CUSTOM iPHONE ICON?

Yes, yes, ye old non technologically minded people, there is a extremely easy way to create a custom Apple iPhone or iPod Touch icon for absolutely free. Creating a custom iPhone icon can be useful for anyone who has a website or blog. It looks much more professional to have a nice looking custom icon, so that anyone that saves your site to there iPhone of iPod Touch home screen(s) will be able to instantly have your custom logo on there screen. Ok, so, here we go.

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#1 Get the right tools

In order to create a custom iPhone icon you will need to have some kind of image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. There are less expensive options out there, but if you want to have a set of tools to really make your creativity soar in the future, I would REALLY recommend getting some sort of Adobe product. Really anything that will allow you to save a .png file after editing it.

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The next thing you will need is a FTP uploading software, or someway to upload to your hosting server. Again, Adobe products such as Adobe Dreamweaver will help you in this process. It's simple.

#2 Create the Icon

First of all open Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or whatever other image editing software your using and create a new file with the the dimensions of 55px x 55px - this is the size of icon that Apple requires for it to be formatted correctly on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Note: Creating a custom icon that is exactly the right size will allow the resolution to be at it's best, and, therefore, look the most clear on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Use the text tool, import an image or both onto the art-board of your editing program to create a cool iPhone icon. Follow these artistic guidlines.

A) Create something that is easy for people to remember

B) Make the colors contrasting so that the icon is easy to visually see.

C) Don't try to be Picasso - simple is best.

The main use for this custom icon is on the Apple iPhone, but keep in mind that it can be used for other online applications like Facebook, Twitter, or other online profiles.

Example of a Custom iPhone Icon

Example of a Custom iPhone Icon
Custom iPhone Icon for an Apartment Locating Company.

Custome iPhone Icon Example

Custome iPhone Icon Example
Specific creative element that make this icon work well

#3 Save and Upload

After creating your custom iPhone icon, all we have to do is save the file as a .PNG. Again, the reason that we save the icon as a PNG file is to make sure that the background remains transparent.

NOTE: JPG files do not have a transparent background like PNG files. JPG files will have a white background.

Make sure the file name is exactly as listed below otherwise your Apple device will not be able to find the image once uploaded:

FILE NAME
apple-touch-icon.png

UPLOAD
Open your FTP client and log on to your server (location where your website is stored). Locate the newly created custom iPhone icon and upload the file to the root directory of your server - this is usually something like public_html/. To break this down in more simple terms - the "root directory" is simply the main folder where all of your website information is stored, including your newly created custom iPhone icon Simple as that.

After you have uploaded your new custom icon to your host storage, you and the rest of the world can use your new icon on there mobile devices home screen.

Custom iPhone Icon Uploading Via FTP

Custom iPhone Icon Uploading Via FTP
Upload your custom icon to the "Root folder"

Wrapping Up

Now every time someone saves your webpage to there iPhone or iPod Touch the newly created custom icon will be saved as the icon on their phone or mp3 player. Cool! Easy! Here are the steps to saving your websites custom icon to your iPhone/iPod home page.

1. Navigate to your website

2. Press the center icon on Safari (i.e., the square with arrow).

3. Select "Add to Home Screen"

Below are the example photographs to help you with saving your icon to your home screen.

Navigate to You Website

Navigate to You Website
Example: www.AustinApartmentAgency.com

Select "Add to Home Screen"

Select "Add to Home Screen"
Example: www.AustinApartmentAgency.com

View & Rename Your Custom iPhone Icon

View & Rename Your Custom iPhone Icon
Example: www.AustinApartmentAgency.com

Friday, December 23, 2011

Why do people use a custom iPhone icon?

Making a custom iPhone icon can be a lot of fun. However, why would one want to make a custom iPhone icon in the first place? There are many reasons why people want to have a customized iPhone icon for their website. For example businesses want to increase advertising expenditures, and consumer blog post users would like to have an icon that is rememberable for the public.

Say you were a business that has a website that sells kayaks, and you want to make sure that when people use your website on their iPhones homepage that they remember your name and that your logo is special enough to draw attention. A business iPhone icon can be great or can be detrimental. If the icon is not created and graphically pleasing way, the businesses demeanor could be taken for granted. No one likes to look at bad art, and this applies to iPhone icons as well. On the other hand a web company that has a outstanding icon in our example of the kayak store. Maybe this kayak store has created an iPhone icon of a kayak in vector art. The icon looks beautiful, it easily speaks of what the company is involved in, and it is easy to remember.

When creating your icon, just ask yourself a few questions about what you want your audience to see when they see your custom iPhone icon. A few good questions to start with are the following: do I want my company to look prestigious or fun and energetic? Do I want my company to look established or do I want my company to look new and young? These simple questions can help point you in the right direction as far as what type of art you're going to create for your custom iPhone icon. Between colors, styles, logos, and other elements, a great iPhone icon can make or break the Web companies presents on iPhones, iPods, and iPads all across the country.
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