After a day of freebies for Mac and Linux lovers, we are back to please the Windows users. Day 19 of TechPP Mega Christmas Giveaway and we have yet another unique but useful software to be introduced and given away today. Axialis IconWorkshop 6.51 is a quality product from Axialis, a 20 year old French company known for their quality Windows based applications. Unlike many other software companies, Axialis provides only lifetime licenses for all their software products. Axialis IconWorkshop might not be unique in true sense. There are hundred others icon management and icon creation software (including some freeware), but none of them are as professional as IconWorkshop. With this, you can do many things about icon whether create, edit, convert icons for Windows, Linux and Macintosh platform (You need to create icons on Windows and can use the icon files on Mac/Linux). You can also create icon from exiting image like JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and more.
Use drag & drop to easily make attractive icons from various image objects in seconds. It features a Photoshop transfer plug-in too. Hundreds of features permit to produce high-quality icons using a fully integrated workspace. The new generation of icons uses variable transparency (alpha channel). This feature permits creating beautiful icons with smooth borders and shadows. Axialis IconWorkshop includes a handy feature which permits to work efficiently with Visual Studio.
Compatible with all versions of Windows, including Windows 7, it can create icons with the new smooth transparency format that this OS allows. The program can read Windows icons (.ICO) and Macintosh icons (.RSC and .ICNS), along with icon libraries. Axialis IconWorkshop is the first icon editor to create Windows and Macintosh icons. You can easily create icons for both systems. It creates Windows icons up to Windows 7 and Macintosh icons up to Leopard (Mac OS 10.4). Everything you need is instantly accessible, and a built-in thumbnail viewer lets you preview icons. Drag and drop helps makes the creation process easier, and all buttons are located in just the right place for an efficient workflow. For example, creating composite icons from several images using drag & drop is really a child’s play.
Creating an icon from an existing image is pretty easy as well. It even supports transparency of icons. Basically, you can import all kind of existing images: PSD, PNG, BMP, JPEG, GIF. An exclusive feature permits to create an icon, with its several image formats, in just one operation! All is done automatically: Alpha channel is preserved, palettes are calculated for 256 color formats and transparency is generated:
Creating different versions of an icon is very easy with object pack. See below some examples of the help icon made in a few minutes simply using the mouse and without drawing one pixel !
A built-in feature permits you to customize many Windows icons (desktop, drives, trash, my computer etc). It works with all Windows versions. This new version permits you to customize each folder icon individually! The best part of Axialis IconWorkshop is its ability to read Mac icons and convert them to Windows. It reads all kind of Mac icons up to Tiger OSX 10.4! The Help file available with the application is detailed and exhaustive. It’s well-written, contains plenty of screenshots, and will help even the novice user master the program’s many features.
Axialis IconWorkshop Highlight Features
It creates Windows icons up to 256×256 for Windows Vista and Macintosh icons up to 512×512 Create and Edit icons in Image Strips for toolbars Create icons from images or ready-to-use objects Convert icons between Mac OS and Windows Advanced filters, effects and editing tools Simple and user friendly interface
Two editions of Axialis IconWorkshop 6.51 are available. The Home Edition is intended for a private use and the Professional Edition has been designed for use in a company or for profit purpose. The Home edition has a limited set of features. Only the Professional edition has all the features (and available for trial download). The Home edition (lifetime license) costs $49.95, while the professional edition (lifetime license) costs $69.95!
Axialis IconWorkshop 6.51 Professional – Free Licenses Giveaway
There have been a lot of talk on terming this Christmas campaign as a ‘Giveaway’. True, we don’t always give free licenses to everyone who visits the page. But this is not a contest either. We don’t have great deal of rules and regulations. All we ask you is to leave a sensible comment, this is only to filter out those trollers. Winners are randomly selected everytime, so basically this is a free give-away and not a contest. People are just obsessed with freebies and expect all software to be available for free. This is not practical, neither is this fair on the developers. To build a quality product like IconWorkshop, a lot of hard work has gone in and they do deserve to earn few bucks. I am really thankful to Axialis and all other software developers for generously contributing free licenses of their software for the readers of TechPP. Now coming to the actual giveaway, we have five licenses of Axialis IconWorkshop 6.51 Professional Edition, each worth $70! As usual, leave a comment below saying why you would need the software and if you have been using any other till now. The giveaway runs for 24 hours and closes at 12pm CET (GMT+1) of Dec 15th 2009. Martin is giving away Bulk Image Downloader which is yet another useful image based software. Be sure to check it out. Winners: Malvinder Virdi, Sergio Rizzi, TheOh, Brigitte, ElleJeff
