Top 10 Best Icon Designers for Windows PC
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EasyIconMaker
Create new icons for your files by drawing them with a variety of tools or editing an existing picture with options to set multiple icon size specifications.
You surely noticed that almost every file on your desktop is fitted with a different little picture, known as the icon. It’s neat for the program in question to somewhat depict its features through an icon. You can easily convert pictures to icons to use with your own files, but it’s also possible to unleash your skills and create new ones with the help of applications like EasyIconMaker.
Generous space to draw and edit
One first note is that the application requires Java Runtime Environment to function, which can also be grabbed and deployed through the application installer in case it’s not already on your computer. On the other hand, this means that EasyIconMaker can function on more than just Windows operating systems.
The overall design of the application is intuitive. The center space is the canvas, fitted with a grid by default to carefully tell pixels apart. The upper and side sections are fitted with some tool panels to handle general functions, canvas operations, and selecting colors.
Supports various file types and image size specifications
You can either start from scratch or load a picture to be transformed into an icon. Image files need to be under formats like BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, or ICO. What’s more, these are also the supported formats when it comes to exporting, but ICO is generally the one to use when applying an icon to a file.
There’s a general brush to use in order to draw. A large color palette is at your disposal, with multiple slots to save tints. You can zoom in and out, flip and rotate the picture, or move it across the canvas. It’s a good idea to also set the size specifications of the file, which range from 8x8 to 256x256. It’s possible to create an icon under all size values.
To end with
Taking everything into consideration, we can state that EasyIconMaker is a lightweight tool you can use to create new icons for your files. It’s possible to work on existing ones, with decent file support and a variety of drawing tools and effects to work with.
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Download Hubs
EasyIconMaker is part of these download collections: Make Icon
Falco Icon Studio
Design icons using many drawing tools, image effects and filters provided by this application that supports a lot of image file types.
Falcon Icon Studio is an application that facilitates a user-friendly interface and practical tools for designing and saving icon files. It features numerous effects and enhancements that can be easily applied to the pictures.
Pay attention to the setup
Installing this tool doesn't take long. However, because it's ad-supported, it offers to download and install other software that's not really required. This offer can be declined, though, but it's not possible to opt out of creating desktop shortcuts to some webpages unrelated to the icon maker.
The interface is clean and intuitive whose main window contains a menu bar, toolbar, drawing bar and color palette. The types of image files that can be opened are ICO, CUR, ANI, AVI, TARGA, TIFF, ICL, EXE, DLL, Photoshop (PSD, PDD), animated GIF, PNG, BMP, JPG and Kodak (PCD).
Explore drawing tools, effects and filters
Using the drawing tools, you can make rectangular, ellipsoidal, Lasso, hue and color selections as well as add spray, stamps, brushes, lines, text and blur. Images can be saved in any of the formats supported for the input as well as exported to ICL (Icon Library). It's also possible to duplicate icons, optimize GIF and set the general rate.
The color mode and image resolution can be changed. When it comes to effects, you can explore and apply swap, noise reduce, brightness, contrast, HSB, blur, color inversion, emboss, mosaic and contrast filter, among others. Meanwhile, the image improvement menu has options for Van Gogh, cubism, erode, cartoon, red eye remover, advanced emboss, soft glow, whirl and pinch, neon, video, motion blur, super nova, and oilify filters.
Easy-to-use icon editor
Falcon Icon Studio worked smoothly on Windows 10 in our tests, without hanging, crashing or prompting errors. It left a small footprint on system resources usages. Aside from the tricky installer, Falcon Icon Studio proves to be a feature-rich icon editing application with approachable options.
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SoftOrbits Icon Maker
Edit your icons or create new ones from scratch for various platforms, such as Windows, Android or iOS with the help of this intuitive application.
SoftOrbits Icon Maker comprises a rich set of drawing tools and editing options that can assist you in creating interesting and original icons for Windows, iOS, MAC or Android applications.
Generous set of editing options and effects
Its intuitive interface provides one-click access to all the functions, thanks to the available toolbars. There are various options for selecting areas, filling them with colors, erasing pixels, drawing shapes with a pencil or a brush, darw lines, apply a blur effect or insert a text box. Furthermore, you can insert various geometrical shapes into your icon.
You can also rotate or flip the loaded icon, shift it up, down, to the right or to the left. The zooming functions enable you to have a closer look at your icon, so as to pay attention to every detail.
In addition to this, SoftOrbits Icon Maker brings to the table a rich collection of effects (wave, ripple, wind, cartoon, while&punch etc.) that help you to obtain great results. It enables you to change the brightness and the contrast and allows color inversion, image sharpening or transparency adjustment.
An assortment of compatible file formats
The range of supported input and output formats is not disappointing at all, including file types such as ICO, ANI, CUR, GIF, PNG, ICL, TGA, TIF, TIFF and even AVI, BMP, JPG or Photoshop files. SoftOrbits Icon Maker is capable of extracting icons from EXE and DLL files, enabling you to edit and save them to the local hard drive.
