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Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 31 Jan 2021 17:36
by rfj1001
For some reason, there is no '00' in any of the new number icon sets with v7 so I created one last month to use with the 1900 US Census.
I used it today for the first time and whilst it shows OK size in the expression condition box, it is absolutely enormous in a diagram.
My starting point was the 01.emf file and I then did the modification so it showed '00'. But I noticed today it didn't save as a 7K file, as per the source, it is now 863K (which sort of explains the enormous display size of it now!) I think I used the windows Paint program.
My version of photoshop doesn't recognise the emf format and that's all I seem to have that works down to pixel level.
Can anyone help, either with '00' icons to complete the FH sets or a link to free software that I can use to create them at this end (to the correct size

).
Thanks in advance.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 01 Feb 2021 14:53
by Jane
EMF files are Vector graphics, so ideally you need to edit them in a Vector Graphics program like Inkscape.
I suspect Paint imported the vector graphic and then made it very large and converted it to a bitmap.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 01 Feb 2021 15:41
by tatewise
Yes, when I tried Paint and IrfanView they both read the EMF into a very large bit map image but cannot save the EMF vector format.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 01 Feb 2021 17:28
by rfj1001
Have since tried with paintshop pro. It's even worse - the saved file size is close to 1M.
The new file is shown as being saved as an emf file but it's obviously very different from the original.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 01 Feb 2021 17:58
by Gowermick
Give GIMP2 A try. Open the emf file, resize it then export as a Jpg ( if you just save it, GIMP will not save it as a jpg). I’m not on my PC at present, so don’t know if it will do what you want, but worth a try. (GIMP2 is opensource and free!)
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 02 Feb 2021 09:59
by rfj1001
Thanks for the suggestion re Gimp that I tried. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to recognise emf files as a recognised input format so I could't get any further.
At the moment, I've put a post up on irfanview to see if someone can throw any light on why it opens a 5K file and tries to save it as a 1M file (as per Paint and Photoshop Pro) and whether the saved file size can be restricted by pixel dimensions. Also I've emailed Calico Pie pointing out the omission in their number sets and asking if they could provide those missing.
If I get any helpful developments I'll post them up onto the forum.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 02 Feb 2021 11:44
by mjashby
Here's one small 'donation ware' product, FreeVimager, that seems to work well, i.e. in addition to being able to edit and create images in a wide range of formats , it can also simply load documents/images created by other products and convert/copy them to EMF format:
https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2248
It's available from the developer's site as both a Windows installer and as a 'Portable' application.
Re: Creating new emf icons for v7
Posted: 02 Feb 2021 12:12
by rfj1001
Calico Pie gave a very speedy response.
Jane was correct. Inkscape would be the program to use. Within it, there's the option of resizing the image which should be 120x120 pixels.
Even better news is I've been provided with a set of the missing icons
Well done Calicoe Pie