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How to Use the Icon Maker in Canvas

How to Use the Icon Maker in Canvas

The Icon Maker is located in the Rich Content Editor (RCE) in Canvas. The RCE is located in many places in a Canvas course including Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages and Quizzes.

Users can create polished icons on the go using this tool.

Icon maker icon that links to the Icon Maker Canvas Guide

The Icon Maker is located in the list of tools in the RCE.

Icon maker button in the toolbar

When the drop-down arrow on the tool (1) is clicked, there are two choices: Create a new icon or view the Saved icons.

Icon maker drop down menu with red numbers 1 and 2 showing how to create a new icon.

If you do not already have icons created, you may create one. Click on Create Icon Maker Icon (2). A fly-out tool will appear on the right where you can begin building your custom icon.

Naming your icon will help you find it later if you wish to use it again. Icons can be copied between courses. Giving the icon Alternate Text is an accessibility feature that gives screen readers a description to convey to a user.

Create Icon fly-out highlighting the Name and Alt Text fields

The icon shape, size, color and outline can also be edited. There are a variety of shapes to choose from such as square, circle, star, and more.

Create Icon fly-out with Icon shape, size, color, and outline fields highlighted

Text can be added and positioned on the icon. Text color, size, and background colors can be selected here. Text can appear on or beneath the icon using the Text Position field.

Create Icon fly-out with text fields highlighted

Lastly, preloaded images are available in single and multi-color formats to add to the icon. As of right now, only a single preloaded image can be added to the icon.

Create Icon fly-out with single color image menu item highlighted Create Icon fly-out with multi color image menu item highlighted

Video Demo: Using the RCE Icon Maker

Designed icons might look like one of the following here:

Examples of single color icons

Example of a single color icon.Example of a single color icon.

Examples of multi-color icons

Icons can also be used to link to other content inside or outside of a course. The purple Module 2 icon above links to Module 2 of this course. The orange Icon Maker icon at the top/beginning of this page links out to the Canvas Guide for the RCE Icon Maker. To link the icon, simply click on the icon (1) and click on the link tool (2) in the RCE. From there, choose to link to something internally within the course or externally.

linking an icon

For more information or help using the RCE Icon Maker, please see the Canvas Guide or contact the Education Software Consulting Team at edtech@teaching.pitt.edu.

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