FW5: Apple Homescreen Icons

I posted this over on the Freewaytalk.net forums and have decided to include this within my BlogSpot for my subscribers who are not Freeway users and for future reference.

With the update to Freeway 5.2, the ability to create "Homescreen Icon's" for the iPhone is now wrapped up within a simple action. You simply select a pre-formatted PNG file that you can custom design within Photoshop. This is an uber easy way and hopefully will get you started on making your own icons for your website projects.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Open Photoshop and create a new image that is 60px x 60px. (I've seen sites say that 45px x 45px is better but I find that the 60px x 60px version have better quality to them.) The iPod / iPhone will not adjust properly if the dimensions are not evenly square.

2. Set the DPI to be 72. Click OK.

3. Design your icon or place whatever you want into your new image box.

4. When you're done doing your thing, go to "File" then "Save for Web & Devices"

5. In the sidebar set it to be "PNG-8." Uncheck "Transparency," if checked and then hit "Save" and save it to someplace you'll remember. Make sure it has been saved in PNG format.

6. In Freeway go back into your "Action's palette" and select it, from the location you saved it to, from the drop down menu and wah-la!

The rounded corners occur on their own (on the iPod / iPhone) as well as the glossy part at the top of the image so you don't need to do any of that yourself.

**UPDATE** A screen-cast involving the Freeway part is found at FreewayCast.com

http://freewaycast.com/screencasts/view/28-iphone-homescreen-icons

Good luck and happy icon making!