the Copy or Cut command in the Edit Menu. You retrieve the clipboard contents by using the Paste command. Whatever you put on the clipboard stays there until you replace it with something else.
The Clear command removes the selected part of the icon without saving it on the clipboard.
The Flip and Rotate commands also work with the Selection and Lasso Tools to let you manipulate whole icons or parts of icons.
Use the Invert command to reverse color or grayscale values of an icon. The portion of the icon you invert is changed to its complement (on the HLS Color Wheel). If you are working with the grayscale palette, this command makes the image appear as a negative of itself. You can revert to the original colors or tones by selecting Invert again.
Use Mask Selection to create a mask for the icon or part of the icon you selected.
For more information on masks, refer to the section "Creating a Mask."
You can use the Icon Editor to create libraries, or scrapbooks, where you can store icons or parts of icons for later use in creating other icons. The Stamp and Roller Brush Tools in the Icon Editing Window can be used to paste the library image into either the Icon Editing area or the Mask Editing area. The Stamp Tool pastes the icon at the cursor position and is useful for placing multiple copies of the library item. The Roller Brush Tool "rolls" multiple copies of the library item into the editing area.
Repeat the procedure to add more items from this or another Icon Editing Window to the Library Window.
The commands on the View Menu let you display your image in different ways. For example, using these commands, you can limit the display to a section of the image or obtain a close-up of all or part of the image. The Draw From Center command controls certain types of drawing actions. With the exception of the Zoom commands, the commands in this group are alternating selections and can be turned on or off from the menu.
From the View Menu, you can select any of the following options:
When you create or edit an icon, you should also create or edit its mask so it best highlights the icon. You can change all or part of the mask. A mask most closely resembles the icon it was created for when the icon is drawn as a closed-path image. A closed path is made of pixels that connect to form a closed shape. Icon images in the editing areas are created when the dots are either "on" or "off" (displayed or not displayed). A circle is one example of a closed path image. If you create a mask for a circular icon, it appears as a filled-in circle in the Mask Editing area. However, a mask does not necessarily have to follow the icon design.
In the following examples, the hourglass image is formed by "on" pixels. Notice that the mask does not follow the hourglass design; instead, it is a closed-path rectangle filled in with "on" pixels. Examine the four preview boxes at the bottom of the Icon Editing Window to become familiar with the relationship between the icon and its mask.
A mask is used to give an icon its highlighted appearance when it is selected. A selected icon generally appears as the negative, or reverse image, of an icon. It is important for an icon to have a mask so you can tell the difference between selected and unselected icons as you work.
The following illustration shows a side view of an icon separated into three layers. The unselected icon, or the bottom layer, is represented by the picture on the right. If you select the entire icon and choose Mask Selection from the Edit Menu, the Icon Editor program creates the mask, represented by the middle layer. The selected icon is shown in the top layer, represented by the picture on the left.
If you examine the top and bottom of the hourglass, you will notice the "on" pixels in the unselected icon and the "on" pixels in the mask have cancelled each other out, and are "off" in the selected icon, so there is no top or bottom to the hourglass icon.
Similarly, the hourglass design in the unselected icon is formed by "on" pixels. The unselected icon layer is masked by "on" pixels in the mask layer, so the design is reversed in the selected icon layer.
If you want the top and bottom base of the hourglass to appear in the selected icon, you will need to edit the mask layer created by the Icon Editor program. The following illustration shows the mask being edited so that the hourglass icon will have a top and bottom base. You can use the Pencil tool from the tool palette to turn the mask pixels off.
As you turn off the mask pixels that make up the bases, the pixels that are "on" in the unselected layer are unmasked so that the bases will appear in the selected icon.
An unselected icon looks a little different on a color monitor. Pixels that are "on" in the unselected color icon and "on" in the mask are "on" in the selected color icon, rather than "off," as when they are displayed on a monochrome monitor. The Icon Editor program creates a white mask, so that when the icon is selected, the image appears white and the mask appears in the foreground color.
