Creating Alpha Icons

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I had a problem with not much software supporting creating 32bpp
images, and the programs I did have only supported PNG/TGA/TIF, not BMP
or ICO, and even then it can be a pain to work with 32bpp images
somtimes. So here is a little command line utility I whipped up that
can convert, split, and join 8/24/32bpp images in PNG/TGA/TIF/BMP/ICO
formats:

http://ark42.com/freeimage/alphahlp.exe

C:\>alphahlp

Usage:

To convert from one format to another:

        alphahlp -f(ext) -c(ext) from_filename to_filename

To split a 32bpp image into a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image:

        alphahlp -f(ext) -s 32bpp_filename 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename

To join a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image to form a 32bpp image:

        alphahlp -f(ext) -j 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename 32bpp_filename

ext must be one of png, tga, tif, bmp, or ico

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Ark42 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 20 October 2003 Status: Offline Points: 291	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ark42 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Creating Alpha Icons Posted: 17 June 2004 at 5:22pm
	I had a problem with not much software supporting creating 32bpp images, and the programs I did have only supported PNG/TGA/TIF, not BMP or ICO, and even then it can be a pain to work with 32bpp images somtimes. So here is a little command line utility I whipped up that can convert, split, and join 8/24/32bpp images in PNG/TGA/TIF/BMP/ICO formats: http://ark42.com/freeimage/alphahlp.exe C:\>alphahlp Usage: To convert from one format to another: alphahlp -f(ext) -c(ext) from_filename to_filename To split a 32bpp image into a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image: alphahlp -f(ext) -s 32bpp_filename 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename To join a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image to form a 32bpp image: alphahlp -f(ext) -j 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename 32bpp_filename ext must be one of png, tga, tif, bmp, or ico

Ark42 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 20 October 2003 Status: Offline Points: 291	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ark42 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 17 June 2004 at 5:29pm
	One suggestion for the Codejock library I would like to see is that currently I use: XTPImageManager()->SetMaskColor(RGB(0, 0, 0)); XTPImageManager()->SetIcons(bmAlphaIcons, nIDMenuBarIcon s, _countof(nIDMenuBarIcons), CSize(16, 16), xtpImageNormal, XTPImageManager()->IsAlphaIconsSupported()); Instead of SetMaskColor how about SetAlphaThreshhold so that you can, say, use all of the pixels that have an alpha value >=128 instead?

Ark42 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 20 October 2003 Status: Offline Points: 291	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ark42 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18 June 2004 at 11:52pm
	I needed more features still, to deal with multiple formats in a .ico file as well as to automate tiled images where you have lots of little images all in one big file, so here is v2.0... AlphaHlp v2.0 Usage: To convert from one format to another: alphahlp -f(ext) -c(ext) from_filename to_filename To split a 32bpp image into a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image: alphahlp -f(ext) -s 32bpp_filename 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename To join a 24bpp image and an 8bpp image to form a 32bpp image: alphahlp -f(ext) -j 24bpp_filename 8bpp_filename 32bpp_filename To split a multipage image into one singlepage file per page: alphahlp -f(ext) -m multipage_filename file_prefix file_suffix To append a singlepage image to a multipage image: alphahlp -f(ext) -a multipage_filename singlepage_filename To split a tiled image into one smaller image per tile: alphahlp -f(ext) -t -w# -h# tiled_filename file_prefix file_suffix To insert a single tile into a tiled image: alphahlp -f(ext) -i -w# -h# -c# tiled_filename singletile_filename More details: alphahlp -?

Kappy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 08 April 2004 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote Kappy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 August 2004 at 1:40pm
	Thanks for the utility, Ark! It is exactly what I need. It is strangely bizzarre how nothing supportes 32-bit bmps. Now the XTPro seems to have the alpha issues sorted out (v9.10) I am going to try and use them in a new product.

Ark42 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 20 October 2003 Status: Offline Points: 291	Post Options Post Reply Quote Ark42 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 August 2004 at 1:48pm
	Glad somebody liked it :) Make sure you have v2.2 - I think I posted it to my site, but maybe not. It fixes a couple minor bugs, I think TGA files were messed up for one thing.