Using the options box

The options display on the left of the toolbar is a combination of a combo-box as well as plus and minus adjusting buttons. Pressing the buttons will change the currently displayed option.

The value of the currently displayed option can be altered by clicking on the plus and minus buttons. To change a new option or to just look at the current value of all the options just drop down the combo-box and click on the value to be changed. All the values are saved between IconPainter sessions so it is always wise to check such values as transparency and line width when creating a new icon. Beginning a new icon will not reset the values. Here are some explanations of some of the options.

Anti-aliasing

When drawing straight or curved lines (and text) with anti-aliasing switched on will mean that subtle shading is automatically done to give the illusion of line smoothness.

IconPainter implements anti-aliasing by making the assumption that the line is being drawn on the background color. For the most part this shouldn't cause problems but it may detract from the quality of the lines in some situations.

Line width

The line width is self-explanatory. It indicates the width in pixels of any lines drawn including lines drawn around shapes which are both filled and outlined.

Also see transparency and color gradient shading.

Shadowing

The shadow option performs a basic shadow operation that follows the same convention that's used for color gradient filling. The default is for shadowing to be off and by pressing the plus button, compass directions (North,NorthEast..) can be selected to indicate which way the shadow is to be drawn. The shadow offset indicates the number of pixels of offset to be used when drawing the shadow in the specified direction. The shadow color is the same color that is used for drawing the grid lines over the grid window.