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\title Setting the Application Icon
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\ingroup best-practices
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The application icon, typically displayed in the top-left corner of an
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application's top-level windows, is set by calling the
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QWidget::setWindowIcon() method on top-level widgets.
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In order to change the icon of the executable application file
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itself, as it is presented on the desktop (i.e., prior to
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application execution), it is necessary to employ another,
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platform-dependent technique.
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\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Windows
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First, create an ICO format bitmap file that contains the icon
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image. This can be done with e.g. Microsoft Visual C++: Select
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\menu{File|New}, then select the \menu{File} tab in the dialog
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that appears, and choose \menu{Icon}. (Note that you do not need
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to load your application into Visual C++; here we are only using
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Store the ICO file in your application's source code directory,
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for example, with the name \c myappico.ico. Then, create a text
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file called, say, \c myapp.rc in which you put a single line of
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 0
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Finally, assuming you are using \c qmake to generate your
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makefiles, add this line to your \c myapp.pro file:
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 1
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Regenerate your makefile and your application. The \c .exe file
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will now be represented with your icon in Explorer.
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If you do not use \c qmake, the necessary steps are: first, run
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the \c rc program on the \c .rc file, then link your application
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with the resulting \c .res file.
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\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Mac OS X
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The application icon, typically displayed in the application dock
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area, is set by calling QWidget::setWindowIcon() on a top-level
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widget. It is possible that the program could appear in the
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application dock area before the function call, in which case a
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default icon will appear during the bouncing animation.
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To ensure that the correct icon appears, both when the application is
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being launched, and in the Finder, it is necessary to employ a
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platform-dependent technique.
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Although many programs can create icon files (\c .icns), the
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recommended approach is to use the \e{Icon Composer} program
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supplied by Apple (in the \c Developer/Application folder).
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\e{Icon Composer} allows you to import several different sized
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icons (for use in different contexts) as well as the masks that
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go with them. Save the set of icons to a file in your project
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If you are using qmake to generate your makefiles, you only need
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to add a single line to your \c .pro project file. For example,
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if the name of your icon file is \c{myapp.icns}, and your project
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file is \c{myapp.pro}, add this line to \c{myapp.pro}:
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 2
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This will ensure that \c qmake puts your icons in the proper
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place and creates an \c{Info.plist} entry for the icon.
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If you do not use \c qmake, you must do the following manually:
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\i Create an \c Info.plist file for your application (using the
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\c PropertyListEditor, found in \c Developer/Applications).
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\i Associate your \c .icns record with the \c CFBundleIconFile record in the
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\c Info.plist file (again, using the \c PropertyListEditor).
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\i Copy the \c Info.plist file into your application bundle's \c Contents
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\i Copy the \c .icns file into your application bundle's \c Contents/Resources
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\section1 Setting the Application Icon on Common Linux Desktops
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In this section we briefly describe the issues involved in providing
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icons for applications for two common Linux desktop environments:
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\l{http://www.kde.org/}{KDE} and \l{http://www.gnome.org/}{GNOME}.
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The core technology used to describe application icons
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is the same for both desktops, and may also apply to others, but there
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are details which are specific to each. The main source of information
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on the standards used by these Linux desktops is
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\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/}{freedesktop.org}. For information
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on other Linux desktops please refer to the documentation for the
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desktops you are interested in.
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Often, users do not use executable files directly, but instead launch
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applications by clicking icons on the desktop. These icons are
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representations of "desktop entry files" that contain a description of
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the application that includes information about its icon. Both desktop
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environments are able to retrieve the information in these files, and
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they use it to generate shortcuts to applications on the desktop, in
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the start menu, and on the panel.
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More information about desktop entry files can be found in the
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\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/desktop-entry-spec}{Desktop Entry
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Although desktop entry files can usefully encapsulate the application's details,
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we still need to store the icons in the conventional location for each desktop
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environment. A number of locations for icons are given in the
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\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec}{Icon Theme
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Although the path used to locate icons depends on the desktop in use,
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and on its configuration, the directory structure beneath each of
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these should follow the same pattern: subdirectories are arranged by
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theme, icon size, and application type. Generally, application icons
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are added to the hicolor theme, so a square application icon 32 pixels
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in size would be stored in the \c hicolor/32x32/apps directory beneath
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\section2 K Desktop Environment (KDE)
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Application icons can be installed for use by all users, or on a per-user basis.
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A user currently logged into their KDE desktop can discover these locations
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by using \l{http://developer.kde.org/documentation/other/kde-config.html}{kde-config},
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for example, by typing the following in a terminal window:
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 3
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Typically, the list of colon-separated paths printed to stdout includes the
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user-specific icon path and the system-wide path. Beneath these
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directories, it should be possible to locate and install icons according
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to the conventions described in the
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\l{http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec}{Icon Theme Specification}.
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If you are developing exclusively for KDE, you may wish to take
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advantage of the \link
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http://developer.kde.org/documentation/other/makefile_am_howto.html
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KDE build system\endlink to configure your application. This ensures
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that your icons are installed in the appropriate locations for KDE.
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The KDE developer website is at \l{http://developer.kde.org/}.
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Application icons are stored within a standard system-wide
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directory containing architecture-independent files. This
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location can be determined by using \c gnome-config, for example
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by typing the following in a terminal window:
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 4
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The path printed on stdout refers to a location that should contain a directory
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called \c{pixmaps}; the directory structure within the \c pixmaps
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directory is described in the \link
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http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec Icon Theme
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Specification \endlink.
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If you are developing exclusively for GNOME, you may wish to use
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the standard set of \link
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http://developer.gnome.org/tools/build.html GNU Build Tools\endlink,
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also described in the relevant section of
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the \link http://developer.gnome.org/doc/GGAD/ggad.html GTK+/Gnome
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Application Development book\endlink. This ensures that your icons are
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installed in the appropriate locations for GNOME.
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The GNOME developer website is at \l{http://developer.gnome.org/}.
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\section1 Setting the Application Icon on the Symbian platform
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In order to set the application icon for Symbian platform applications, you need
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an SVG-T icon. For information on how to create SVG-T compliant icons,
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\l{http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/How_to_create_application_icon(SVG)_in_S60_3rd_edition/}
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Once the icon is available in the correct format and assuming you are
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using \c qmake to generate your makefiles, you only need to add a single
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line to your \c .pro project file. For example, if the name of your
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icon file is \c{myapp.svg}, and your project file is \c{myapp.pro},
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add this line to \c{myapp.pro}:
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\snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_appicon.qdoc 5