How To Change An Image To An Icon

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This wikiHow teaches you how to create a shortcut icon for a Windows figurer. Desktop shortcuts typically use predetermined icons, only yous can create your own icon by using an online converter. If you lot'd like to create a simple, black-and-white icon from scratch, yous can apply Microsoft Pigment instead .

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Open the ICO Catechumen website. Go to http://icoconvert.com/ in your computer's web browser.
- This website allows you to create an icon out of any image file on your computer.
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Click Choose file . It's a grey button near the top of the folio. A File Explorer window will open.

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Select a picture. Become to the location of the picture you want to use equally your Windows icon, then click the picture to select it.
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Click Open . It'due south in the bottom-correct corner of the window. Doing so will prompt the picture to upload to ICO Convert.
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Click Upload . This option is in the center of the ICO Convert window. Your picture will announced on the page after a few seconds.
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Crop your photo. Click and elevate across the area of your photo that you desire to use as the icon.
- The area selected surface area volition always be square.
- You can motility the entire crop option by clicking and dragging the centre of information technology, or you lot tin can overstate or shrink the crop choice by clicking and dragging one of its corners.
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Ringlet down and click Select None . It'due south a link below the photograph. This volition preclude the icon from taking on a different shape, which can cause compatibility problems on some computers.
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Brand sure y'all're using the ICO format. Curlicue down and check the "ICO for Windows 7, Windows eight, Vista and XP" box.
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Scroll down and click Catechumen ICO . You'll find this option nearly the bottom of the page.
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Click Download your icon(due south) . In one case this choice appears at the lesser of the page, clicking information technology will cause your icon file to download. Once it finishes downloading, you can keep with applying the icon to a shortcut.
- It's a good thought to place the icon file in a binder where information technology won't exist deleted or moved (for instance, the Pictures folder) earlier applying it to a shortcut.
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Empathize the drawbacks of this method. While Paint tin can exist used to create a basic icon, its transparency will be afflicted; this means that some colors won't show upwardly in your icon. For best results, use black and white colors to create your Windows icon in Paint.
- If you want a more complex icon, you tin draw the icon in Paint and save it as a JPG file and then use ICO Convert to create an icon.
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Open Pigment. Pigment is a program included on all Windows computers; y'all can employ Pigment to create a simple Windows icon. To open up Pigment, exercise the following:
- Open Starting time
- Blazon in paint
- Click Paint at the tiptop of the Offset menu.
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Enable gridlines. Click the View tab at the top of the Pigment window, then cheque the "Gridlines" box at the top of the window. After you've done this, brand sure you click the Dwelling tab to return to the main Pigment interface.
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Resize your canvas to an icon size. On the Domicile tab, do the following:
- Click Resize
- Check the "Pixels" box.
- Uncheck the "Maintain aspect ratio" box.
- Type 32 into both the "Horizontal" and "Vertical" text boxes to create a 32x32 canvas.
  - 96x96 is another commonly used icon size.
- Click OK
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Zoom in. Since your canvas is relatively tiny, click the + icon in the bottom-right corner of the window until your sail is large enough for you to work freely.
- For a 32x32 canvas, you'll probably need to zoom all the style in (800 percent) to work.
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Describe your icon. Once your sail is the proper size and calibration, you're free to begin drawing your icon every bit you please.
- Design experts recommend making icons simple, vibrant, and easy to read. Recall that your icon volition exist much smaller when it'due south on your desktop, and so attempt not to add too many tiny words or details.^[one]
- You volition most likely have to resize the castor y'all're using. You can do this past clicking the list of horizontal lines at the pinnacle of the Home tab then selecting a thinner line in the resulting drib-down menu.
- Drawing an icon with a mouse can be a frustrating and inefficient process. If possible, employ a drawing pad to create your icon.
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Click File . It's in the summit-left corner of the window. A drib-down carte du jour will announced.
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Select Save equally . Y'all'll find this pick in the center of the drop-down menu. Selecting it prompts a popular-out card.
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Click Other formats . It's at the lesser of the pop-out bill of fare. Doing so opens a new window.
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Enter a name and the ".ico" tag. In the "File name" text box near the bottom of the window, you'll type in whatever yous want to name your icon file, followed by .ico to signal that the file should be saved equally an icon.
- For case, to proper name your icon file "Minecraft", you would blazon in Minecraft.ico here.
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Click the "Save as type" driblet-downwardly box. Yous'll find this box at the bottom of the window. Clicking it prompts a drop-down card.
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Click 256 Color Bitmap . It'southward in the drop-downward bill of fare.
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Select a save location. On the left side of the window, click a folder in which you lot desire to save the icon file (eastward.m., Pictures).
- It's best to save your icon file in a location where y'all know it won't move or accidentally be deleted, equally moving or deleting the icon file volition cause any shortcut using the file to lose its icon.
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Save your icon. Click Relieve in the lower-correct corner of the window, then click OK in the pop-upwards window which appears. Your icon will be saved in your selected location. At this point, you're free to utilize your icon.

