Working With Documents

Axialis IconVectors offers several ways to open, save, and export SVG icons, ensuring seamless integration with your development and design workflows. It also includes a helpful shell extension to improve icon browsing in Windows Explorer.

The embedded Icon Explorer keeps the current Editor document open while you browse SVG thumbnails. Editor-only panes, including Preview and Layers, are hidden in Explorer and restored when you return to Editor. Opening a tile uses the normal document identity and unsaved-change workflow, with optional automatic saving for Explorer-origin icons.

Vector-Based Documents

Axialis IconVectors uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) as its native format. This means icons that you can edit with IconVectors are composed of paths, shapes, and other vector elements rather than pixels. The key benefit is that your artwork can scale to any size without losing clarity or sharpness.

Supported File Formats

Axialis IconVectors works with SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files, a widely adopted standard for vector-based drawings. The application is optimized for editing small vector assets such as icons. Large editing canvases require resizing, and unsupported SVG constructs may not be editable.

When you create or save a document in IconVectors, it is stored in SVG format. This ensures compatibility with a wide range of tools and platforms, including web browsers, development frameworks, and other design software.

Note

While you can export/generate your icons in other formats such as XAML, WPF Geometry, VectorDrawable, SwiftUI, VueTS, or bitmap images (PNG, ICO, BMP, etc.), the application can only open SVG files as input.

Supported export formats include:

  • XAML – For use in WPF or UWP applications

  • WPF Geometry – Geometry path output for WPF pipelines

  • VectorDrawable – Android vector XML output

  • SwiftUI – SwiftUI path-based code output

  • VueTS / ReactTS – For integration in JavaScript frameworks

  • C++ – Vector paths converted to code

  • Minified SVG – Compact version of the icon source

  • Bitmap formats – PNG, ICO, BMP, JPG, TIFF, and more

This approach keeps the editing workflow simple and standards-based, while still offering great flexibility for deployment across different platforms and environments.

Working with Documents

Creating a New Icon Document

To create a new SVG icon, select File ‣ New or press Ctrl+N.

In this dialog, you can define the icon’s width and height in pixels. Enable Keep Aspect Ratio to maintain proportions. You can also choose to set this size as the default for new documents.

The Name field starts focused and selected. Enter the name and press Enter to create the icon. When you start from Explorer, New Icon, File ‣ New and Ctrl+N all remember the current Explorer folder as the initial location for Save or Save As. Browsing to another folder afterward does not change that remembered location. Creating the document alone writes no file.

Opening an Icon Document

To open an existing SVG icon, use the menu command. Once opened, the icon is fully editable.

File ‣ Open… – Ctrl+O

File ‣ Open in a New Window… – Ctrl+Alt+O

An SVG can specify a small output size but a much larger coordinate system in its viewBox. IconVectors checks both the editing canvas and any explicitly authored output dimensions when opening it:

  • If the editing canvas is oversized but the SVG has a valid absolute width/height pair of at most 1024 pixels per axis, IconVectors converts the canvas and artwork to those exact output dimensions automatically, without a size prompt. For example, a 32000-by-32000 viewBox with a 32-by-32-pixel output size opens on a 32-by-32 editing canvas.

  • If an oversized canvas has no usable absolute pair (one dimension is missing, relative or invalid), IconVectors asks before fitting it proportionally within 1024-by-1024. Declining leaves the current document unchanged.

  • If the authored output size itself exceeds the limit, confirmation is required even when the viewBox is small. The conversion fits the authored viewport proportionally within 1024-by-1024 and updates both output size and editing canvas, preserving the supported SVG viewport mapping.

During conversion, percentages are resolved against the original canvas. Supported paints, gradients, strokes and preserveAspectRatio behavior are preserved; unsupported conversions are rejected rather than approximated. Converted content uses at most four decimal places without changing your global precision preference or unrelated imports. Opening never overwrites the source file; save only after reviewing the result.

