File Formats: Icons and Cursors (ICO and CUR)

LEADTOOLS reads and writes Windows Icon and Cursor files. LEADTOOLS is not designed as an icon editor, but this file support lets you create a bitmap from an icon or cursor, or create an icon or cursor from a bitmap. The library (DLL) to support these formats is the same as for BMP files.

Windows Icon (ICO). This is a multi-page file format for storing one or more Windows icons. The background color when you read these images is always black. The size when you write these images can be no larger than 255-by-255 pixels. (Neither the width nor height can be greater than 255.) You can read and write single-page or multi-page files. You can read and write 16-bit as well.

Vista PNG Icon (ICO). This is a multi-page file format with PNG compression scheme, which reduces the size and maintains the quality of an image. It is a new icon format that comes with Microsoft Windows Vista. You can use size up to 256x256 pixels. It also supports 32 bits with alpha channel.

Windows Cursor (CUR). This is a file format for storing Windows cursors (mouse pointers). LEADTOOLS loads or saves transparency information using the region. The size when you write these images should be exactly 32-by-32 pixels. LEAD supports loading and saving multi-page files in this format.

NOTE: When you save a bitmap with a region as a CUR or ICO file, the pixels inside the region are considered to belong to the icon/cursor data. The pixels outside the region are considered transparent. If you save a bitmap without a region as a CUR or ICO file, the whole bitmap will be considered icon/cursor data. In this case, you will get a square icon or cursor. Note, however, that the ability to save a region inside a TIFF file must be unlocked. This requires a Document Imaging Toolkit or Document/Medical toolkit.

The file constants associated with these file formats are:

WIC Codec CLSID	WIC Codec Subformat	RasterImageViewer.Save File Constant	Read Support	Write Support	Description
CLSID_WICLeadIcoEncoder	WICLeadSubFormatWinIco	WinIco	1, 4, 8, 24 BPP	1, 4, 8, 24 BPP	Windows Icon.
CLSID_WICLeadIcoEncoder	WICLeadSubFormatPngIco	PngIco	1, 4, 8, 24, 32 BPP	1, 4, 8, 24, 32 BPP	Vista PNG Icon.
CLSID_WICLeadIcoEncoder	WICLeadSubFormatWinCur	WinCur	1, 4, 8, 24 BPP	1, 4, 8, 24 BPP	Windows Cursor.

Required DLL: Leadtools.Codecs.Bmp.Dll. For a listing of the exact DLLs needed, based on the toolkit version, refer to Files To Be Included With Your Application .

Platforms: .NET 2/3, .NET 4