Creating small icons and favicons
Desktop application icons have to come in different sizes because of different contexts they are used in and often the website logo is shrunk to the 16x16 pixels size to be used as the site favicon. It would be easy if we could just create the full size icon and scale it or export it to different sizes, but full size usually has a lot of details that get lost when scaled to very small sizes and we may get just a small blur that doesn't resemble the original.
That is why we have to create a different version of an icon to be used in small sizes by removing the details that can't be visible in small scale, accenting certain features and increasing contrast if necessary. This recipe will show us how to transform an icon of a simple clock into its 16x16 version to be used as a favicon. This is a good example on how to work with very small icons.
How to do it...
The following steps demonstrate how to create small icons and favicons:
1. Select the Ellipse tool (F5...
