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| With the release of Windows XP Microsoft© introduced icons that had a totally new and exciting design style. When we compare Windows XP icons to the icons in the previous Microsoft© operating systems we can see the many design characteristic changes. Windows XP icons are colorful, better defined, softer in appearance and have a more contemporary look. They make the Windows interface much more visually appealing, fun, and pleasant environment to work in. |
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 A bright, fun color palette is introduced. These new colors give richness to Windows XP icons and also compliment the other Windows XP interface elements. Below is the primary color palette for the Windows XP icons. |
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| A consistent perspective is added to the Windows XP icons which gives them a more unified appearance. The perspective for Windows XP icons is either frontal or counter-clockwise at a 45° angle. |
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| All icon edges and corners are now anti-aliased. This gives the XP icons a softer, smoother appearance in comparison to the jagged edges of icons in older operating systems. |
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| The main, central light source in XP icons comes from the upper left-hand corner. Although softer additional ambient lighting affects other parts of the icon as well. |
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| The use of multiple gradients give the Windows XP icons added depth and a 3 dimensional appearance. |
| The Windows XP icons are better defined by the use of firm outlines and drop shadows. These two effects give the xp icons more contrast and depth. |
| Object metaphors such as hardware are updated with a more contemporary and modern appearance. |
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| Windows XP icons contain four sizes. The default sizes are 48 x 48 pixels, 32 x 32 pixels and 16 x 16 pixels. The 24 x 24 pixel size is usually included in the icon resource also as this is the standard size that displays on the right side of the Windows start menu. XP icons are 32-bit icons, in other words, they are 24-bit images plus they contain an 8-bit alpha channel mask. This 8-bit alpha channel stores both the full transparency and the semi-transparency information that's in the icon resource images for the Windows XP format. |
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| The same metaphor is also included in 8-bit, 256 indexed color format at 48 x 48, 32 x 32 and 16 x 16 pixel sizes as seen above. All anti-aliasing and drop shadows have to be removed from these 8-bit images. This is done because older operating systems can't render the Windows XP 32-bit icon effects correctly. So by adding the 256 color, 8-bit image file types to the full resource this issue is resolved. The inclusion of these 8-bit versions to the Windows XP icon is what allows the .ico to be backwards compatible with Windows 2000 Server, Windows 98 and 95. |
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| Many times we get asked what makes up a full icon (.ico) resource. A full icon resource is like a folder that can hold many different files inside of it. There are many file sizes inside an .ico as seen in the above screenshot. Each of these 'files' is an image, and each of these images can vary both in size and color resolution. The visible icon size that you see on your desktop, in Windows Explorer, on your toolbar or taskbar is probably not the only size that's included in that full icon resource. You can open any Windows icon (.ico) in an icon editor to see the different sizes and color resolutions that are included in the resource. |
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| For more information on Windows XP visit Microsoft's Windows XP© home page |
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