

Tika Carr (summer_rain40@hotmail.com) was so kind to send me a tutorial
of how to create cursor/icons with my format plug-ins.

Tika uses Photo-Shop-Pro with which you can use 16Bit image modes.
(Not per channel, but for the whole picture.)
Saving such images causes problems with the alpha plane.
In those modes PSP seems to store alpha planes in 16Bit, too.
My plug expects 8Bit alpha values so each 16Bit pixel is treaded as two.
Though i fill in the 'colBytes' field with 1 Byte per pixel it does
not seem to work. If anyone knows a solution im happy to include it.

You might also want to visit Tikas homepage which youll find at
http://www.5thpower.com/tika/


Philipp (DragonFly) Spoeth
DragonPhil@gmx.de




Here is the Tutorial:
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How to create a cursor:

1. Create a 32 x 32 image or resize one to 32 x 32.

2. Make sure the background is a solid color.

3. Select the background only with the magic wand or color wand tool.

4. Save this selection to an alpha channel.

5. Deselect.

6. Zoom in on the image until you are able to select ONE PIXEL. This is
   going to be the "hot spot" for the cursor (where the cursor "points").

7. Save this selection to an alpha channel. (You now have two alpha channels:
   First one for the background, second one for the hot spot. They HAVE to be
   in this order!)

8. Deselect.

9. Reduce the color depth to 256 colors. (Currently, it doesn't seem to work
   well with 16-color icons and cursors, but it will be ok for hi-color
cursors).

10. Select the background only. Use the FIRST color in the palette (make sure
    it's BLACK - you might have to edit the palette for this) and fill the
    selection with black (first color).

11. Use the plugin to save the file as a .cur cursor file.

Your cursor is ready to use.

To Make icons with transparent background, follow the steps above for the
cursor only leave out the steps to create the hot spot.

