Icon editor

[Vostrocity]

I have pretty much no experience with making icons, but I have a couple apps that need them and I can't find any online. So would you say I just use GIMP and output it to PNG or should I use a dedicated icon editor like GNOME Icon Editor (http://linuxappfinder.com/package/gnome-iconedit)?

And what's the best resolution to use?
What about the format?
I realized that the icons in the Applicatins menu only take SVG, while desktop and panel shortcuts take PNG and XPM? Why is that? Should I be using Inkscape rather than GIMP? Omg I'm so bad at this.
Ok I can change the icon on the desktop, but how do I change the icon of the actual app? As in the one in the upper left of the window and in the taskbar.
Is there a place where I should put all the icons?

[cdsboy]

You can make your icons in what ever you want. You do not even have to use a linux program to make your icons. The GIMP and Inkscape are two very good and popular linux programs that can be used for making icons. Once you make an icon, you could put together your own theme so that you apply your icons in a non-destructive way. A good tutorial on how to do this is found here (http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials/IconThemes).

[afrodeity]

Looks like Gnome-Icon-edit is quite an old package, only dapper and hardy packages available. Surely there is something more current?

[mcduck]

Probably there isn't, considering that you don't need any special icon file format in Linux desktops, and there are far better apps available for image editing, painting and drawing and that can be easily used to create the icon files.

Personally I'd suggest working in Inkscape, as making your original as vector graphics not only gives you an easily editable image in case you might want to change some color afterwards, but the vector images are also infinitely scalable so you can export it into bitmap image sin all the different sizes you might want. (not that you'd really need anything else than the scalable icons, but many people prefer to edit the smallest icon sizes a bit afterwards to make them look better).

(By the way, the Applications menu does accept all the same image formats that can be used elsewhere in Gnome. So at least PNG, SVG, JPG and probably at least XPM and GIF as well work fine.)

[afrodeity]

Guess I'm just a lazy boy. Was hoping for some funky new iconeditor based on inkscape or somthing, which has everything set up, templates and what not, so I don't have to think about numbers all day long. But yeah, guess I could just create a 16x16 png and spend the rest of the day wondering why its not 3D

[cabbagepants]

Personally I'd suggest working in Inkscape,


agree

[bigseb]

agree
I too have used Inkscape with really good results.