IconMasterXP 4.1

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: CNET Staff

PC-customization fans often want a tool that can turn any ordinary image, whether a cartoon or a picture from a digital camera, into an icon. This software does that trick, but limited features and a counterintuitive interface keep us from giving it a wholehearted thumbs up. The image-conversion task works well enough, supporting most popular image formats, including JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP, and PNG. It offers visual effects such as the ability to sharpen, soften, and rotate, but provides no tools for image- or icon-editing. Nor does it offer features for managing icon libraries, or for helping change the file and folder icons on a computer. The interface is confusing enough that it took us considerable time to figure out how to create a complete icon set, a one-click feature in many other similar programs. On the whole, this is a niche application poorly suited for casual computer users, and most design professionals will avoid it in favor of full-blown graphics packages.

Publisher's description

From TheAlas.com Software :

IconMasterXP is capable of converting 13 different image formats into icons. These formats include PNG, BMP, WBMP, PSD, ICO, TIFF, TGA, PCX, WMF, EMF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, and PNM. Although you can convert images between any of these formats, IconMasterXP is specialized in creating Windows Icons. You can use all color-depth formats and all sizes; start with only one 32-bit icon with alpha channel and make all other icons with different sizes and colors out of that very first icon.

Making raw icons is not the only thing that you can do. Converter offers you some advanced editing features and special effects, which include gamma correction, lighting, threshold, colorize, soften/sharpen, and edge effect. Anti-aliased rotation and scaling features with five interpolation methods are included as well. Icons with four channels are very well supported, so you can easily convert and manipulate fancy new Windows XP alpha-transparent icons.

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