Effects (especially borders) can make an icon all but unusable in various skins. It's easy to add these effects if you wish to have them, but those who would prefer to do without (eg me!) would have a far, far harder time
removing them if they were pre-applied.
"Base images" without
any effects applied to them are, in my opinion, a heck of a lot more valuable. Say you grab a pack of icons with the corners rounded off. They might look very nice, but they won't fit in with all your other icons... Unless you round off all those corners too. But why should you be forced to conform to that effect if you don't want it?
So;
A Really Simple Guide To
Slapping Border Images On Things
For those who want them.
1. Open your image in
Paint.NET. There are many other programs you could use for this, but I'm suggesting this one as it's free and simple to use. Goto the Image menu, select Resize, uncheck the "Maintain aspect ratio" check box and enter the width/height of the border image you'll be using under the "Pixels" section. Click Ok.
2. Goto the Layers menu and select Add New Layer. Make sure this new layer is highlighted in the layer window (which, if you've closed it, can be accessed via the Window menu).
3. Open your border image in another Paint.NET window. Use Ctrl + A to select the entire image area, then Ctrl + C to copy it to your system clipboard. Switch back to the first window and use Ctrl + V to paste the border on top of your icon. The result should look something like this (depending on your border):
4. Save your finished image, making sure you select JPG or PNG as the file type. You'll be asked whether you want to discard the layering information, say Yes to this, and you're done.
5. Watch sotu cringe at his disfigured work.
