Resizing large icons in WinForms without losing quality

1
votes

I have a set of large icons (high quality, ICO files) to use in a WinForms application (as local resources).

I was hoping that .NET would conveniently resize the icons to smaller scales without losing much quality - but the resized icons have much smaller quality .

I can surely resize icon by icon using any icon editor, but I would like to avoid that if possible . Is there any way to accomplish this ? Many thanks.

2
.netwinforms
No. This is why a .ico file can store multiple images. So that the icon doesn't have to be resized, that rarely looks good. Creating a small icon that still looks good is an art performed by humans, not computers. - Hans Passant
Many thanks for your advise - I actually proceeded in that way as explained in my answer. Thanks! - user386167

2 Answers

1
votes

You could convert the Icons to Bitmaps and resize the Bitmaps.

1
votes

In my case, I had 128x128 icons and I needed them in different sizes. Also, I was losing quality when letting .NET resize them automatically (to 32x32 and 16x16).

So I used the batch option of IcoFX to produce multiple sizes of my icons (all stored within the same ICO file). Then I added the icons as resources, and let .NET automatically use the right size. Thank you.