	This file is part of icoformat, a Windows Icon (ICO) File Format
	plugin for Adobe Photoshop
    Copyright (C) 2002-3 Toby Thain, toby@telegraphics.com.au

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by  
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License  
    along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
    Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

Windows Icon (ICO) file format plugin for Photoshop
---------------------------------------------------

Tested with:
- Photoshop 3.0-7.0 on PowerPC Macintosh (OS X and Classic)
- Photoshop 4.0 / MacOS 8.0 on 68K Macintosh
- Photoshop 5.0 on Windows 98.

To install

Copy the "icoformat" folder/package, or an alias to it, into your Photoshop plugins folder.
(For 68K Macs, use the "icoformat(68K)" file.)

Features
- Reads and writes .ICO files of 1,4,8 bits as Indexed mode images, and 16,24,32 bit as RGB mode
- If an input file contains multiple icons, a dialog box prompts to select one
  (this interface may gain a graphic preview later). Note the first icon is numbered ZERO (not one).
  ICO files created by the plugin contain one icon only.
- Note that because Photoshop only allows a file to be opened ONCE, in the case of a file containing
  multiple icons, only one can be opened at a time (e.g. you can't open icon #0 and also open icon #1,
  from the same file).
- Note ICO images may be no larger than 255 pixels in either dimension

How to make a favicon.ico (favourites/bookmarks/shortcuts/location bar icon) for your website

- Make a 16x16 pixel image of your icon in Photoshop (e.g. by rasterising Illustrator artwork)
  (if needed, use Image Size and/or Canvas Size to get the right pixel dimensions)
- Convert it to Indexed colour mode. Use "Palette: Local (Selective)" to reduce the palette
  to 16 colours (use "Forced: None", no transparency). With a palette of 16 colours, 
  the plugin will choose to write an icon with 4 bits per pixel. While you can also save the icon as a 24-bit
  or 8-bit image, these formats will be much larger files and slower to download.
- If desired, create an alpha channel  for the transparency mask, using black where your icon is opaque,
  and white where it is transparent
- Save as "favicon.ico" and copy this file to the root (top level) directory of your web site
- Add the following tag somewhere between the <head>...</head> tags of your home page index file:
	<link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">

About transparency

- The ICO format has an inherent 1 bit transparency mask (0 = opaque, 1 = transparent), called the "AND" mask.
  This is always treated as the last alpha channel (black = 0 = opaque, white = 255 = transparent).
  If transparency is desired when saving, an alpha channel must exist.
- In addition, when opening or saving an RGB mode image in Photoshop 6.0 or later, a 32-bit ICO is created
  and layer transparency is used as the alpha channel (8-bit transparency) -- the result is an XP icon. 
  In earlier versions of Photoshop, where File Format plugins can't access layer transparency,
  this 8-bit mask will appear as an additional alpha channel (preceding the ordinary 1-bit AND mask).

Saving indexed mode images

- To ensure output files are as compact as possible, the smallest pixel depth is chosen
  sufficient to represent the colours used by the icon:
  * RGB mode: no colour table
  * Indexed/Grey Scale mode with >16 colours: 8 bits per pixel (256 colours in colour table)
  * Indexed/Grey Scale mode with >2 colours: 4 bits per pixel (16 colours in colour table)
  * Bitmap or Indexed/Grey Scale mode with 2 or fewer colours: 1 bit per pixel (2 colours in colour table)

If you use this program and like it, please use www.paypal.com 
to send the author what you think it is worth (US$10 suggested).

Please contact the author with any bug reports, suggestions or comments.
The latest version, and source code under the GPL license, is always available from http://www.telegraphics.com.au/