You can easily adjust the icon size without changing the aspect ratio and convert the loaded icon to another format. With just a few clicks, SoftOrbits Icon Maker can create a set of icons of various dimensions for your favorite platform.
Design icons and optimize them for various platforms
Combining ease of use with advanced functions, SoftOrbits Icon Maker can meet the requirements of both advanced and beginner users.
It supports animated icons and allows batch operations, enabling you to process multiple images at once and obtain an iconset in no time. Not only that you can edit existing icons, but you can put your vision into practice and create one from scratch. The only limit is your creativity.
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Download Hubs
SoftOrbits Icon Maker is part of these download collections: Make Icon
CustomFolder
Adjust the appearance of your folders with this icon customizer that offers a wide palette of colors and numerous emblems to go with the new icons.
If you’re the kind of user who enjoys customizing their PC to the limit, there’s a high probability that at some point in time, you’ve also considered adjusting the icons of the directories in your partitions. Of course, the built-in library offers a good collection of icons, but dedicated software, such as CustomFolder, can really help you achieve a more adjusted look for your folders and their corresponding icons.
Context-menu integration offers simple handling and initial set-up guide sheds some light on usage
The setup process is completed swiftly and, unless you choose to open the start-up guide at the end, you might be left clueless as to how to initialize the app.
The handy guide sheds some light and it is there that you find out that in order to use the app, you must use the “Shift+Right Click” shortcut on the folder which you prefer to customize. Although this guide is provided, it would have been ideal for the app to start in a maximized mode.
Add emblems to your colored folder icons and select a preferred position for them
One of the interesting features provided by CustomFolder is its collection of emblems that can be added to the folder icons. Therefore, besides choosing a style and color for the directory icon, one can also add an emblem from the said library.
Furthermore, once an emblem has been added, one can also choose its position onto the folder icon, thanks to a 9-position, pre-defined selector that aligns the emblem accordingly.
No-fuss folder icon customizer app that offers simple operation and multiple options for adjusting the appearance of your directories
If you’re looking for a way to quickly customize the icons of your folders, give this app a try. Thanks to an overall accessible handling, decent style and color library, as well as additional, emblem set, it can offer a good tool for performing such customizations.
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Folder Marker Pro
Customize the folders on your local drives using a color-code, status or image-code system with this easy-to-use software solution.
Although your company's paperless practices deserve a commendation, your amount of work to be completed per day is unchanged. Simply put, your workload moved from filing in paper sheets to managing directories on your computer.
Folder Marker Pro enables you to customize folders on your local drives based on your own criteria so you can find and access them faster whenever necessary.
Plain interface and simple functionality
While it does look and feel old-school, the interface is clean, simple and intuitive. The UI it is divided into three sections that also indicate the steps you need to take to mark a folder.
More exactly, you can select the folder you want to change in the dedicated upper field, decide on the icon that makes it easy to identify and apply the modification. The application allows you to mark one or multiple folders at the same time.
It is worth mentioning that the folder icon options in the Additional tab are rather limited to apps from the Microsoft Office package mostly. In this case, Folder Marker Pro could benefit from a function that allows you to extract and use the icon of the programs you are using.
Helps you become more organized
It can be argued that you can use Windows' search function to look for a certain file or folder on your local drives. This can mean wasting more time in some cases, especially when your search is based on a keyword that is regularly used in file names and tags.
Since it allows you to mark folders in a way that makes them easy to spot, Folder Marker Pro can eliminate the aforementioned waiting time. Then again, you need to know the location of your folders on the drives to actually save time.
The program comes with a nice feature, namely that it integrates in folders' context menus and can be accessed with ease when needed.
A decent tool for organizing folders
If you are constantly working with a high number of directories, Folder Marker Pro can prove to be the little helper you need to boost your productivity.
The application can help you keep things neatly arranged on your computer, but mostly if you implemented an organization system already.
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Pichon
Find the icons you need and add them into any graphics design project thanks to this application, which bundles a generous icon collection and searching capabilities.
Graphic designers and pretty much all users who need to personalize the looks of a software product or of a website will need, among many other things, a fresh set of icons that are suited for that application or webpage.
In case creating a whole iconset from scratch may seem time-consuming and you are not willing to spend hours learning and exercising a new craft, a utility like Pichon could be the solution you are looking for.
Tray application with a clean layout
Setting up Pichon is a rather simple task, but it may take a few minutes until it is complete because of the impressive number of icons it has to copy onto disk. Nonetheless, in a short while you will be able to deploy it and from the system tray area bring up its GUI by clicking its icon.
The interface, as you will notice immediately, is quite nice to look upon and highly practical as it keeps all its functions in plain sight, for easier access. Also, there is a generous space allocated to the icon preview, so you can look at a great number of items in the same time.
Instant search and advanced icon handling options
Pichon is very well organized and all the icons it comes with are placed under relevant categories to make them easier to retrieve. The built-in search function is extremely fast and as you type you will see the results starting to appear.
A great thing about the entries indexed by this program is that they bear relevant tags, so it is possible to perform a query using a term that is not necessarily a category or file name and still get accurate results.
