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On this page you will find some technical information on using the IconExperienc icons. If you cannot find the answer to your technical question on this page, please contact us at support@iconexperience.com.
PNG (portable network graphics) is an image format that supports translucent colors. This format is supported by the most common image editors and by the Java™ and .Net frameworks. Details about this format can be found at www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG
The ICO format is used frequently in Windows® applications. Files of the ICO format are similar to a folder which contains several images. Usually one ICO file contains images in different sizes and color resolution of one and the same icon. Details about ICO files can be found here [microsoft.com].
For most situations (application development, web design) you should use the PNG files. PNG is a very powerful image format which is supported by many platforms and applications. Probably the only situation when ICO files are needed is when you want to assign an icon to an application, so the user has a nice image to click on to start the application. An ICO file contains several versions of one image (different sizes and color depths), so the application can get the correct image for each situation, like a small image to display the icon in the title bar and a larger image for displaying the icon on the desktop.
To convert PNG files to GIF or BMP files, you can use our free PNG Converter tool, which can be downloaded from the Downloads section
For using the icons with the latest versions of the most common web browsers like Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla/Firefox, Opera™, and Safari™, the PNG files of the icons can be directly implemented into Web pages. All these browsers display PNG images with alpha transparency correctly by default. However, if you need to support Internet Explorer up to version 6, things are unfortunately not that easy, because Internet Explorer did not support PNG files with alpha transparency by default in these earlier versions. PNG images with alpha transparency are displayed with gray or ligh blue background instead in these versions of Internet Explorer. There basically are two options to make the icons display correctly in InternetExplorer 6 and earlier: 1. (Recommended) Convert the icons to GIF files with transparent background or PNG files with opaque background. This can be done using our free conversion tool, which can be found at the bottom of this page. 2. It ia actually possible to make Internet Explorer display PNG images with alpha transparency correctly by using a little programming in your html code. This is not a very elegant and certainly not a very portable solution and should only be used by advanced web designers. Here are some links to websites that describe this technique in detail:
When using the icons for application development with VisualStudio® you will probably have to convert the icons to BMP files with a "mask color". Although Visual Studio® .Net (Version 2003) supports PNG files with alpha transparency on some controls, other controls like the ImageList control do not support PNGs with alpha transparency. As mentioned we recommend converting the PNG files to BMP files with a mask color. The area filled with the mask color will be made transparent by the ImageList control, provided the same color is defined as mask color on the ImageControl. For converting the images you can use our free conversion tool, which can be found at the bottom of this page.
Java™ Swing fully supports PNG with alpha channel, so using the icons with Java™ Swing is very easy. Simply create an ImageIcon and specify the PNG file as the image source. Everything will be handled by Swing.
SWT does not support PNG files with alpha channels. Therefore you will have to convert the icons to GIF files with transparent background or PNG files with opaque background before using them.
To use the icons with Delphi™, you may have to convert the PNG files to BMP files. Please refer to "Using the Icons with Visual Studio®" for detailed information. 
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