Lesson 2 - Drawing an icon using the built-in tools

In this lesson, we'll start drawing a basic information image (a blue filled circle with a "i" letter drawn inside), using some of the available tools.

Selecting a tool, a color and drawing

1. Click the Filled Ellipse drawing tool () or Draw/Drawing Tools/Filled Ellipse:

2. Left-click the Blue Color (#3F6FFF) we'll use to draw the circle in the color swatches (). Check that the drawing Opacity is 255 ().

3. Using the Left Mouse Button, start drawing your circle from coordinates (3,3) to (44,44). Press SHIFT key while drawing to create a circle (width = height) rather than an ellipse. The circle is dynamically drawing while moving the mouse. When you release the mouse button, the circle border is automatically smoothed. It works only with RGB/AP image formats. It can be enabled/disabled by pressing "E" (Smooth Edges in the local toolbar).

4. When done, you see the blue circle in the drawing area and in the Preview 1:1 floating palette ().

5. Ooops! If you made a small error while drawing, you can Undo what you did. Choose Edit/Undo or press Ctrl+Z or Alt+Backspace. Now you can try again.

Drawing a letter in the circle

6. To do so, Axialis IconWorkshop™ includes a Text feature. First select White Color (255,255,255) in the color swatches (the procedure is similar to you did before).

7. Click the Text tool (a 'A' letter button at the lower-right corner of the Drawing Tools). A Dialog box opens:

8. In the Text to add zone (), type the "i" letter. In the Font list (), choose "Tahoma". In the Size zone, choose 30 and click Bold (). You can check the result in the preview zone (). When done, click OK.

9. A large selection box has been added in the upper-left corner on the drawing area. This selection contains the large "i" letter drawn in white. This is a floating selection that can be moved over the existing image.

10. Move the mouse pointer over this selection area. The pointer automatically switches to a four-arrow cursor (). Now left-click in this area (keep the button pressed) and move your mouse to the center on the Drawing Area in order to get the following result ():

11. You can apply the floating selection by click left-clicking anywhere.

CONGRATULATIONS! you've created your first icon image!

Lesson 3 - Adjusting the icon image