What's more, Icons8 will enable you to find similar icons, copy the icon image or its file shortcut, all these from the menu that appears when right-clicking any item from the list.
A blazing fast icon finder with an impressive database
To sum things up, this software solution seems to be one of the best users can hope for, first of all thanks to the great speed in finding the icons. The huge number of items it brings is also a big plus, as is the utmost ease of use which makes this tool well suited for all types of users.
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Vista Stock Icons
Improve the look of your desktop PC with this modern icon pack that draws its influences from the Windows Vista operating system, sleek and stylish.
Vista Stock Icons is just another way for Windows Vista nostalgics to enjoy a little more of that world on their modern Windows OS. While the icons are inspired and not necessary a replica of the Vista ones, the feeling is still there, and in many ways it could end up making your desktop look more original and less nostalgic. The set is indeed complete, offering pictograms for many different programs and locations around your machine.
Pretty and original
The most important aspect when talking about icon packs is the originality factor. Sure, it also matters if they are quality merchandise if they can be easily applied, and so on, but individuals usually want to make their machines feel unique. Of course, there are people who never really get over a certain operating system, and would like to keep the looks while enjoying the newer technologies available. For both of these people, Vista Stock Icons could be the answer.
Two specific formats
The pack comes with two specific formats for all available pictograms. You can use the ICO format, and attach whatever image you like from the collection to an app, for example. You could also use the PNG variants for easier online integration with buttons or any other projects you might have under development. Regardless, in both formats, the quality is above satisfactory and the available sizes plentiful, ranging from 16x16 to 256 x 256.
Vista Stock Icons might be just another pictogram pack out there, but it's one of the well-done ones. The originality factor plays quite well in this mix and so does the number of available formats and sizes. If one is to add the most obvious thing, the Vista look, there is no denying that people fond of the older OS, will feel that this is the best way to have a bit of both worlds.
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Change My Folder Icon
A convenient method to change the icons of your folders and assign them specific symbols related to their status, category or priority.
The file manager in Windows does the job, and its integrated search allows you to quickly find a folder when needed. But how much easier would it be to visually identify folders based on their icon, instead of browsing through dozens of yellow directories? Not to mention that new icons give a fresh new look to your Explorer, making it livelier and more entertaining.
Changing the icon of a folder is not the challenge here, but finding icon collections that allow smart folder organization is. Change My Folder Icon is a lightweight application that brings you interesting icon sets to help you customize your desktop and keep your folders organized.
Integrates in the context menu
Change My Folder Icon seamlessly integrated into Windows Explorer and adds a new item in the context menu, allowing you to quickly change the icon of a folder. In other words, you must simply right-click on a folder to access the “Change My Folder Icon” option. Evidently, the new item in the context menu is only available for directories.
The main window of Change My Folder Icon allows you to browse predefined icon sets that this application provides. The collection includes letter icons, month icons, single color icons, common work-related icons, work in progress icons, priority-based and status-based ones.
The interesting thing is that you can also add your own icons to the list. To do so, you must create a subfolder in the “Icon-General” folder, found on the drive where Change My Folder Icon is installed. Once you do so, your new custom icons are displayed in the main window of the application when changing the icon of a directory.
Change a folder’s icon easier
Change My Folder Icon is definitely not a revolutionary application or one that you cannot live without. It merely facilitates changing a folder’s icon, providing the icon sets you need to organize your work efficiently. It’s not that changing the icon of a folder is easier with Change My Folder Icon, but finding the icon to change it with is. However, what would really come in handy is being able to change icons of multiple folders in a single operation using a themed collection of icons. Now that would be a challenge.
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Free Icon Tool
Preview and extract icons from various types of files or folders using this lightweight and intuitive application that exports to multiple formats.
Free Icon Tool is a straightforward application that enables users to browse, preview and extract icons from numerous types of files.
Search your computer files for icons and cursors
After an uneventful installation process, users are greeted by a new window bearing the application's name and version.
Users are provided with three buttons: 'Open files', 'Open folder' and 'Export'. Each of these buttons opens a new window, prompting the users to select a file or folder and save the item as an individual file.
You can click on files individually or select them in batch. However, when users select a folder, the application searches only that specific folder, meaning that sub-folders are not included and have to be manually selected.
Another drawback is that you cannot preview elements from multiple locations, meaning you have to browse through multiple folders and select the items from the specified path.
Users are able to preview icons from a few file formats, such as EXE, DLL, OCX, CPL and CIL and convert all types of image files.
Export your icons to popular file formats
The application's main function is to convert and export icons to an array of file formats, which include ICO, BMP, PNG, JPG, GIF, TIF, PSD, TGA and PCX. Users are required to specify a file path and to select multiple sizes to be included in the ICO format. For other formats, users are prompted to enter width and height values for their file.
The program does not have a built-in editor, meaning that users might have to open the exported item to customize it. Despite this, you can set the application to add transparency and a gradual color to the finished item.
To sum it up, Free Icon Tool is a fast and reliable software solution that does not require a lot of knowledge to operate, but it might not appeal to more experienced computer users.
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