Icons - [EBPEdit Help Contents]
Icons are optional small images or symbols that can be displayed to depict/represent loads, events, and locomotives. As is true of a map's background picture, you create the icons with your favorite graphics editor. All icons for a map should be placed in a single file named XXXicon*.gif, or XXXicon*.jpg or XXXicon*.bmp, where XXX is the 3-letter name of your map, and * represents one or more letters and/or digits. We recommend using the default file name of XXXicons.gif. The file should be placed into the same directory as the map's XXXmap.ebm file.
An icons file is not required to make your map functional. Icons are simply window dressing. If EBP does not find an icons file, it will display load names via text or text abbreviations.
ICON TEMPLATE
As an initial step of creating an XXXicons file we recommend you let EBPEdit prepare an icon template for you. Do the following steps only after you have created all the different loads of your map.
1) choose the Edit, Loads pull-down menu,
2) click on the (empty) icon to open the Icons window
3) in the Icons window, choose the File, Create pull down menu
4) when prompted, specify the size of an icon (in pixels); we recommend a value from 64 to 128; our maps typically use 100
EBPEdit will save a file named XXXicons.bmp in which it has drawn lines and load names to mark the areas in which you can paint the icons you want. The XXXicons picture file is designed to always have 10 icons across, and as many rows as needed. So, for example, if you chose an icon size of 64, the XXXicons.bmp template will be 640 pixels wide. Regardless of the size you choose, EBP will resize the icons as needed to fit on the map and contracts.
Once the template exists, open it with your favorite graphics editor and add the icon images. You can resize the template if you wish, but you must 1) keep 10 icons across, and 2) keep the height and width of each load icon equal, that is, each load icon's area must be a square. When you save the file from your editor, we recommend using .gif format.
ICON SHARING
If your map has the same loads as another map, you can share its XXXicon file by choosing it from the Icons window's File, Share pull-down menu. The fact this map shares the icons of another will be saved with your map so that EBP will know where to find the icons. To break this link to the icons of another map because, for example, you have prepared a fresh set of icons for the map you are currently editing, choose the File, Unshare pull-down menu.
ICON TRANSPARENCY
EBP will display your icons with a transparent background defined as a certain color. That is, wherever this color appears in the XXXicon* file, when the icon is displayed on the map the background behind it will show through. To designate to EBP the transparent color, make the upper-leftmost pixel in the XXXicon* file that color. For best results when printing onto paper, we recommend full, bright white (RGB 255,255,255) as the color to designate transparent. Fill the area around and between your icons with this same transparent color.
Since the most popular background colors during play are full white and full black, we encourage you to avoid creating icons all (or mostly) in those colors. Perhaps the most common problem we see in user-created maps is a black icon. A black icon will be invisible if the user employs a black background. Instead of black in your icons, use gray.
If full, bright white is the transparent color you use, note that any bright white inside an icon will make that area "see through". Unless you desire that effect, use an off-white color inside an icon.
If you save your icons in GIF form (recommended), do not employ GIF transparency.
If you are planning to print your map onto paper, note that many Windows printer drivers do not properly handle transparency, and some cannot print the icons at all. Updating your printer drivers might resolve this problem. When we have encountered this problem, we have instead installed a PDF printer driver such as CutePDF Writer (which makes PDF files from what you print), then printed to it, and next sent that PDF file to the physical printer for printing. Even so, you may observe the icons sometimes do not align perfectly with nearby graphics.
LOCOMOTIVES
In EBP's player contract area left of the map, behind the onboard loads EBP displays an image. You can customize that image if you wish. One way to is include your locomotive image(s) within the same XXXicon file, positioned below your load icons. To allow for greater detail than the load icons, EBP expects each of your locomotive images to be spread across multiple icon slots to span an area 5 slots wide by 3 high, that's 500x300 pixels if your load icons are 100 pixels on a side. If you wish you can prepare, and place inside the XXXicon file, a different image for each kind of locomotive. Since the XXXicon image is always 10 slots wide, it has room for two different locomotive images across its width.
After you have placed custom locomotive art in the XXXicon file, in the Icon column of EBPEdit's Locomotives editing window, enter the slot number of the upper-left corner of the 5x3 area of that locomotive. EBP will count 5 slots across and 3 down (inclusive) from the slot number you enter, and stretch that image to fit in the player contract area. To help you specify the correct slot number, first click on the Icon field of the desired locomotive, then click on the "Icon" label at the top of the column to open a window that displays your XXXicon file. From there you can visually select the upper-leftmost slot of your 5x3 locomotive image.
Transparency has no effect for these locomotives and can be ignored. See the locomotives topic for additional information.
ICON SOURCES
If you pay to register EBPEdit, we'll let you copy and distribute load icons from the XXXicon files of our maps with your maps. If you look online for icon art, be sure to choose only that not copyrighted by someone other than you.