[Jan Van Boghout]

Does anybody know how you make image previews in its icon , but like in the Mac OS X manual ? You know , with a real drop shadow on the image and a dog ear like other Aqua icons ? In that manual , they even show it off as a feature , but I can't find any documentation on how to do it .
Does anybody know ?

[ 12-29-2001: Message edited by: Jan Van Boghout ]

[OAW]

I'd like to know how to do this as well. The picture on the OS X box ... even the OS X 10.1 update CD shows what looks to be Preview with a "Create Thumbnail" checkbox or something to that effect. Unfortunately, this checkbox simply does not exist in the Preview application itself. I find it very strange that OS X doesn't offer a native way to create a friggin thumbnail icon considering how the OS encourages photorealistic icons!

OAW

[Sam Venning]

I use a program called DropIcon 3.0.2 - not sure, but it might do your job. I'm very happy with it.
http://www.abbotsoftware.com

[OverclockedHomoSapien]

I've noticed that even after converting icons to OS X style 128x128 icons using something like GraphicsConverter, the Finder still doesn't always show the prieviews. It's actually quite annoying, since OS 9 never had any problems with this. I keep waiting for this "bug" to be fixed. Like Jan said, if they show it in their OS X literature, why the hell doesn't it work in OS X?

Obviously they didn't make those screenshots of beautiful, big icons using OS X!

[Adam Betts]

Sam, I use DropIcon too and its very great but that's not what Jan was talking about. He want a document icon with picture inside it.

Jan, there used to be a feature but last time I saw it is in os x public beta. I'm not sure why they removed it but there must be good reason for doing so.

I've checked all icon editor program for OS X and unfortuanely, all of them are either buggy or ugly.

However, I've found one icon editor that allow you to add your photo in document icon but it's kinda buggy too but look promising. It's called Iconata. Here's a screenshot of it:



Hope that helps

[Jan Van Boghout]

Thanks for the reply , that was what I was looking for . I did send feedback to Apple , because it is a cool feature , even though you can use the column view to get a preview . The program seems to be quite buggy indeed ! Most of my images get completely messed up . Most of the time , only the bottom side of an image appears correctly , and the rest are just grey stripes .
Thanks anyway

[Membranophonist]

Another way to get custom icons of images, albeit a bit cumbersome, is to open the image in Preview (I assume any graphics app works), then copy the image. In the Finder, open the Info window on whichever file you seek to customize, then paste the image in the icon box. CoreGraphics does a pretty good job of scaling images. There is no dog ear or drop-shadow, but it is better than nothing.

I have pictures of all the artists in my music collection on their corresponding folder, then the album folders with the original cover art. Thank goodness for the 128x128 icons!

[bluetooth]

I recently discovered something cool, open your pic in whatever app you want (preview will do) select the pic and hit cmd-c (or copy from edit menu), now back to the finder and get "info" on the pic (cmd-i or file menu - show info) now press cmd-v (to paste) pic. This will make an icon of it and yes it goes up to 128x128

I have only tried it for jpegs though...

<edit> someone beat me to it, my fault for not reading all the posts to the end, also to get bakc the original icon press backspace when in the getinfo window.</edit>

[ 12-04-2001: Message edited by: bluetooth ]

[Phoenix1701]

Actually, I've created an app to do exactly what you're after... only problem is, I don't know how to write out to icns resources! I'm writing this in REALbasic, so if you happen to know of a plug-in or class that implements writing to icns (or just know how to do it using raw data), please let me know and I'll continue developing it. When I'm done, I hope it will be able to do the following:[list][*] Take as input any PICT, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, or any other file QuickTime understands, or a picture directly from the clipboard or drag-and-drop,[*] Create an icon out of this picture, complete with dog-ear and shadow,[*] Apply this icon to the original file, or export it to the clipboard,[*] Batch-process entire folders of images transparently.

Currently, all it can do is create the icon image and export it as a picture -- exporting it to the clipboard would be a trivial change, but I still can't actually write it out to an icon yet, and batch process hasn't even been started yet. Here's a teaser screenshot:

[frawgz]

Phoenix, you rock! Somebody help the guy out.

[Adam Betts]

Phoenix, why not carbonized it instead of OS 9 version which won't allow us to see the icon in full 128x128 glory?

