Admit it - you've been limping along with your once-was-free copy of IconEdit32 since Windows 98.  You lived with the once-Windows-standard icon sizes of 16, 32 and 48 and the once-sufficient monochrome, 16 and 256 color depth.  You know you started realizing something better was out there when XP came about, when you would browse icon depository web sites and see much more detailed icons that you ever created, and now as Vista comes out with picture-perfect images.  Its time to find a new icon editor.

Pixelshop 4.0.1 SW by Digitope is an icon editor aimed at both casual icon creators who want to quickly put together a few images, as well as true iconphiles who want to customize every icon in Windows and replace all the (animated) cursors. 

For creating icons, Pixelshop allows you the ability to create icons from 1x1 to 127x127 in either 1, 4, 8, 24 or 32-bit color.  The ability to add "custom" sizes to the icon file instead of being limited to only standard sizes (16, 32 & 48) was a welcomed feature.  We also liked the automation Pixelshop includes in the the creation of new blank icons, as well as the creation of icons based on the external images, in both instances completing the base creation of an icon Windows expects in just a few mouse clicks.  As we hinted at, Pixelshop comes with an "import" feature that takes a normal graphics file and creates an icon.  We were impressed with the conversion rendering, but disappointed that the import only allows creation of icons in the 16, 32 and 48 pixel size; there is no way to import for a custom size.   For pre-Vista users, Pixelshop also comes with a nice folder icon wizard, that lets you import an image which it then overlays on a folder icon, and automates configuring Windows to use that icon for a selected folder.

Pixelshop also provides a very nice set of editing tools such as flip, rotate, nudge, resize, brightness adjust, and color inversion, as well as effects such as adding a drop shadow, smoothing the image, and converting to greyscale or two tone.  These worked exactly as expected and simplified the process as more editing could be done within the editor than with other icon creators.

Creation of both a static cursor and an animated cursor were just as easy as icons, with base creation completed in just a few mouse clicks.  Although all the editing tools were available, we were disappointed that no image import was.

Main Editor	Convert Image	Custom Size	Folder Icon

There was very little we didn't like about Pixelshop.  Icon creation was a snap, the interface was very intuitive, and the image to icon wizard is invaluable.  We did run into a few crashes when running Pixelshop in Vista, even in compatibility mode, when using the recent file list and the customize icon options dialog, but these did not detract from the over-all experience.  All around, and excellent editor.