# The &kiconedit; Manual

Thomas Tanghus

    &Thomas.Tanghus.mail;

1997 &Thomas.Tanghus;
2001 2003 &Lauri.Watts;
&FDLNotice;
2005-12-10
3.5.0

&kiconedit; is designed to help create icons for &kde; using the standard icon palette.

KDE kdegraphics KIconEdit icon

## Introduction

> &Thomas.Tanghus; &Thomas.Tanghus.mail;

> &kiconedit; is designed to help create icons for &kde; using the standard icon palette.

> I hope you will find this program somehow useful and I would appreciate any suggestions and comments.

## Onscreen Fundamentals

In this section will be briefly described the Icon Editor user interface.

The Icon Editor window is separated in five areas: main toolbar, tools toolbar, statusbar, color palette and the grid, where you paint the icon.

### Main Toolbar

New

  Create a new icon. If the current file has been modified you will be asked if you want to save the changes. After that a dialog will open where you can choose to create the icon from scratch or from a template.

Open

  Open an existing icon file.

Save

  Save the currently open icon.

Print

  Print the icon.

Undo

  Undo the last action

Redo

  Redo the last action undone. If no actions have been undone, this action is disabled.

Cut

  Cuts out the entire icon and put it onto the clipboard.

Copy

  Copies the entire icon to the clipboard.

Paste

  Paste the contents of the clipboard as a new image (if the clipboard contains a valid icon).

Zoom
Zoom In
Zoom Out

  Zoom to predefined zoom factor, zoom in or zoom out.

Resize

  Resize icon to width X height.

GrayScale

  Gray scale the icon image. This may create colors not conformant to the &kde; icon palette.

Show Grid

  Toggle grid on/off.

### Tools Toolbar

This toolbar contains the tools you can use to manipulate the icon.

Freehand

  Draw free hand.

Color Picker

  Doesn't change the icon but changes the current drawcolor to the color clicked on.

Rectangle

  Draw a rectangle.

Filled Rectangle

  Draw a filled rectangle.

Circle

  Draw a circle.

Filled Circle

  Draw a filled circle.

Ellipse

  Draw an ellipse

Filled Ellipse

  Draw a filled ellipse (almost the same thing as drawing a circle.)

Spray

  Draws a randow dotted pattern like a spraycan.

Flood Fill

  Fill an area with the current color.

Line

  Draw a line.

Eraser (Transparent)

  Draw transparent (invisible).

Rectangular Selection
Circular Selection

  Select (mark) a part of the icon.

### Grid

The grid is where you manipulate the icon contents.

### Statusbar

The status bar keeps you informed of current operations. From left to right, it tells you the x,y coordinates of the pixel you are working on, the size of the current canvas, the zoom factor, and the current number of colors in the icon.

## The Menu Entries

### The File Menu

The following functions are available from the File menu:

&Ctrl;N File New

  Lets you create a new icon, either from a template or by specifying the size.

File New Window

  Open a new Icon Editor window.

&Ctrl;O File Open...

  Open an existing icon file.

File Open Recent

  Displays a list of recently opened icons to choose from.

&Ctrl;S File Save

  Save the currently open icon.

File Save As...

  Save the currently open icon under a new name.

&Ctrl;P File Print...

  Print the icon

&Ctrl;W File Close

  Close &kiconedit;.

### The Edit Menu

The Edit menu contains the following entries:

&Ctrl;Z Edit Undo

  Undo the last action

&Ctrl;&Shift;Z Edit Redo

  Redo the last action undone. If no actions have been undone, this action is disabled.

&Ctrl;X Edit Cut

  Cuts out the entire icon and put it onto the clipboard.

&Ctrl;C Edit Copy

  Copies the entire icon to the clipboard.

&Ctrl;V Edit Paste

  Paste the contents of the clipboard (if the clipboard contains a valid icon).

Edit Paste as New

  Paste the contents of the clipboard as a new image into a new Icon Editor window (if the clipboard contains a valid icon).

Edit Clear

  Clear the grid and fill it with transparent color.

&Ctrl;A Edit Select All

  Marks the entire icon as selected.

Edit Resize...

  Resize icon to width X height.

Edit GrayScale

  Gray scale the icon image. This may create colors not conformant to the &kde; icon palette.

### The View Menu

&Ctrl;+ View Zoom In

  Magnify the view of the icon.

&Ctrl;- View Zoom Out

  Shrink the view icon to a smaller screen size

View Zoom

  Zoom to a predefined zoom factor

### The Tools Menu

Tools Freehand

  Draw free hand.

Tools Color Picker

  Select a color from the screen to use as the foreground color.

Tools Rectangle

  Draw a rectangle.

Tools Filled Rectangle

  Draw a filled rectangle.

Tools Circle

  Draw a circle.

Tools Filled Circle

  Draw a filled circle.

Tools Ellipse

  Draw an ellipse

Tools Filled Ellipse

  Draw a filled ellipse (almost the same thing as drawing a circle.)

Tools Spray

  Draws a random dotted pattern like a spraycan.

Tools Flood Fill

  Fill an area with the current color.

Tools Line

  Draw a line.

Tools Eraser (Transparent)

  Draw transparent (invisible).

Tools Rectangular Selection
Tools Circular Selection

  Select (mark) a part of the icon.

### The Settings Menu

Settings Toolbars

  Toggle on and off the display of the toolbars.

Settings Show/Hide Statusbar

  Toggle on and off the display of the status bar.

Settings Show/Hide Grid

  Toggle on and off the grid.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Opens a dialog where you can customize &kiconedit;'s keyboard shortcuts.

Settings Configure &kiconedit;...

  Opens the &kiconedit; configuration dialog configuration dialog, described separately.

### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Configuration

### Configuring &kiconedit;

Selecting the Settings Configure &kiconedit;... menu item will open a configuration dialog with the tree tabs Icon Templates, Background and Icon Grid.

&kiconedit; configuration dialog
&kiconedit; configuration dialog

#### The Icon Templates Tab

Add..., Edit... and Remove the templates for Standard File, Source File, Compressed File &etc;.

#### The Background Tab

Select to Use color or to Use pixmap as background. A Preview of your choice is displayed.

#### The Icon Grid Tab

Select to Paste transparent pixels or Show rulers and set a Solid Color or a Checkerboard as Transparency Display. You can set the Checkerboard Size: to Small, Medium or Large and choose Color 1: and Color 2: of the checkerboard.

## Credits and Licenses

&kiconedit;

Program copyright &Thomas.Tanghus; tanghus@kde.org

Contributors

- John Califf jcaliff@compuzone.net

- Laurent Montel lmontel@mandrakesoft.com

- Aaron Seigo &Aaron.J.Seigo.mail;

- Nadeem Hassan nhasan@nadmm.com - Rewrote UI to use XMLGUI, Lots of fixes and cleanup

- Adrian Page Adrian.Page@tesco.net - Bug Fixes and &GUI; tidy up.

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kiconedit;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;