I heard that it's extremely easy to change the resource in RealBasic file to get OS X version up and running. If that is what you are going to do, then you can dismiss my request

Otherwise, your apps look very promising. It'd be cool if it is in cocoa so it can make .icn file very easily

[Jan Van Boghout]

I found a way to do it manually , but it takes a lot of work to create a single icon .
In that Iconata app , there are two .icns files , Document.icns and Document.stencil.icns . Take the stencil file , copy it and insert as the mask in any icon editor (Iconographer in my case) . Then scale the image you want the icon to contain to 128x128 . Copy it and paste as the icon in you editor . Save , and you have your icon , without a dog ear and with a translucent zone where the dog ear's shadow will be .
Then open Document.icns and select its mask . Make a picture of it and make a custom folder with that picture as the background .
Now take your almost finished icon , and put it in the special folder . Make the dog ear fit . Then take a picture of those two icons on top of each other . Copy it , insert it in the icon editor . As a mask , open a generic document icon and use that mask .
Now your icon is ready

[Jan Van Boghout]

Phoenix , please release that app , it would be very cool !

[Synotic]

Originally posted by Adam Betts:
<STRONG>Phoenix, why not carbonized it instead of OS 9 version which won't allow us to see the icon in full 128x128 glory?

I heard that it's extremely easy to change the resource in RealBasic file to get OS X version up and running. If that is what you are going to do, then you can dismiss my request

Otherwise, your apps look very promising. It'd be cool if it is in cocoa so it can make .icns file very easily</STRONG>

From some of his other software that I've seen, he does use RealBASIC Carbon.

I have a suggestion for the app, I know you can easily determine which is larger, the width or the height of the image. If the width is is larger, than make it how it is now, but if the height is larger, then make it look like a default document icon with the image.

This way you won't have to stretch out the image or see white behind the image.

[Phoenix1701]

Ick! White bands or stretching? What do you take me for, Synotic, a rank amateur? Seriously though, the program's way more intelligent about it than that. It scales the picture dynamically so that one dimension of it (plus shadow, etc, of course) is exactly 128 pixels, no matter what. That means you always get the optimally sized picture, regardless of orientation. Here are some samples:



Isn't that pretty?

Now, someone has already suggested that failing icon export, I could just have the application spit out an image and mask that you could copy and paste into an icon editor... obviously, I think that's falling a few miles short of what I want the app to do, so I'd prefer not to resort to that just yet, but if all else fails, it will at least do that much. Again, though, if anyone knows how to write out to a cicn resource, or knows of a plug-in/class/CarbonLib toolbox routine that can do it for me, please let me know.

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by Phoenix1701:
<STRONG>Ick! White bands or stretching? What do you take me for, Synotic, a rank amateur? Seriously though, the program's way more intelligent about it than that. It scales the picture dynamically so that one dimension of it (plus shadow, etc, of course) is exactly 128 pixels, no matter what. That means you always get the optimally sized picture, regardless of orientation. Here are some samples:



Isn't that pretty?

Now, someone has already suggested that failing icon export, I could just have the application spit out an image and mask that you could copy and paste into an icon editor... obviously, I think that's falling a few miles short of what I want the app to do, so I'd prefer not to resort to that just yet, but if all else fails, it will at least do that much. Again, though, if anyone knows how to write out to a cicn resource, or knows of a plug-in/class/CarbonLib toolbox routine that can do it for me, please let me know. </STRONG>

Phoenix , could you PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE release some version ?
And maybe you can use AppleScript Studio to write it , and mix it with Cocoa (which has no problems exporting .icns)

[Synotic]

Phoenix: Could you have it center the image? That would look a lot better also... those buttons look really fake.. you should move each up/down a pixel so the shadow doesn't overlay. damned realbasic

[Phoenix1701]

Good lord, Syn, this is pre-release! lol. Those buttons aren't even going to BE there when the final version comes out, and as for centering the icons, I'll have to look at what orientations "real" icons take... I'll match whatever that might be. No worries, I won't leave in any bug I see.

[kongtomorrow]

Originally posted by Phoenix1701:
[QB]Actually, I've created an app to do exactly what you're after... only problem is, I don't know how to write out to icns resources! I'm writing this in REALbasic, so if you happen to know of a plug-in or class that implements writing to icns (or just know how to do it using raw data), please let me know and I'll continue developing it. When I'm done, I hope it will be able to do the following:

I've never written in REALbasic, so I don't know if this will help you, but try taking a look at

http://homepage.mac.com/troy_stephen...ts/IconFamily/

I also took a shot a couple weeks ago at hacking up an app to make icons for photos. I used his code for most of it, and his scaling algorithm just resamples the image, so the end result didn't look very nice. And I had a monster memory leak that I never tracked down. In any case you may benefit from his code for writing out the files.

On other thing: it looks to me like if apple ever finishes implementing applescript this will be pretty easy.

[Jan Van Boghout]

I already made a little AppleScript that scales an image to 128x128 pixels . Now all I have to do is find a way to combine images with other images and that result with another image and then write that to a .icns file .
Any Cocoa programmers that can help here ?

