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Multi-Resolution Icons
Windows .ICO format icons are able to contain multiple images for displaying at different sizes and colors throughout Windows. This allows your icon to be viewed at its best for the different locations and situation where it will be displayed.
Examples:
On default Windows settings, if an icon is displayed on a title bar, the 16x16 size will be extracted from the icon, and if it is displayed on a desktop shortcut, the 32x32 size is normally used.
If a user has the Windows Display properties configured to display icons having all possible colors, then the image with the highest Color Depth will be extracted from the. Otherwise, the black & white or 16-color version will be used if available.
To create an icon to contain multiple images:
Click on the File menu;
Choose New, and then New Multi-resolution Icon;
To add a new image to the icon, click on the green + button and select the Size and Colors to be included;
To import an existing icon, go to the File menu and Open the existing icon. Then simply go to the existing icon's editing window and click the green + button to add it to the Multi-Resolution Icon's window;
You may then edit each icon frame either by double-clicking on the frame, or by selecting the frame and then clicking the Edit button.
Tech Tip 1: When duplicating a frame, you will generally get the best results if you create the image with the largest size and number of colors first. When done, you can select this image, then click the blue Duplicate button to copy the icon to the other resolutions.
Tech Tip 2: The standard icon sizes most commonly used in Windows programs are 16x16, 32x32, 48x48 and 64x64.
Note: Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 contain a flaw which prevents 16-million color icons from displaying transparent areas properly. Even though this may be corrected in the future, we recommend against including 16-million color resolutions in your icon if it will be viewed under these Windows versions.
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