The best program for creating icons. Quick selection guide (links to download free programs for replacing and editing icons). Review of free programs for replacing and editing icons

Many people don’t take online icon editors seriously, but in fact, such tools greatly facilitate the workflow. Just a couple of clicks can save you hours of searching, browsing, or developing yourself. In addition, there is no point in using full-fledged ones when there are special services with tailored functions for these specific tasks.

Icon editor sites like these are very effective. They allow you to:

• easily and quickly create new materials;
• give existing developments a finished look;
• save the result in different formats(SVG, ICO & PNG);
• create icons for .

In this article, we selected the five best online free icon editors and, for comparison, tried to create a set in each of them.

IconsFlow

IconsFlow.com - vector icons + editor that allows you to create personalized sets and export them to good quality(SVG, ICO & PNG). The main advantage of the service is the presence of two editors:

• the main one, in which the palette, style, effects are selected;
• form editor, where you can change the current shape or draw a new one.

If you've already created icons in Illustrator, simply download the SVG files and experiment with different backgrounds. IconsFlow has certain limitations when free use, so make sure you familiarize yourself with them before you start. There are lessons and a help section for novice users, and it is also possible to work in the icon editor in Russian.

View of the IconsFlow vector editor:

Work examples:

FlatIcons

With FlatIcons.net you can create your own flat icon (flat style) based on ready-made templates. Set the dimensions, choose a pattern and the main background (circles, rings, rectangles), change the color. This icon editor is free, but it has two disadvantages:

• Firstly, you can only download files in PNG format.
• Secondly, you will have to create each object separately, because... It is impossible to develop a whole set at once.

Despite the fact that the peak of popularity has already passed, many people use them in their designs. As an example, the developers allow you to download a free set of social flat icons. The result of working in the FlatIcons editor:

Launcher Icon Generator

The Launcher Icon Generator project is free and we think it is more suitable for advanced users. This online icon editor allows you to upload images/cliparts and add text. You can download one icon at a time in 5 sizes (48 x 48; 72 x 72; 96 x 96; 144 x 144; 192 x 192).

The base clipart is a set of Material Design style graphics from GitHub. The service contains settings such as: indents, shape, background color or transparency, scaling + additional effects. Result:

Android Material Icon Generator is another tool for creating flat icons. The highlight of the service is definitely the effect in the form of a long shadow. If you need similar solutions, this icon editor will be an ideal option.

Start by choosing a picture from the gallery, then determine the color, shape background(circle or square), shadow length, saturation, attenuation - and your icon is ready. Everything is extremely simple. For personal use the site is completely free.

After downloading, you will find 6 PNGs in the archive file different sizes and vector SVG file. The SVG icon will be blurry in Illustrator, but luckily it looks good in the browser. The end result is something like:

The Simunity site is an HTML5 generator where you can create an icon and then copy the code to display it in your web projects. Icons from Font Awesome are used as source materials, for which different parameters are selected: color, frame, size and style of shadows.

This service is useful if you need to quickly create simple, original icons for your website. Result of using Simunity:

Total. The online icon editors discussed above are excellent tools for optimizing the work of designers. There is no point in downloading any programs when everything can be done easily and quickly online. From this selection, perhaps, IconsFlow can be distinguished. It contains the maximum big number features: icon gallery, SVG download, embed code, preview, creating your own templates, exporting PNG, ICO and SVG, adapting size, fashion styles and built-in vector editor. Besides this is the only one free editor icons in Russian, if this is important to you.

If you know any other similar services, send options in the comments.

Icon editors allow you to change the file icon that is displayed when viewing a file, for example, in Explorer. A file with the ICO extension contains one or more small images of different sizes and color depths. In addition to editing, the presented programs also allow you to create new icons (regular and system) for files, as well as site icons that are used on web resources (blog, website) for display in address bar browser or browser tabs/bookmarks, like this one.

The icon editor must either implement special algorithms for working with icons, or use built-in system functions, otherwise the created icons will be difficult to use.

Icons are typically 32 x 32 pixels with a depth of 256 colors, but sometimes 48 x 48 pixels, 64 x 64 pixels, and 128 x 128 pixels are used. Website icons should be saved in size 16 x 16 pixels with a palette of 256 colors. You can create icons in 32-bit color (and it's best to do so), but website icons used on the web should be saved in 256-bit color. You should not save website icons with a different resolution and color depth, as they may not be displayed correctly on some platforms.

Want to get a web page icon?

Google has created a simple service for extracting website icons in PNG format...

www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=site

Review of free programs for replacing and editing icons

Icon editing program Greenfish Icon Editor Pro integrated approach

Not everyone is professional software products are commercial. free program, complete with professional tools for creating, editing, opening and saving file icons. It allows you to extract and modify icons in executable files, or convert image files into icons and other graphic formats.

The program allows you to work with icon libraries. It supports the following image formats: ICO, CUR, ANI, PNG, XPM, BMP, JPG, GIF, as well as Vista compatible PNG icons.

In addition to working with icons, the program allows you to draw cursors, small pixel images, animations and various supported images. The program also has some useful features, such as applying shadows, creating visual light effect and setting the bevel width.

The program is easy to use. It weighs little and does not require installation. Simply download the zip file, unpack and run the executable file.

IcoFX icon replacement and editing program, alternative to Greenfish

As an alternative, there is a good free icon editor that is worth trying. The program has a rich set of tools and includes the capabilities of more than 40 image modification effects typical of most graphic editors. It will take some time to understand all the tools.