[mr_sonicblue]

Off to OS X - Software wid'cha...

[Phoenix1701]

Originally posted by kongtomorrow:
<STRONG>

I've never written in REALbasic, so I don't know if this will help you, but try taking a look at

http://homepage.mac.com/troy_stephen...ts/IconFamily/
</STRONG>

Well, I managed to find the piece of code I need, but unfortunately as my knowledge of C/Obj-C is rather limited right now, it wasn't too informative to me... if you know Cocoa, is there any way you could translate that into algorithmic form? Like, what is the actual format for the icns resource? There's probably a method or two in Obj-C that'll add part of the header for you, but I need to reinvent the wheel here it seems... unless any of you know of a function in CarbonLib that will return the header data or otherwise take a bitmap and spit out an icns... that'd really be ideal.

[Synotic]

Originally posted by Jan Van Boghout:
<STRONG>I already made a little AppleScript that scales an image to 128x128 pixels . Now all I have to do is find a way to combine images with other images and that result with another image and then write that to a .icns file .
Any Cocoa programmers that can help here ?</STRONG>

I'm assuming you just control graphic converter with applescript. If you are going to use cocoa and applescript in an applescript studio app, it kind of defeats the purpose as you can easily shrink an image in cocoa and it doesn't need to launch an app like graphic converter. so might as well just use pure cocoa

[Jan Van Boghout]

Originally posted by Synotic:
<STRONG>I'm assuming you just control graphic converter with applescript. If you are going to use cocoa and applescript in an applescript studio app, it kind of defeats the purpose as you can easily shrink an image in cocoa and it doesn't need to launch an app like graphic converter. so might as well just use pure cocoa</STRONG>

I used the Image Capture Scripting addition , found it among the libraries . I am really starting to like AppleScript . No all we need is AppleScript Studio !
By the way , do you have any experience with Cocoa ?

[Jan Van Boghout]

Any progress ? Anybody ?

[Jan Van Boghout]

Here is the screenshot , clearly showing a"Save image preview" checkbox :

[ARENA]

Originally posted by Jan Van Boghout:
<STRONG>Here is the screenshot , clearly showing a"Save image preview" checkbox :
</STRONG>

Yes! i've alawys noticed that in most of Apple snapshots. Unfortunately, the Preview.app has never included that feature

[Jan Van Boghout]

I just sent Feedback to Apple . I hope it actually helps ! It would be incredibly useful .

[Sawtooth G4]

I just started working on this in Cocoa.
Give me a few days, I should have something worth showing you guys, and you can chew it up and help me make it better.

In the mean time, check out my last cocoa application.

---
Yeah my sig is broke and I'm too lazy to change it.

[Jan Van Boghout]

Coooooooool , Sawtooth G4 , that is really fantastic ! Thanks a lot !

[shortcipher]

looks promising, here's what I would like:

an app that I can drop a folder full of images onto that will add a 128x128 px icon preview automatically to each one.

reckon you could do that? that would be so cool.

[Jan Van Boghout]

Yeah , batch processing would be cool !

[dark3lf]

Originally posted by Sawtooth G4:
<STRONG>I just started working on this in Cocoa.
Give me a few days, I should have something worth showing you guys, and you can chew it up and help me make it better.

In the mean time, check out my last cocoa application.

---
Yeah my sig is broke and I'm too lazy to change it.</STRONG>

Hey that's a good little tool, good job

[Sawtooth G4]

Okay I spent most of today working on this, and I can now choose an image and generate an icon for it. The image doesn't actually get the icon applied yet, but I THINK that is a fairly simple process in Cocoa. So far I have the options to choose between 'filling up the template' and 'seeing the entire image' which makes it much smaller, especially if the image is 'landscape' type. Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, so:


What options are important, etc?
Portait / Landscape Views?
Display type of image in text on top of image?
I'm sure you guys have some cool ideas, lets hear'em.

---
sig broke til i go back to purdue

[ckohler]

Sawtooth.. that frigging rocks! Please release this soon!

As for ideas, here's a couple:

1) Offer the ability to "Zoom in" on the original image. For example, say you have a photo of three friends standing together but you want the icon of that image to be only the head of one of those people. You could zoom in on the photo once or twice and then move the photo within the icon template frame until only that one head fills the entire icon.

2) Maybe offer a batch option to iconize all images in a directory using the default default settings.

[ 01-25-2002: Message edited by: ckohler ]

[Sawtooth G4]

1) Offer the ability to "Zoom in" on the original image.
Intersting idea. Might be a little hard to implement, but after I get all the other stuff working nicely, I might try to do something like this.