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Empathise where y'all tin utilize your icon. Icons tin can be applied to whatsoever shortcut. Shortcuts, which are links to EXE files, are typically establish on the desktop, though you lot can apply an icon to whatsoever shortcut.
- The one exception to the shortcut rule is the "This PC" app icon on the desktop. While you tin create a shortcut of This PC and then edit its icon, the This PC icon on the desktop cannot be edited.
- If y'all don't have a shortcut for a program, you can brand one before proceeding.
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Right-click a shortcut's icon. Doing so will prompt a drib-down bill of fare.
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Click Properties . It's at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
- If you instead run into Personalize at the bottom of the list, click once the icon and then right-click it again.
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Click Change Icon… . Y'all'll see this option at the bottom of the window.
- If y'all don't come across this option, beginning click the Shortcut tab at the peak of the window.
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Click Scan… . Information technology's in the upper-right corner of the pop-up window. Doing so opens a File Explorer window.
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Select your icon file. Get to the icon file'south location, then click the icon file yous want to use.
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Click Open . It's in the bottom-right corner of the window.
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Click OK . This is at the lesser of the window.
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Click Apply , then click OK . Doing and then closes the open windows and applies your icon to the selected shortcut.
- To create a shortcut with your icon, left-click on the item y'all want to create a shortcut for, and so right-click on that item and click "Create Shortcut."^[two]
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Question

How practice I create a shortcut icon?

Yaffet Meshesha is a Figurer Specialist and the Founder of Techy, a total-service computer pickup, repair, and delivery service. With over eight years of experience, Yaffet specializes in computer repairs and technical support. Techy has been featured on TechCrunch and Time.

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Expert Answer

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To create a shortcut to any programme or file, left-click on that item, so correct-click on it and click "Create Shortcut." A shortcut of that file or program will be made in the same file path that can then be moved to anywhere on your reckoner.
Question

How can I switch back to the traditional Excel icon?

Do the same process, simply when selecting an icon just select the Excel.exe file and it volition excerpt the icon from the application.
Question

Why practise Windows x icons compress and aggrandize on their own?

It might be that y'all held CTRL and scrolled. That changes the icon size, like zooming on a spider web browser.
Question

When I click on my icon it says, "No icon found in the file." What can I do?

Drag the file back into the right spot, right click it, and choose "create shortcut." Then elevate the shortcut to the desktop.
Question

What do I do to remove the black groundwork of an icon and make it transparent?

If yous have paint.net (a useful tool for images), yous can use the magic wand to remove the black groundwork.
Question

Volition this work on Windows ten?

Yes, simply brand certain to turn on the 'all files' search pick.

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The main icon resolutions are 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, and 64x64. 32x32 and 96x96 are the nearly commonly used sizes.^[iii]
In a compression, y'all tin can too find icons online to download. Just make certain you only download from sites you trust.

Download any software or images at your own risk. Always apply antivirus and anti-malware software to protect your PC.

About This Article

Article Summary X

1. Find or draw an image.
2. Go to https://icoconvert.com.
3. Click Cull File.
4. Select the prototype and click Open up.
5. Click Upload.
6. Crop the image.
7. Click Select None.
8. Select ICO for Windows.
ix. Click Convert ICO.
10. Click Download your icon(s).