Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 19 Make Your Own Cursors and Icons

Don't settle for the icons and
cursors that Microsoft built for you. Roll your own with downloadable
software.

If you're not happy with
the cursors and icons that XP ships with, don't
despair. You can easily make your own with


Microangelo, from http://www.microangelo.us.
It's shareware and free to try, but if you continue
using it, you're supposed to pay $54.95. You can
create animated icons or regular iconsin both the standard
32-pixel and large 48-pixel sizesand a variety of cursors as
well. Use paint-type tools and build your icons and cursors on a
grid, as shown in Figure 2-20. A preview is
available, so you can see the effects of what you do as you work.

Figure 2-20. Creating an icon with Microangelo

What I find most useful about the program is that you can import
existing cursors, icons, or other graphics, edit them, and then save
the edited version. I'm no great artist, so I find
editing existing graphics much easier than creating ones from
scratch. The fine art of pixel placement in tiny icon images can be
trickier than expected.

For a big selection of cursors, get
CursorXP Free from http://www.windowblinds.net, the same company
that makes the interface-customizing program WindowBlinds [Hack #15]. CursorXP Free
is free, as the name implies. Install it, and a new CursorXP tab is
added to the Mouse Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 2-21.

Figure 2-21. Customizing cursors with CursorXP Free

The Mouse Properties dialog box lets you choose from a variety of new
cursors that ship with the program. By clicking on the
Options/Configure button at the bottom of the dialog box you can also
customize how each cursor works and looks. (The button toggles
between Options and Configure, depending on whether you click on the
Configure button at the top of the dialog box.) You can also import
cursors that you've created with Microangelo or
another program.

If you want a more powerful version of
the program that includes special effectsthe ability to
colorize cursors, add trail effects, and moreyou can try
CursorXP Plus from the same site. The Plus version costs $10 to
register.

If you want to create cursors from scratch, your best bet is

Axialis AX-Cursors (http://www.axialis.com).
It's shareware and free to try, but it costs $14 if
you decide to keep using it. In addition to drawing tools, it lets
you convert any existing graphic into a cursor. It also lets you do a
screen capture and convert what you've captured to a
cursor, and it includes an exceptionally wide range of cursor-editing
tools. To give you a sense of its power, I'll create
a cursor from scratch and make it larger than normal. If you have a
parent with poor eyesight, you can make custom cursors that he can
easily see.

Since I'm not artistically inclined,
I'm not going to use the program's
drawing tools. Instead, I'm going to search the
Internet for a graphic that I'll start with, then
have AX-Cursors automatically turn it into a cursor. Then
I'll resize it to be very large.

A rocket is a good shape for a cursor,
so I search for a drawing of one by doing a

Google image search by going to
http://www.google.com, clicking
on images, and then searching for the word rocket.
Rather than a photograph, I find a bold-looking drawing of a rocket,
with a limited number of colors; that will make the best cursor.
Figure 2-22 show the results of the search.
I'm going to use the rocket in the lower-right
portion of the screen as a starting point.

Figure 2-22. Finding a graphic using Google image search

I save the graphic to my hard disk by clicking on it to see the
full-size graphic, then right-clicking on the large image, choosing
Save As, and saving it to my disk.
AX-Cursors can import graphics
only in a handful of format: .bmp,
.jpg, .dib, and
rle. In this case, I have a
.gif file. So, before importing it, I convert it
to a .jpg file [Hack #86].

Now I run AX-Cursors. I want to create a large cursor, so I first set
the cursor size by choosing Draw New Image Format. I have
the option of saving it as an icon of 32 x 32, 48
x 48, 64 x 64, or 72 x 72. I choose
the largest size and the 256-color option.

Next I choose Draw Import Bitmap, and choose the rocket
image that I've just saved. The program lets me crop
the image so that I can just import part of it, but in this instance
I want the whole thing, so I don't crop it. I can
also set the cursor's transparency. In this
instance, because the cursor is going to be for someone with eyesight
problems, I choose no transparency. After I'm done,
the picture is converted into a cursor that I can edit, as shown in
Figure 2-23. Notice that you're
given tools to edit the cursor in the middle of the screen. In the
right side of the screen, you can see a picture of the original
graphic.

Figure 2-23. Converting the image into a cursor

The cursor looks good to me, so I save it by choosing File
Save. It's now ready to be used. So I exit the
program, choose Control Panel Printers and Other Hardware
Mouse Pointers Browse and choose the
icon I've just created. It's done;
you can see it in action in Figure 2-24.

Figure 2-24. The completed cursor in action

2.13.1 See Also

For a collection of more than 7,000 free
icons you can download and use, go to
http://www.iconarchive.com. Also
see http://www.iconbazaar.com for
a collection of free icons.

For a collection of free
cursors to download and use, go to
http://www.1freecursors.com. Note
that some cursor and icon sites use a lot of pop-up ads. To get rid
of them, see [Hack #33].