What is an Icon Library?

An Icon Library is a file containing several icons stored in Windows® format.  The default file extension for icon libraries is ICL. We recommend you to use this format to manage your icon sets. It permits faster access and hard disk space gain. Features in Axialis IconWorkshop™ permit you to easily use ICL files in the librarian.

System Compatibility

ICL files are compatible with Microsoft® Windows® systems only. This file format is not compatible with Macintosh®.

File structure

The ICL file type uses the Windows® executable DLL format structure. Windows® DLL are executable portions which are detached from the main program and stored in files on disk. They are loaded and launched by the main program but they're not self-executable.

As all Windows® program files, DLL files contains 2 parts: A code portion which contains the algorithms to run, and a resource portion which contains the data used by the programs (icons, images, dialogs, texts...). In ICL files, the code portion is empty. Only the resource portion has data which is exclusively composed of icons.

ICL files exist in 16-bit and 32-bit versions. Axialis IconWorkshop™ generates ICL files in 32-bit format.