How to turn drawings or screenshots into icons in Photoshop. Creator assets
In this week’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make your own icon Library in Photoshop. If you are making videos on youtube, or you are a graphic designer, or working at a startup, you will find this especially useful. First you will learn how to make a reusable icon out of existing icons or logos that you find online (remember to respect copyrights). Then you will learn how to turn a hand drawn logo or icon into a digital reusable design element. As a bonus you will get an introduction into the very useful Libraries in Photoshop. Time to start building libraries that will serve you well for years to come.
Make a screen capture of the icon. On Mac its Cmd+Shift+4 and drag the region to capture. Image editor (optional): I used Adobe Photoshop. This just makes the icons look a little. Icons have come a long way in the past decade, evolving from tiny, pixelated pictures into glossy, gorgeous artwork. Adding a custom icon to an application, document, or folder has evolved, too. To create an ICNS file, Apple has a free utility called Icon Composer. The interface is rather Spartan, but what it does, it does well. To use it, drag the.tif file created by Pic2Icon into the bottom (128x128) well: Now, drag the image from the bottom well to the next well (48x48). On your Mac, select the file or folder, then choose File Get Info. At the top of the Info window, select the custom icon, then choose Edit Cut.
