Icon from photograph - Tutorial

Learn how to make an icon from a photograph in RealWorld Icon Editor. This video explains how to remove background from a picture and how to crop it before converting it to icon.

More tips about making background transparent.

Narration transcript

How to make an icon from a photograph.

Start by opening a photo, for example by dragging and dropping it on the application window.

Switch to Transformation tool and select a region of interest - a little dog in my case.
Right click and select "Crop to selection" in context menu.

Switch to Pencil tool and select a transparent color (the 4 gray squares).

Click on the image and zoom in with mouse wheel. You can move the image by dragging with the mouse wheel or by moving the scrollbars.

Draw with the pencil around the object of interest. You do not need to be extra accurate, we will fix the edges later, but do not leave any gaps. That is important! The line needs to be continuous, it is OK if it overlaps.

I do want the rear half of the dog on my icon, so watch me cutting that half off.

Switch to Flood fill tool. Then set the matching mode to 'Alpha'. Finally, click outside the outlined region on the image.

Switch to Brush tool and start repairing the edges. Again, accuracy is not that important if the resolution of your photograph is high enough. Icons are small and the imperfections will not be visible.

I intentionally picked a very furry animal to show you that a good icon can be obtained form almost any photo.

Click on Remove empty border and then OK.

Click on Create icon from image and then OK again.

Our icon is ready, as you can see, all the pictures look very good and there are no traces of grass or other background - just the good dog. Save it and you are done.

Thanks for watching.