The program allows you to create icons for your executable files, installation files, your website or blog. It also allows you to convert your favorite images into icons and vice versa. The program's capabilities also include converting Macintosh icons to Windows and vice versa.

Another feature of the program is that it works with Vista icons in PNG format, with support for maximum color depth, including alpha channel (transparency).

Another feature of the program is batch processing of icons.

IcoFX

An integral part of modern websites is the Favicon, which allows you to quickly identify a particular resource in the list of browser tabs. It's also hard to imagine computer program without its own unique label. At the same time, sites and software in this case are united by a not entirely obvious detail - both use icons in the ICO format.

These small images can be created thanks to special programs, and with the help of online services. By the way, it is the latter that are much more popular for such purposes, and we will consider a number of such resources in this article.

Working with graphics is not the most popular category of web services, but when it comes to generating icons, there are definitely plenty to choose from. Based on the principle of operation, such resources can be divided into those in which you draw the picture yourself, and sites that allow you to convert a ready-made image into an ICO. But basically all icon generators offer both.

Method 1: X-Icon Editor

This service is the most functional solution for creating ICO images. The web application allows you to draw the icon in detail manually or use a ready-made image. The main advantage of the tool is the ability to export images with a resolution of up to 64x64.

So, if you need to create a whole set of identical icons of different sizes, you won’t find anything better than X-Icon Editor for these purposes.

Method 2: Favicon.ru

If you need to generate a favicon icon with a resolution of 16x16 for a website, the Russian-language online service Favicon.ru can also serve as an excellent tool. As with the previous solution, here you can either draw an icon yourself, coloring each pixel separately, or create a favicon from a finished image.

As a result, a file with the ICO extension is saved on your PC, which is a 16x16 pixel image. The service is perfect for those who only need to convert an image into a small icon. However, showing your imagination in Favicon.ru is not at all prohibited.

Method 3: Favicon.cc

Similar to the previous one both in name and in operating principle, but an even more advanced icon generator. In addition to creating regular 16x16 images, the service allows you to easily draw an animated favicon.ico for your website. In addition, the resource contains thousands of custom icons available for free download.

If the English-language interface does not bother you, then there are absolutely no arguments in favor of working with the previous service. In addition to the fact that Favicon.cc can generate animated icons, the resource also correctly recognizes transparency in imported images, which the Russian-language counterpart, unfortunately, lacks.

Method 4: Favicon.by

Another option for a favicon generator for websites. It is possible to create an icon from scratch or based on a specific image. Among the differences, we can highlight the function of importing pictures from third-party web resources and a rather stylish, laconic interface.

In general, there are no differences in working with the services already discussed in this article, however, the Favicon.by resource copes much better with converting images into ICO, and this is quite easy to notice.

Method 5: Online-Convert

It's likely that you already know this site as a virtually omnivorous online file converter. But not everyone knows that this is one of the the best tools to convert any images to ICO. As a result, you can get icons with a resolution of up to 256x256 pixels.

As you can see, creating an ICO icon using the Online-Convert website is not at all difficult, and it can be done in just a couple of mouse clicks.

If you asked yourself the question: “How to make an icon?”, then a program for creating and editing icons of any type will help you with this, plus it can extract them from existing libraries. It is possible to export icons to the required formats.

After launching the program, you need to select the parameters of the future icon, specify its size, color, select the conversion method, filters, then click on the OK button and the editor will open in front of you, this is where you will need to create your image. ArtIcons can work with different graphic formats, ICO, BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, XPM, XBM, WBMP, PSD and some others.

Please note that I already wrote above that you can extract icons from different executable files and libraries, supported formats: EXE, SCR, ICL, DLL and so on. Once the image has been extracted, you can easily edit it.

This icon creation program also has a number of ready-made effects that you can easily apply to your works. In general, you will receive all the tools to create your own icon and edit an existing one. To summarize, I would like to note that ArtIcons is easy to use, has many tools and effects, the presence of Russian support is also pleasing, I hope the program will be useful to you.

Developer: Aha-soft
License:ShareWare
Language: Multi + Russian
Size: 7 MB
OS:Windows
Download: +

Icon Studio 5.52- Russian version of the popular program for creating icons ArtIcons Pro. This icon editor allows amateurs and professionals to create and edit icons and work with icon sets. Supports export and import of multiple graphic formats. There is a Russian-language interface.

• Create buttons for websites
• Create icons for mobile devices iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile
• Create transparent and translucent icons for Windows
• Edit icons for Windows XP/7/8/10
• Edit icons for Mac OS, iOS, Android, websites
• Edit icons of standard and custom sizes
• Manage icons, icon collections and toolbar templates
• Create icons for shortcuts and desktop icons
• Use gradient and checkerboard fills while drawing
• Apply layers in icon designs
• Use shadow, transparency, anti-aliasing, grayscale, toning, rotation, shift and reflection effects
• Import and export ICO, BMP, JPEG, ANI, CUR, GIF, PNG, TGA, WMF, WBMP, XPM, XBM, Delphi icons and Adobe Photoshop PSD formats
• Import SVG, AI, PDF files
• Import Mac icons
• Collect icons in collections to create icon archives
• Extract icons from Windows executables and libraries
• Change icons inside exe files
• Search for icons on your disks and directories
• Customize desktop appearance and folder icons

Interface languages: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian.

Restrictions trial version : A 30-day trial period that resembles a dialogue.

Download icon editor.