The Text Tool allows you to add text to an Icon and lets you select the font, type size, and type style (bold, italic, etc.) of the text you are adding to your icon.
Once the text object is converted to pixels, it is part of the icon and can only be moved using the Selection or Lasso Tool. Any part of the icon, such as the background, that you enclose with the tool is selected and moved with the text string.
When you first create an icon, it must be created as a monochrome (black and white bitmap) icon. After you create the monochrome icon, you can use it to create a color icon.
An icon that you create with the Icon Editing Window can contain up to 256 colors. Colors for painting your icon are selected from the Color Palette. When you open the Icon Editing Window, the Color Palette displays the 16 colors most recently used from the palette.
The background and foreground color boxes each have extended color palettes that can contain up to 256 colors, including the 16 displayed in the Color Palette plus any additional colors that you create using the Color Palette Window (described later in this chapter). Any of these colors can be substituted for a color in the Color Palette and can be selected as a foreground or background color.
The foreground color box below the Color Palette on the lower right displays the color that is selected for painting objects in the icon.
The background color is displayed in the upper left box below the Color Palette.
In addition to the basic 16 colors in the vertical Color Palette, the extended Color Palette can contain up to 256 colors. These colors can be imported with an image or created using the Color Palette Window. For more information, refer to "Using the Color Palette Window."
The foreground color that is selected for use with the Icon Editing Window Tools is framed in the Color Palette. The foreground color operates with the Fill, Spray Can, Text, Pencil, Line, Ellipse, and Rectangle Tools.
The Eraser, Selection, and Lasso Tools use the background color. The Eraser Tool erases an area to the active background color. The areas selected by the Selection and Lasso Tools are displayed in the background color after the area is selected and dragged.
Use the Revert command to discard any color changes made to an icon since the last time it was saved.
The colors available in the Icon Editing Window can be expanded or modified from the Color Palette Window.
The Color Palette Window is a repository for any palettes that have already been created. These palettes are listed on the Palettes Menu. When you select a palette from this list, the colors in the palette are displayed in the grid below. Each palette can contain up to 256 colors. The number of colors in a palette is displayed at the top of the window.
While a palette is displayed, you can add and delete colors or modify existing colors in a number of ways. You can also install a palette in the Icon Editing Window.
The Select Color Window provides four color models for use in creating colors:
The Delete button on the Color Palette Window removes a color from the Color Palette.
The Color Palette Window lets you duplicate a selected color. The duplicate color is displayed in a square adjacent to the selected color on the palette in the Color Palette Window.
From the Color Palette Window, you can modify colors and install them on the Icon Editing Window's Color Palette.
Before modifying a color, you may wish to save the original color by duplicating it. Refer to "Duplicating a Color."
Use the Revert command to discard any changes made to a color in the Color Palette Window since the last time it was saved.
Use the Revert command to discard any changes made to a palette since the last time it was saved.
Before the Desktop can use a new icon to represent directories or files on your system, you must first perform two steps.
To be accessible to the Desktop, the icon must be in the System Icon Gallery or in the Local Site Icon Gallery. For instructions on putting new icons into the System Icon Gallery, refer to the next section, "Merging Icon Galleries."
If the new icon is not going to replace an existing icon with the same name, you must create a file typing rule. File typing rules tell the Desktop which icon to use for different program or data files. For information about assigning an icon to a file type, refer to Chapter 11, "Defining File Types," or see your system administrator.
The Desktop uses the contents of two icon galleries, the System Icon Gallery and the Local Site Icon Gallery, as its icon source. To maintain the integrity of the icons shared by all the Desktop users, the System Icon Gallery and the Local Site Icon Gallery should be owned by a super-user and protected from changes by other users. Users should create or modify icons in galleries that they own. When users are ready to put new or changed icons into these protected galleries, the system administrator can help them gain temporary access to a protected gallery or to a copy of it.
There are two ways to put new or changed icons into an icon gallery:
For information on using the copy and paste commands, refer to "Working with Gallery Windows."
