Icon Editor

An icon editor written in Python and Tkinter. It creates and edits Windows icons (.ico), cursors (.cur) and animated cursors (.ani).

Requirements

• Python 3.8 or newer
• Tkinter. It comes with the python.org installers on Windows and macOS. On Debian/Ubuntu, install it with sudo apt install python3-tk.

You don't need any third-party packages. The file formats (ICO/CUR with BMP or PNG images, ANI RIFF containers and PNG) are implemented in pure Python.

Running

python main.py                 # start with a new 32x32 icon
python main.py path/to/file.ani
python -m icon_editor file.ico # alternative

Features

• File types: Open and save .ico, .cur and .ani files. Save As converts between them based on the file extension.
• Multiple image sizes per file: For example, 16x16, 32x32, 48x48 and 256x256. Sizes from 1 to 256 px are supported. You can add, remove and resize images. A new size can start blank or as a scaled copy of the current image.
• 32-bit colour with alpha. Images smaller than 256 px are stored as 32-bit DIBs with an AND mask. 256 px images are stored as PNG, like Windows does. The editor reads 1, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32-bit bitmaps, plus PNG-compressed entries.
• Drawing tools: Pencil, eraser, flood fill, line, rectangle, filled rectangle, ellipse, filled ellipse and colour picker. The left mouse button draws with the left colour and the right button with the right colour. Each colour has its own alpha slider.
• Image operations: Undo/redo, clear, flip, rotate, shift (wraps around the edges), and copy/paste an image between sizes (it's scaled automatically). You can import a PNG into the current image and export the current image as a PNG.
• Cursors: Set the hotspot with the Hotspot tool or with Image → Set Hotspot....
• Animated cursors:
  • Add, duplicate, delete and reorder frames.
  • Set a display rate for each frame, in jiffies (1/60 s).
  • Play the animation in the preview.
  • Edit the title and author.
• Zoom and grid: Zoom with View or with Ctrl + mouse wheel. You can turn the pixel grid on and off.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+N / Ctrl+O	New / Open
Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Shift+S	Save / Save As
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V	Copy / Paste image
Ctrl++ / Ctrl+-	Zoom in / out
Delete	Clear image

Tests

python -m unittest discover -s tests

GUI tests need a display. They're skipped automatically when no display is available. On a headless Linux machine, use xvfb-run. If Pillow is installed, extra tests cross-check the file formats against it.

Project layout

main.py                 launcher
icon_editor/app.py      Tkinter user interface
icon_editor/model.py    document model (images, frames, hotspots)
icon_editor/ico.py      .ico / .cur reader and writer
icon_editor/ani.py      .ani reader and writer
icon_editor/png.py      PNG encoder/decoder
icon_editor/fileio.py   loading/saving helpers
tests/                  unit tests

Copyright and License

MIT licensed. See LICENSE file for deatils.