About AIF Icon Designer

Icons are used to represent applications, and their associated files/documents, when they are embedded, or when they are shown on a shell program. AIF Icon Designer helps you produce such icons in the required Symbian OS-specific bitmap file format, called the multi-bitmap file format (.mbm).

AIF Icon Designer is launched from AIF Builder.

Note the following key properties of icons:

A UI variant can allow you to provide not just a single icon, but a set of icons each at a different size. The most appropriate size for the current container zoom state is displayed. Supplying a variety of sizes helps to ensure that an icon will not have to be dynamically scaled when it is drawn at a particular size — scaling small bitmaps generally results in a marked loss of quality. The icon sizes to use vary between UI variants, as follows:

• TechView: three icons, with sizes 24x24, 32x32 and 48x48.

• Quartz: most applications have only a 20x16 icon, which the Launcher combines with a round background icon. A 32x32 icon can also be supplied, and if it is, is used unchanged.

• Crystal: two icons, with sizes 64x50 and 25x20.

AIF Icon Designer sets these sizes automatically, according to which UI variants have been specified in AIF Builder.

Each icon needs a corresponding mask. A mask should be white for the transparent areas where the background behind the icon should show through, and black for all other regions. AIF Icon Designer creates such masks automatically.

A multi-bitmap file (.mbm) is a convenient way to store a number of icons together with their masks. AIF Icon Designer always saves the icons you design to this format.