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                 Anthony's X Icon Library (version 1.5)
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                            Main ReadMe File
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             EMail: anthony@cit.gu.edu.au
             FTP:   ftp.x.org    /contrib/AIcons
             WWW:   http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~anthony/icons

  This collection was developed from the need for a collection of small
bitmaps for both programming and X application icons. The library is
freely copyable and can be used for any purpose you may desire.  I would
appreciate any new icons you may like to add to this collection and thay
can be e-mail'ed to the above address.

  NOTE: The contents of this collection have been filtered to remove
`junky' and other `horrible' looking icons. This has been a major problem
with other collections I have seen. That is to say I have applied :-

          Sturgeon's Law -- `` 90% of everything is crap! ''

Also note that this collection does NOT contain large background root
pictures, and is limited (as much as possible) to bitmaps less than about
100x100 pixels in size. If you want these I suggest that you look at one
of the hundreds of picture collections all over the net.

  A complete list of the origanization and layout of the icon library is
available in the file ``README.sections''. Also available is an historical
note on how and why this library came about in ``README.historical''.

  Monocrome (or Black & White) icons in the library are stored a X bitmaps
as you would expect.  Color icons are now stored as X pixmap files
(version 3.2g XPMs) due to popular demand.  However, the color background
patterns (`cl-bgnds') in the collection are stored in the GIF picture
format.  This is basically due to the inability of most of the color set
root programs available to understand the XPM icon format.  See the
``README.colorformats'' file for more details.  For convertion of
Icons to and from these formats to others, I recomend the netpbm 
replacment to the pbmplus format filter library.

  netpbm    ftp.x.org (or mirror)  /contrib/netpbm-7dec1993.tar.gz

  The general purpose color icons (all xpm icons except those in the grey
scale section ``gr-misc'') in this collection now share a common color
table of approximately 30 colors. This prevents the users of the common
`pseudo-color' displays, from running out of colors on your display when
using, or viewing, a large number of these color icons.  See the
``README.colortable'' file for more information.  I also recomend this
colortable to software developers and for use in window managers.

  The xbmbrowser program available on the mit export ftp site, is a MUST
for viewing the icons in this library, and was designed with this in
mind.  It will scans and display a whole directory of icons (xbm and xpm formats) all at the
same time.   The program also
provides a user customisable menu of commands to execute on individual
icons.  The latest version at time of distribution is version 3.1 and a
new version is being planed.  It was written by Ashley Roll, a local user.

  xbmbrowser   ftp.x.org (or mirror)  /contrib/xbmbrowser-3.1.tar.Z

  NOTE: Due to the difficulity in keeping comments and other details
inside icons when processing them (especially in changing to and from the
PbmPlus processing programs), authorship and contribution details for
icons are listed in the file ``README.contribs''. Applogies for any errors
to this file. Please mail such errors to the address above and I'll try to
fix it for the next release.

  In a simular way, I have not attemped to keep the `transparent' color of
X pixmaps. The only exception to this is for X pixmaps in the `mail'
icons.  If you wish a transparent color for som particular icons, the
`pixmap' program by Lionel Mallet <mallet@skye.simpolis.fr>, available in
the mit export ftp site, can `fill' the the outside region of the icon
with the `transparent' color, quickly and easilly.  If anyone has a script
to do this automatically, using the PbmPlus programs, perl, sed, or any
other method, please mail it to myself and I'll release it with the
collection in the next release.


  Anthony Thyssen - (SysProg @ Griffith University)     anthony@cit.gu.edu.au
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   And even if there was a possibility of life outside the Store,
     it wouldn't be life as we know it!    --- Terry Pratchett  ``Truckers''
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