Perfect Icon 2.30

Perfect Icon is a tool for creating icons from pictures, photos or other icons. With this program you can apply effects, shadows and different styles in order to create beautiful icons. You can modify any icon you use in Windows, including those for folders and applications.

The software features a very useful window for replacing the icons used by the operating system. You can, for example, change the icon for "My computer", "My Documents" or the "Recycle Bin". Also, it's possible to export any of these icons using the ICO format.

Creating an icon is very easy. When you open an image you can set the transparency, color, hue, saturation, lightness, opacity and sharpness levels. Then you can define a specific, always square, area of the picture that you want to turn into an icon. In order to select this area you can zoom in and out of the original picture. However, importing an image from a file is not always necessary. You can use the "Capture Image" function to create an icon directly off your desktop.

When you have to resize a certain area to fit into the icon, you can select the filter you want to use. Depending on your original image and on the icon you wish to create you can select this filter from: "Triangle", "Hermite", "Bell", "Bspline", "Lanczos3", "Mitchell", "Nearest" and "Linear". You also have the option of letting the program choose, by selecting "Auto". Resulting icons can have multiple sizes and can be bundled into a single ICO file.

Pluses: You can modify the shape of the icon or overlap a tick, lock or heart image over the icon by applying predefined styles.

Drawbacks / flaws: Maximum size for exported icons is 64x64 so Vista icons are not fully supported.

In conclusion: It was never so easy to create an icon. Perfect Icon is a superb tool for modifying existing icons and for creating brand new ones from images or even directly from your screen.

version reviewed: 2.02