ToyCon is a free drag and drop image to icon converter that converts JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TGA images to ICO as well as ICO to PNG. It supports the creation of a full range of icon size formats within the ICO file including the new Vista .ICO format which supports 256×256 resolution icons in PNG compression.
A quick image to icon converter that offers drag and drop simplicity alongside a versatile set of format choices for your resulting ICO file. Here are more notes on this program:
- Portable: just unzip and run, no installation needed.
- Drag and drop: the interface couldn’t be simpler (or more pleasant to work with). You can drag a single image or multiple image files at once onto the ToyCon dialog hovering on your desktop (see screenshot).
- ICO file formats: right click on “choose formats” to access a format selection dialog. This is where you determine if your ICO file will contain any or all of Vista, 32bit, 8bit or 4bit color information as well as the icon sizes that you would like included in your ICO file for each (16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 72×72, 96×96, 128×128 and 256×256). The format chooser is very versatile and powerful and comes with 3 pre-built presets (XP, Vista, and “Dock”) with the ability to specify a custom configuration. (Although it doesn’t allow you to save it independently as a preset).
- Convert ICO to PNG: is possible, up to an image size of 256×256.
- Batch conversion: see “drag and drop” above.
The verdict: although I’ve written about other image to ICO converters previously (e.g. Imagicon, the online service Bradicon) I would probably recommend this little program over these other ones because of the following: it doesn’t require installation, it is very user friendly, and it is very versatile and powerful in terms of what it does. A winner!
Version Tested: 0.6
Compatibility: WinAll.
Go to the ToyCon forum page to download the latest version. Scroll down for English (approx 186K).