2) Maybe offer a batch option to iconize all images in a directory using the default settings.
Definitely.

---
sig-less til monday

[Jan Van Boghout]

Sawtooth , this is great ! I think choosing between portrait/landscape view is quite useful . And of course batch processing (and applying the icon ) By the way , can I get a beta ?

[ls -al]

Wow that seems to be coming along great! My suggestions in the order of importance...

1. Batch processing is a must
2. Auto detect if the document is in portrait or landscape mode and apply necessary compositing.
3. Overlay an icon label showing filetype. I like the way Illustrator for X does this. Of course, a slight transparency in the icon badge would kick ass!
4.Add support for Quicktime movies with ability to choose key frames.
5. Support for Date/text stamping of icons would be great also.
6. Different choices for icon types: including icon dog ear, picture frame, brushed metal theme, a road theme ala iDVD would be incredible....
7. Auto generate a web page(s) with icon previews and different themes, ala iDVD...

I am willing to pay good $ ;-)

[mrfrost]

I'm willing to beta test this as well.....it looks friggin' awesome !!

[Sawtooth G4]

Okay just a little update here...
The application can now go from frameless to landscape to portrait easily. You can choose whether to 'fill the frame' or to see the entire image in its proper aspect ratio. You still can't apply the Icon, but I'm working on that now. ls -al -- go list, I'll try to (eventually) implement most of these.

If you want to check out what I have so far, download this (54k). It of course doesn't "work" yet, but I assure it will eventually.

BTW, ls -al, explain these better:
icon dog ear, picture frame, brushed metal theme, a road theme

If I understand correctly, I already have the 'dog ear' and 'picture frame' in the app. What would the brushed metal and road theme look like, then? (make me some tiffs i can use!

[Sharky K.]

if you need translation or Icons. check out:
http://62.108.6.218:591/icons_and_tr...ion/index.html
http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...&f=46&t=002338

[Sawtooth G4]

Just thought I would throw this out for you to chew on.
It screenshot is just an interface builder mockup, its not functional yet.

[Sharky K.]

NICE!!!!
could you also create droplets with default settings?

[krove]

How about the ability to use any type of frame (and not just a doc with a doggy ear)?

That would be cool!

[Phoenix1701]

Sawtooth, I'm impressed. I might make one suggestion though; rather than having the entire document icon and including a landscape and portrait view, what I chose to do was store separate graphics for each corner of the document (including the dog-ear) and then tileable regions for each side... so the document dimensions automatically match those of the picture. I have the graphics pre-made for this, so if you'd like me to send them to you (shouldn't be too hard to wrap some code around it, though I can also send you the code I used to do so if you'd like) please email me. I'm phoenix1701 at mac.com (at = @, of course; I don't like spam).

[ 01-08-2002: Message edited by: Phoenix1701 ]

[Sawtooth G4]

Thought I'd let everyone interested know that another beta test of the icon thingy is availabe. It still doesn't set the icon, but the next version should. The 'Advanced Options' now work, which are for "file type" icon badges, superimposing a logo, and overlaying custom text (for date or whatever).

Stuff I know is wrong:
'No Frame' type doesn't work
Icon badge always says TIFF
Advanced Options icon doesn't update when changed in the other window
Redraw can be slow (dragging the sliders when the 'show logo' option is on, for example)

Download it now and then email me ([email protected]) the bug reports. Thanks.

[ 01-09-2002: Message edited by: Sawtooth G4 ]

[ratlater]

It's looking very nice. I really like the logo idea, and the custom text idea. As far as bugs go, when the opacity slider for the logo set to 0% it shows the logo at 100% opacity in the preview window.

Also, did you change the way that pictures are scaled to the icon? In this version they appear to be much crisper. Anyway, great work and I eagerly await the finished product.

-matt

Originally posted by Sawtooth G4:
<STRONG>Just thought I would throw this out for you to chew on.
It screenshot is just an interface builder mockup, its not functional yet.

</STRONG>

That goes against the Human Interface Guidelines! The filetype should e displayed in text only, not on a badge.

Amorya

[Sharky K.]

Originally posted by &lt;Amorya&gt;:
<STRONG>

That goes against the Human Interface Guidelines! The filetype should e displayed in text only, not on a badge.

Amorya</STRONG>

? why does Preview also creates file type text on the icon ?

[ls -al]

Looks like Sawtooth's Thumbnail Pro is finally ready. And I have one word to say ... "Awesome". The icons are really 2 thumbs up.

I am very, very impressed by the quality of this application. Had no problem generating over 3000+ icons!

Download it here

BTW, here are some screenshots