We've covered a bucketload of
image editors here at Download Squad recently: from Photoshop Elements, to stylish OS X apps to great Windows image manipulators. But if you're someone who works with icons and screen graphics, you're probably using something other than Photoshop Elements to create your stunning vector icons and glyphs.
Sure, there's the brawn of
Illustrator if you want to spend big - or already own Creative Suite - and there's free & open-source
Inkscape if you're looking for something that's also cross-platform. But if you're on a Mac, there's also another choice: Opacity. Unlike most vector drawing apps,
Opacity is specifically designed to help you create resolution-independent icons and glyphs.
There's a tonne of presets available - from iPhone icons to desktop app icons - and perhaps most impressively, there's an option to export the vector drawing as - get this -
Objective-C code that you bring straight over to
Xcode and build for the
iPhone and
OS X platforms.
Sure, it's pretty specialised - but if you're creating icons and the like then you simply have to give Opacity a go. A licence costs US$89.99, with a free demo available - as well as a slimmer Opacity Express for US$39.99.