Articles > FileMaker Pro
By Kevin Hammond, Database Development Services, Inc
Posted on April 5, 2008
Making a great interface in FileMaker involves utilizing buttons and icons and many times creating custom icons. Creating icons for your application can take a lot of your time. We have done our fair share of making custom icons. To save yourself lots of time we recommend you check out our favorite set of free icons.
FileMaker Layouts, Inserting Graphics
When in Layout Mode you have the option of inserting pictures from a variety of graphic file types. You can also copy and paste graphics in layouts which you should avoid doing if possible as the clipboard is not the same as inserting a picture. So what should you do and the best practice?
The graphic file type of choice when building FileMaker interfaces are transparent PNG graphcs. You can use other types of graphics, but very few graphic types support transparency. GIFs support transparency, but are limited to 256 colors. So as a rule of thumb always strive to use transparent PNG graphic file types.
I have searched the web high and low and spent many of hours finding icon sets and what you will find includes, ICOs (Windows Icons), GIFs, SVGs, and PNGs. Many times the files found are not ideal for FileMaker Pro or take advanced graphics tools to make them fit well into your application. Well then I found FamFamFam Silk Icon set.
Download the FamFamFam Icon Silk Set
Mark James, located in the UK has put together a great web site of FREE icons for download. Check out the FamFamFam site and download the FamFamFam Silk Icons. These icons are all 16x16 pixels in size and transparent PNG's. Absolutely ideal for FileMaker Pro layout design and building professional interfaces that users can easily understand..
Each day I become more familiar with the FamFamFam icon sets I seem to notice their icons or similar icons all over the web and in software. Sometimes I think, are these FamFamFam icons. Recently zdnet.com redesigned their website and when viewing their articles their print button looks identical to the print icon in the FamFamFam Silk Icon set. Truly amazing how icons available to the public can transform technology and interfaces used in web sites and in software today so quickly. The icons were first posted in March of 2006.
BTW, the Silk Icon set contains 1,000 icons all transparent PNG's.
A big thanks to Mark James and the FamFamFam web site. I hope you find yourself making better interfaces in your FileMaker applications with these great icons. They are truly ideal for FileMaker layouts and interfaces.
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