diff --git a/contrib/README.md b/contrib/README.md
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@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ itself.
 
 ## Inventory
 
+- **icons**: Vector graphics and makefiles to re-create icons in .ico
+  and .icns formats; read icons.md file for details
 - **static-opus**: Compiles a static Opusfile library that can be used
   by `./configure` in the absense of `pkg-config`
 
diff --git a/contrib/icons/icons.md b/contrib/icons/icons.md
new file mode 100644
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@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+This directory contains resources to re-build icon files for various operating
+systems.
+
+# Base design
+
+Base icon source file is `dosbox-staging.svg`. It contains scalable icon of
+size 128x128 (recommended default size for most Linux desktop environments).
+This icon looks good in most contexts, but for very small sizes (16px up to
+32px) it's better to render icon based on one of files in `small-svg/`
+directory.
+
+# Rendering bitmap font
+
+Use bundled Makefile for that.  It includes targets for rendering .png files
+in a number of sizes using `rsvg-convert` command - it generates greatly
+optimised small files with correctly set alpha channel (unlike `convert`
+command from ImageMagick suite, which is traditionally used for this purpose,
+but it's more suited for raster formats).
+
+`rsvg-convert` program is available in most Linux repos and in macOS brew repo.
+
+Run:
+
+    make help
+
+To learn about available targets.
+
+# Small icon variants
+
+Files in `small-svg/` directory are vector icons optimized for rendering in
+small sizes; using vector format allows for easy adjustments with live
+preview, and partly controlling sub-pixel rendering by carefully placing the
+shape edges.
+
+It's recommended to use Inkscape's "icon preview" feature when modifying these
+files.
+
+# OS-specific instructions
+
+## Linux
+
+Base design icon follows size and colour recommendations of Gnome HIG, so you
+can use it directly, no pre-processing is needed.
+
+When packaging for Linux, copy and rename `dosbox-staging.svg` icon to distro
+specific directory (usually `/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/`).
+
+You will need additional
+[.desktop](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/)
+file entry to correlate icon file to the application.
+
+Use Makefile to render small icons if necessary (some desktop environments use
+them).
+
+## macOS
+
+macOS does not support scalable icons, so you'll need to generate .icns
+file, which bundles raster icons in various sizes:
+
+    make dosbox-staging.icns
+
+When building App bundle, the .icns file should be placed in directory:
+`Contents/SharedSupport/Resources/` and then you'll need to update information
+in `Info.plist` file.
+
+Refer to Apple documentation for details.
+
+## Windows
+
+Windows does not support vector icons and does not provide good programs for
+rendering/bundling files in .ico format - developers are expected to edit
+icons using raster editor provided by Visual Studio.
+
+For this reason, preprocessed .ico file is bundled inside the repo.
+
+**When changing icon, update the generated .ico file only after the design is
+finalized.**
+
+To rebuild .ico file, boot to Linux, install `icotool` program and run:
+
+    make dosbox-staging.ico
+
+When changing design, take extra steps for sizes:
+
+- 16x16 - used next to window title
+- 24x24 - taskbar icon; if missing, Windows will pick wrong icon for
+          window titlebar as well (it will scale down biggest icon, so
+          the result will be blurry).
+
+Icon file stored in the repo is bundled via Visual Studio inside Windows
+executable file; when changing file name or directory, update the file
+`src/winres.rc`.