Custom Car Symbols

[danielson2047]

Hello, ya'all! I've been messing with making my own car symbols and can't get em just right. There is always red around the edges of my symbols. I've tried putting borders on the images, both black and white, but can't get rid of it. Any tips? What programs do u use to make em? I've been using Photo Shop.

 

[danielson2047]

Oh yeah, i have a ONE XL

 

[Rick F.]

I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but I use Windows Paint (comes with all versions of Windows) and a free program called, "Easy Thumbs". First I use Paint to surround the image (which is usually a jpg) with the framing tool (or box) and allow a little bit of surrounding area around the image. I try to make the new image as square as possible so when I reduce the size to 80 x 80 pixels using 'EasyThumbs' the aspect ration will be correct (sometime 80 x 60 will work too). After framing the image, I 'right-click' on it and 'save to location' and save the new image to desktop (call it what ever you want). Then I open 'EasyThumbs' and resize it to 80 x 80 pixels and again save it (all images are jpg in EasyThumbs). THEN, I use Paint again - load the image, and zoom in to 600 times so I can see a lot of detail. The picture will be fuzzy, but that's normal when blown up to 600 times. I use the different size paint brushes to fill in the surrounding area with bright red (I think the color is 255). I start with the bigger brushes until I get close to the car then switch to smaller brushes. I recheck the image in 'normal size' to see what it looks like. If it's ok, I save the new image... but this time I use the pull-down and select .bmp and 24 bit depth. This is important or it won't work.

Some people have suggested putting a '1-pixel' border of white around the image. I haven't found that necessary, but you could try that.

Hope this helps.

 

[RobertB]

You could be having a problem in that Not All Reds Are Created Equal. The unit uses red (RGB values FF/00/00) as the mask color, but a program like Paintshop is going to treat red as... a color. Perhaps it's trying to be "helpful", and blend the red into the background around the edges? That would result in a .bmp where the color on the edges isn't exactly red, maybe something like F0/00/00. It'll look just as red as can be to you, but the unit will see it as not-red and it'll be displayed instead of made transparent.

My son made me a car symbol, depicting GIR, the sweet killer robot from Invader Zim. He worked from a full-size image, carefully matted the outside with red... and then reduced the image. The (Linux) paint program he used, though, "helpfully" mixed the red close to the character's edge with the nearby pixels, for anti-aliasing. As a result, GIR has a bit of a red edge to him, because the colors aren't pure FF/00/00. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the problem you're having.

Here's a hint that finds those not-quite-red red pixels. Pick some color that you don't have in your image, and flood-fill the red with it. If that border on the outside remains, then it wasn't the same FF/00/00 as the rest.

Your best bet is to use the most brain-dead, simple graphic editor possible for the final .bmp. Windows Paint is pretty much ideal... it's as brain-dead as they come.

 

[MLPony 12]

Hello, ya'all! I've been messing with making my own car symbols and can't get em just right. There is always red around the edges of my symbols. I've tried putting borders on the images, both black and white, but can't get rid of it. Any tips? What programs do u use to make em? I've been using Photo Shop.

how do make the customs?

 

[canderson]

I'm guessing that what you've shown us as your "Model" is actually your serial number, and that therefore you own a Via Live 120 with "FN" as the first two characters in the serial number (that's a Nav3 device).

You add new car symbols using the "Manage community content" option from MyDrive Connect after right clicking its systray icon in the lower right of your screen.

The specs for car icons is as follows (you need to have or find an editing tool that handles *.bmp files to do the actual work). You can get paint.net at http://www.getpaint.net/index.html, and it's a fine little tool for free for this kind of work.

Create 80 x 80 pixel 24 bit *.bmp file in any way you like, but be sure to give the image a solid red background (RGB 255,0,0) so that any area outside of your icon is transparent when displayed against the map.
Use the MyDrive facility mentioned above to upload it to your Via 120. On your Via 120,
On your Via 120 ... Settings / Car symbol / choose the one you have created. It will appear with the name you have given the *.bmp file.