The icon_merge utility merges one or more icon galleries into a single gallery. The output file contains all uniquely named icons from each of the input icon files, as well as any icons that were already in the output file. If you are not experienced using operating system utilities, ask your system administrator for assistance.
Here is the syntax of the icon_merge utility:
icon_merge [-v] [-n] inputfile ... [-o outputfile]
The -v flag tells icon_merge to report on its status as it opens and merges each icon file.
The -n flag tells icon_merge to exit immediately if a duplicate icon name is encountered. If this flag is not specified, icon_merge retains the first icon with a given name and discards duplicates without notification.
The inputfile argument specifies the file or files that are to be merged. Any number of files can be merged.
The outputfile argument specifies the file into which the merged output is to be placed. It can be an existing icon gallery. The -o flag must precede any output file specification. If outputfile is not specified, the output is placed in a file named icons.out.
Below is an example of the icon_merge utility:
icon_merge -v newicons newicons2 -o lg_icon.vrThis is the standard method, which currently merges color icon galleries only.
The icon_merge utility issues appropriate exit codes. These codes allow you to run the program from a shell script and take action based on the outcome of the merge operation. The table below lists the exit codes issued by icon_merge.
Table 10. Exit codes issued by the icon_merge utility
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Return Code Meaning
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 All input files were successfully merged into the output file, and the
output file was successfully written.
1 The command line used to invoke icon_merge was incorrect.
2 The merge failed because of a duplicate icon (the -n flag was given).
3 The merge failed because an input file could not be read.
4 The output file could not be written. The original version of the output
file has been restored.
5 The dialog manager could not be initialized. You may need to set the
value of your DISPLAY environment variable.
6 icon_merge failed as the result of an unknown problem.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you export an icon, you create an image file that can be read by any application that uses the following formats: Native (a simple bit-mapped format used internally by the Desktop), GIF, PBM, PGM, or PPM (refer to your system administrator for more information regarding these formats).
An icon's mask is not exported with the icon.
To change directories, select a parent directory from the Directory option menu above the file list, or double-click a subdirectory in the file list.
Some menu commands have equivalent accelerator keys. For more information about accelerator keys in other windows, refer to "Using Accelerator Keys."
The following table shows the commands and their equivalent accelerator keys used to edit icons and colors in the Icon Editing Window.
Table 11. Accelerator keys used in the Icon Editing Window
------------------------------------------------------
Window Command Menu Accelerator
Key
------------------------------------------------------
Editing Clear Edit Ctrl+B
Window Close File Ctrl+W
Copy Edit Ctrl+C
Cut Edit Ctrl+X
Fat Bits View Ctrl+F
Mask Selection Edit Ctrl+M
Paste Edit Ctrl+V
Rotate Edit Ctrl+R
Undo Edit Ctrl+Z
Zoom In View Ctrl+I
Zoom Out View Ctrl+O
Color Palette Copy Edit Ctrl+C
Editor Window Cut Edit Ctrl+X
Paste Edit Ctrl+V
Save File Ctrl+S
Undo Edit Ctrl+Z
Export Icon Home Special Ctrl+H
Window Mark Directory Special Ctrl+M
------------------------------------------------------
The table below shows the commands and their equivalent accelerator keys used to edit icons in the Gallery Window.
.
Table 12. Accelerator keys used in the Gallery Window
------------------------------------------------------
Window Command Menu Accelerator
Key
------------------------------------------------------
Gallery Close File Ctrl+W
Window Quit File Ctrl+Q
Save File Ctrl+S
Clear Edit Ctrl+B
Copy Edit Ctrl+C
Cut Edit Ctrl+X
Duplicate Edit Ctrl+D
Paste Edit Ctrl+V
Select All Edit Ctrl+A
Edit Icon Ctrl+E
Import Icon Ctrl+I
New Icon Ctrl+N
Rename Icon Ctrl+R
Import Icon Home Special Ctrl+H
Window Mark Directory Special Ctrl+M
------------------------------------------------------