Gradients are converted together with the artwork. Different painted surfaces can legitimately use separate gradient definitions. In 2.10, conversion reuses a compatible definitions block and removes replaced gradient copies only when they are no longer referenced; it preserves definitions still needed by other artwork or inherited gradients.

Supported embedded CSS rules are read from ordinary stylesheet text or CDATA sections and resolved before shapes are converted for editing. Saving writes ordinary SVG paint attributes, including gradient definitions and stop colors when present, rather than depending on the original CDATA stylesheet. This does not load external stylesheets or add support for every browser CSS feature.

Hint

If no icon is currently open, you can drag and drop an SVG file from Windows File Explorer directly into the workspace.

Closing an Icon Document

To close the current document, select:

File ‣ Close – Ctrl+W

If the document has unsaved changes, you’ll be prompted to save them before closing. An icon opened or created from Explorer returns to the retained Explorer folder, selection and scroll position; other documents leave an empty Editor. An icon explicitly opened in a separate window does not inherit the originating window’s Explorer session.

With the Editor canvas idle, Escape closes the icon through the same workflow. While drawing, editing text or using a dialog, Escape cancels that interaction without also closing the document.

Saving While Browsing Explorer

Explorer ‣ Auto Save Icons is off by default. When enabled, opening another Explorer icon in the same window first saves the modified Explorer-opened or Explorer-created icon. A new icon uses its name and .svg in the remembered folder. A name collision requires an explicit Save As decision; an unavailable folder, write failure or externally changed source stops the switch so you can save manually.

This setting does not save on a timer, on workspace switching, on Close or on Exit. It is separate from crash recovery below. See The Icon Explorer for the complete workflow.

Opening a Recent Icon Document

Recently used documents appear in the Open Recent Files list, allowing you to reopen them quickly:

File ‣ Open Recent Files

When no document is open, the empty Editor shows New Icon (Ctrl+N), Open File (Ctrl+O), Open Recent (Ctrl+R), and Open Explorer (F5). Each complete row is clickable, including its shortcut-cap area, and invokes the same existing command as the menu or keyboard shortcut. These actions are active only while the empty Editor start screen is displayed.

Multiple Documents Support

You can open multiple IconVectors instances at once. This allows you to:

  • Work on several icon documents in parallel

  • Copy/paste elements between documents

  • Compare icons side-by-side

To open a new Icon Editor instance:

View ‣ New Icon Editor Window - Shift+Ctrl+N

To open an independent instance directly in Explorer with no SVG Editor document open:

View ‣ New Explorer Window - Shift+F5

To open a SVG document in a new window:

File ‣ Open in New Window… - Ctrl+Alt+O

Each window operates independently, but shares access to the clipboard and preferences. Starting an Explorer window does not switch or block the originating instance.

Hint

Each SVG file that you open via the Windows File Explorer is displayed in a separate instance. This lets you work on several documents simultaneously.

Shell Extension for SVG Thumbnails

If you chose to install the optional Axialis Shell Extension, you’ll benefit from thumbnail previews of SVG files directly in Windows File Explorer.

This feature:

  • Displays a live preview of each SVG icon

  • Works in all folder views (thumbnails, tiles, list, etc.)

  • Makes it easier to browse and organize icon collections

Hint

The shell extension is installed automatically with the default setup but can be re-enabled through the application settings or reinstallation if needed.

Automatic Recovery System

Axialis IconVectors includes an Automatic Recovery System designed to help you avoid data loss in case of unexpected shutdowns or crashes.

Your work is automatically saved in the background at regular intervals. If the application is closed unexpectedly, you’ll be prompted to recover your last unsaved work the next time you launch the application.

This ensures that even if you haven’t manually saved your icon, your recent edits won’t be lost.

You can adjust how frequently your work is saved in the background:

  • Open Edit ‣ Preferences - F2

  • In the General tab, locate the Auto-Recovery Interval option

  • Set the desired time in seconds

The shorter the interval, the more recent your recovered data will be in case of a failure.