Need advice on the techniques used to add icons to my custom Acrobat toolbar

R
Posted By
Ramon
Apr 18, 2009
Views
363
Replies
1
Status
Closed
I am trying to add a set of nice icons to my custom (plugin-based) Acrobat toolbar. The issues are those to be expected:

– What dimensions are acceptable?
– What color depth?
– What graphic file format?
– How do I handle transparency?

As a newbie, I just discovered that bitmaps (*.bmp) don’t seem to support 32 bit color (or transparency?)

My target is Windows XP, which apparently supports 32 bit color.

What I currently have is 24x24x24 bitmaps, but the background shows as white.

TIA,

-Ramon

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

G
Grinder
Apr 18, 2009
Ramon F Herrera wrote:
I am trying to add a set of nice icons to my custom (plugin-based) Acrobat toolbar. The issues are those to be expected:

– What dimensions are acceptable?
– What color depth?
– What graphic file format?
– How do I handle transparency?

As a newbie, I just discovered that bitmaps (*.bmp) don’t seem to support 32 bit color (or transparency?)

The BMP format does indeed support 32-bit (RGBA) color. There may be individual applications that don’t read 32-bit BMPs, but it’s easily supported by the form of the file. I’m not sure if there’s an official spec anywhere, but Photoshop and Microangelo (and likely others) support those types of BMPs.

My target is Windows XP, which apparently supports 32 bit color.
What I currently have is 24x24x24 bitmaps, but the background shows as white.

The ICO file format is close to the BMP format, but with a mechanism for storing multiple icons (bitmaps) and their masks in a given file. This enables you to define various sizes of the same icon so the consumer of the file can pick out what it needs.

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections