Graphics design is an interesting topic. I enjoy it. It's also very interesting how I "discovered" how to make Glow Borders.
About six months ago I was doing research to make a black drop shadow for the normal image. I found an article on StackOverflow with a method of using a black mask (silhouette). It is drawn -2 pixels on each side smaller than the RGB image then offset 2 pixels down and over from the left. To complete the drop shadow do a Gaussian Blur in Paint.net.
I noticed that the alpha pattern of the drop shadow resembled the alpha dispersal of the glow mask, but the colors were the only difference. So I had an idea to try to make a mask for the Glow Border using glow colors then apply the Gaussian Blur in Paint.net. It seemed like the only logical way to make a Glow Border. But I only guessed at the colors.
But the pixel values in the resulting Glow Border didn't match the original sample from one of Ken's Icons. I tried several different times but nothing came close to the original values.
Out of frustration and desperation I contacted the great icon maker Ken Lester. I asked him what paint program he used, what his Glow mask looked like and what blur effect he used. He very graciously told me the technique and he provided a sample Glow Mask. The colors he used were very simple - white, yellow, orange. I wouldn't have thought to use white.
So he confirmed that I had the right idea
Edited by miker1264 on 19-12-2023 22:00,
4 months agoHere is the newest Icon Tool called Icon Drop.
It's an easy to use PNG Icon Maker. There are two display areas and two buttons. Drag-n-drop the Normal Image on the Left and Selected Image on the Right. Then choose Save Icon.
The Icon Info Button provides information about the Icon File and about the Icon Drop program.
Edited by miker1264 on 19-12-2023 19:56,
4 months ago
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AMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agomiker, perfect works very well.
Sorry for being fussy, for the future you could make some improvements, as you can see from the screenshot the top border disappears with my 48x47 images.
It would be nice if the program could resize the image to fit, another feature you could add is the .info suffix when saving.
AMIGASYSTEM attached the following image:
AMIGASYSTEM
What size are those icons (w, h) ? What is the screen font size ? I suspect the EraseRectangle coords are off by one or two pixels at top. It's easy to fix.
I have a Display_Rectangle function that draws a red rectangle that allows me to check EraseRectangle and Display_Image coords. The user needs to supply filenames.
Edited by miker1264 on 20-12-2023 11:25,
4 months agoAMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoThe images are 48x48, it is not a fonts problem, I attach the 2 images so you can try them out
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Amiwell79Distro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoconsider Miker to upload on archives your work tools and icons hello
AMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoMiker i have also tried Ariel 12 fonts and the problem remains, I have also tried your icons and nothing changes, what fonts do you use? consider that many users use different fonts!
I tested on Icaros Desktop with three different sizes. See screenshot. I had no issues.
It definitely looks like a coordinates issue in the icon_hd screenshot though.
I'll do the same test on Tiny AROS and AROS One x86 to see if it happens again.
miker1264 attached the following image:
Icon Drop for AROS x86 has been submitted to AROS Archives.
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Amiwell
Could you please test Icon Drop x86 on Tiny AROS? Try changing the screen font size. Try Arial 13, 16, 20.
AMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoWhere function there is something correct, no it is a Distribution problem, I have to investigate !
I tested with deadwood Build
- New Build 20211128-1 -> The problem is present
- Old Buld 20201110-2 -> The problem is present
AROS One v2.2 -> Perfect no problem (based on Old Build 20201110-2 )
AROS One v2.3 -> The problem is present (based on New Build 20211128-1 )
AMIGASYSTEM
Thank you for narrowing down the issue.
I'm using Icaros Desktop 2.2 for testing.
The thickness of the window borders for certain themes may be causing an offset issue that affects the EraseRectangle and DisplayImage.
In your screenshot the EraseRectangle function removed part of the display area on top and the icon images aren't centered from left to right. So it affects the horizontal and vertical coordinates.
I'll do more testing other window themes.
Edited by miker1264 on 20-12-2023 17:36,
4 months agoAMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoI confirm the problem is caused by the Theme !!!
Sometimes strange things happen, I noticed a problem on About AROS on AROS x86 v2.3, with the new core a very strange thing appeared, I'll prepare a small video and let's see who guesses the cause, it took me a few hours to find out! unsuspected cause!!!
AMIGASYSTEMDistro Maintainer Posted
4 months agoMiker the problem to "Icondrop" seems to be in the Theme's "Config" file !!!
I tried to replace the "Config" file with the one of the Theme that works fine, and "Icondrop" worked fine even with the Theme that didn't work before !
Which entry in the "Config" file could be causing the problem ?