Well, I can only agree. A PNG file with a transparent color or even better an alpha channel associated with a user tool should be displayed on toolbar as is if the pixel dimensions of the image file is identical to required icon pixel dimensions on toolbar. And UltraEdit/UEStudio should use the best fitting icon for menu and toolbar and ribbon tab on an ICO file containing an icon in pixel dimensions 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, ... without or with a transparent color or alpha channel. But this is not the case since UE v23.00 and UES v16.00 up to currently latest UE v25.00 and UES v18.00.

I can only suggest to report this issue by email to IDM support.

Related topics:

• Best format for user tool icons in UE v23.00+?
• Icons are blurred in Classic mode with 64-bit UltraEdit version 24 on Windows 10

UE v22.20 supports only 16x16 icons for menu and 16x16 (small) or 24x24 icons (large) for the toolbar. 16x16 icons in image files look perfect in menu and small toolbar.

On using the large toolbar with 24x24 icons the image file associated with a user tool must contain the image also with 24x24 pixels to get a perfect sharp look of the icon on toolbar, pixel by pixel exactly as stored in image file. For the menu with 16x16 icons the 24x24 image is downsized by UE v22.20 which of course results in a not so fine looking icon in menu although displayed sharp because of simple pixel resize is used as it looks like. I have tested sizing down of a 24x24 icon to 16x16 pixels just with an ICO (only 24x24 icon inside) and a PNG image file. That a pixel downsized icon is not looking perfect is not surprising for anybody who has ever downsized an icon in a graphic editing application.

I could see on a quick test with UE v22.20 using *.ico, *.png and *.bmp images with 16x16 pixels that the *.ico and *.png icons on 24x24 toolbar look blurry which of course was also not really surprising for me due to my experiences with sizing up icons in image editor. The 16x16 icons stored in *.bmp files are displayed as black area in 24x24 toolbar. So for bitmaps sizing up the icons does not work at all in UE v22.20. I was not aware of this issue and no user has ever reported such an issue here in user-to-user forum. It looks like those users of UltraEdit for Windows < v23.00 using large toolbar with user/project tools with their own icons on toolbar used 24x24 icons.

Well, in real the icon size in menu depends on menu font size as defined in Windows display / desktop theme settings. But I use on all my machines 16x16 icons in menu and toolbar because of using standard DPI settings (100% / 96 DPI) and default menu font size as the resolutions of my all screens fit with the physical dimensions of the screen. (The large screens have large resolutions and the small screens have small resolutions.)

I have not tested if UltraEdit uses from a *.ico file containing an icon in multiple dimensions the most suitable variant or if UE uses always the first icon in *.ico file.

I don't know how UltraEdit for Windows ≥ v23.00 and UEStudio ≥ v16.00 handle custom icons for ribbon/menu/toolbar and I have not yet made experiments to find it out. Please contact IDM support and ask for guidelines on how to draw and store custom icons to get a nice look of custom icons.