SVG and PNG icons in the library

Published by Vlasta on August 6th.

The icon library has for historic reasons focused on the ICO file format. That format was popular many years ago, but times have changed and these days icons are used on the web more than in Windows applications. And so, rather too late, the icon library on rw-designer is now allowing PNG and SVG files in addition to ICO files to be uploaded (via the web uploader for now).

How the change affects you?

This change just gives you more options when you want to upload icons. If you want to upload a general purpose icon by drawing a normal image and then plainly converting it to ICO via for example the online converter, you can just upload the PNG instead. It is now actually the preferred option, the library will generate the ICO file for your PNG image automatically and some space will be saved in the database. People will be able to download either of them.

For SVG files, the library will generate both a PNG and an ICO file. Therefore, if it suits your style, uploading SVG images is the best option.

If you put your PNG and SVG icons into a set, the .zip file will also contain the generated ICO files (and PNG files in case of SVG).

The uploaded PNG and SVG icons can have arbitrary dimensions, but I would strongly recommend that you target the standard 256x256 pixels. That is very fine for normal raster icons and a good size for SVG as well.

Also, if you put your icons into a set, it would be a good idea not to mix formats, the set should only contain icons of one type and they should have the same dimensions. We don't want the set to be a mess. If you do such a thing, the set will likely be marked "inconsistent" and will not appear on the main page of the gallery.

Recent comments

r5ne (curs0r) on August 6th 0

Imagemagick is my fav tool for converting between image file types for anyone looking

The Male Boss on August 6th 0

how will icon sizes work with png or svg image uploads.

icons will contain standard sizes up to the size of the source PNG/SVG, so 256x256 is recommended - by Vlasta on August 6th

thanks will uploaded SVG & PNG still be usable in the quick code bars for messages and the 15 puzzle in the same way it previously was. - by The Male Boss on August 6th

yes (but there is a small change for icons in messages) and yes, if it is 256x256, it will be usable in 15 puzzle - by Vlasta on August 6th