You may have seen the forum threads where lots of Android users upload screenshots of their homescreens. Quite often they will have text icons for the dock shortcuts. Below are some examples of what I am on about. These icons are all downloaded from Droid Den.
These icons are created in photoshop and then copied to the device. You then add the shortcut and change the icon using either ADW or Launcher Pro’s built in icon changer. Previously if you wanted to create your own icons you needed to get the psd file from the developer and edit it using photoshop.
This app does all of that for you, on your phone. It is called Simple Text and it is free to download in the market. Once installed you are presented with two basic styles of text icon, a two line icon or a single line icon. You can edit various parts of the icon. Such the positioning of the text, the size of the text, the alignment, the colour, shadow effects, anti alias, make the text bold or best of all change the font. Below are some shots of the icon editing screen.
The app comes with seven different fonts that you can use, so you can create a lot of different styles of icons.You can also add fonts to the app by adding a tff file to the “simple text/fonts” folder on your sd card. Below are a few examples of the various styles I have created.
So once you have come up with a style you like, you need to start creating the actual icons. All you need to do is decide which apps you want to make icons for and how you are going to abbreviate the name. Ie “Audio Manager Pro” shortened to “Audio” or “Tweetdeck” to “Twtdk”. If you make the names to long you will have to reduce the text size which will make it hard to read. Below are a few of the icons I have made using some of the different styles.
Your first attempt will probably end up looking a little basic (I know mine do!). But once you have got a grip of all the settings no doubt they will get better. Overall it is a great app that allows you to quickly and easily create text icons on your device. Being able to add additional fonts as well makes this app great. The link is below so you can head over to the market and give it a try.
If any of you want any of the styles or fonts I have used let me know in the comments and I will upload them for you.
Very nice indeed.
Not bad! I like it.