Talk about PS icon design process and tips

Icon design requires skilled use of software, dabbling in a variety of vector characteristics, masks and the construction of solid geometry, therefore, students will need to use a variety of software tools and techniques, today's translation are all super practical skills dry goods, the weekend to add a bit of material.

　　Graphic Creation vs graphic style

I think it is important to make a proper distinction between the creation of vector paths and the setting of graphic styles, because they require two different design software to implement--photoshop and Illustrator.

Photoshop's rendering quality and masking capabilities are almost beyond all design software, while Illustrator contains a wealth of vector functionality. In my long journey of the icon, Illustrator is the king of the vector path field.

Thankfully, the conversion between Photoshop and Illustrator is a seamless connection. Usually my workflow is this: a simple graphics operation in Photoshop, but if it involves a complete set of icons or any complex graphics, I will first choose Illustrator to create, and then to Photoshop for style processing.

In short, Illustrator is used to create graphics that Photoshop uses to set styles and outputs.

　　Specifications

If you can control the icon size, then the icon style and line thickness should help the specification, because many icons must have a centerline. That is, if an icon has an even width, the width of the centerline cannot be an odd number. Similarly, if an icon has an odd width, the width of the line is not even.

When you use an even number of lines, the icon size should be: even (wide) x even (high). When the line width is odd, then the icon size should be: odd (wide) x odd (high).

Try not to mix odd and even sizes (unless you're mad if you don't mix, so make sure different axes use lines of different weights).

Instead of masking the problem with a high rate of separation-using 1pt (or 1DP) lines in an odd-width icon, it may look fine in the Retina configuration, but you'll definitely find a big problem with the 1x and 3x size resolutions.

In fact, as long as all the points are imagined as the basic grid icon, to avoid too small offset positioning, everything is not so complicated. Make sure all the icons are designed to start at 1x.

　　OS X application icon

The use of a simple grid system can help to apply the drawing of the icon. OS X's app icon size is multiplied, so I can roughly define the location of the 1024x1024 icon by 16x16 pixel icons, so the workflow is much easier. For those very small versions, there is no need to adjust the details too much.

However, the Apple icon does not fully match the grid system. For some reason, they have a few pixel deviations. The--safari icon has a diameter of 898 pixels, rather than 896 pixels that exactly match the 1/16 mesh.

To sum up, I have defined icons that are not exactly the same as Safari, itunes, and other Apple icons, but only 2 pixel differences in 1024 pixels, and it's more important for me to follow the grid. I wonder why Apple chose this size.

　　IOS app icon

The size of the IOS app icon is not as good as the OS X icon, and the workflow is slightly more complex. The following is the size of all IOS icons listed today.

29x29

40x40

58x58

76x76

80x80

87x87

120x120

152x152

180x180

1024x1024 (Application store)

There are a total of 10 sizes. However, if you only need to make a 1x mesh size, just focus on 5 main sizes.

29 (1x), (2x), (3x)

40 (1x), (2x), (3x)

60 (1x), (2x), 180 (3x)

76 (1x), 152 (2x), 228 (3x)

1024x1024 (Application store)

4 Basic Dimensions plus the application store size 1024x1024 pixels, the amount of work line is halved. Another good news is that if Apple releases an iPad of 3x size, you are basically finished with the icon for that specification.

In the beginning, to resist the temptation of high resolution size, focus on 1x size is the best way to help us save time, so as to achieve a more efficient and easier to maintain the design. When the time comes, it's not too late to start making 2x, 3x, or 4x versions.

Be cautious about using smart objects specifically, and be careful that they may have special size changes.

　　Starting from Illustrator

Illustrator not only allows you to clearly observe all the vector nodes when designing the 1x mesh size icon, and there are countless unique features that you can't achieve in any other software. I'm really addicted to many of these features and that's why I chose Illustrator as the first step in my icon workflow.

　　Snap To Grid settings

I do not like the Illustrator pixel setting, but check "view → Snap to Grid" after the effect is very ideal, remember to close the neat objects to pixels. Pairs of neat objects to pixels can be found in a new document or transform panel.

If you need to make very subtle adjustments to the pixel, you can use the move panel (object → convert → move, or press ENTER directly).

　　Custom Tools Panel

Recently, I have edited my tool panel and removed some of the tools that were not used to show the tools that were already hidden.

　　Path-Finding device

If you want to add, subtract, or exclude graphics (often referred to as Boolean operations or construct solid geometry), the path-finding device in Illustrator is the best feature in all vector-editing software.

In the path-picker, I love the partitioning feature-it divides overlapping graphics into separate shapes so that unwanted parts can be easily deleted.

Classification:

• PS Getting Started Tutorial
• PS Icon Production Tutorial