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Favicon generator

Turn one picture into favicon.ico plus the PNG icons a website needs, with the HTML to paste in. Made in your browser.

Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded.

What it does

A favicon is the small icon in a browser tab, in bookmarks and on a phone’s home screen. This tool makes the usual set from one picture: favicon.ico holding 16, 32 and 48 pixel versions, PNG icons at 32, 192 and 512 pixels, and a 180 pixel Apple touch icon.

How to use it

  1. Choose your logo or picture. A simple, bold design reads best at 16 pixels.
  2. Choose how a picture that is not square should be handled.
  3. Download the files and put them in the top folder of your site.
  4. Copy the HTML and paste it inside the head of your pages.

Worked example

From a 1024 × 1024 logo you get six files. A tab uses the 16 or 32 pixel icon, an iPhone home screen uses the 180 pixel one, and Android uses the 192 and 512 pixel icons named in a web app manifest.

How it works

The picture is drawn at each size on a canvas and saved as PNG. The .ico file is a small container: a header listing each image, followed by the images themselves, stored here as PNG data, which current browsers read. Shrinking a detailed picture to 16 pixels loses nearly everything, so a favicon is usually a simplified mark rather than the full logo.

Questions

Is my file uploaded?

No. The file is opened by your browser on your own device and the result is made there. Nothing is sent to us or to anyone else.

Do I still need favicon.ico?

Browsers request /favicon.ico by default when a page names no icon, so having one there is the safe choice.

Why does the icon not change after I upload it?

Browsers cache favicons for a long time. Open the icon address directly and reload it, or test in a private window.

Should the icon have a transparent background?

For tab icons, yes if the mark is clear on both light and dark tabs. The Apple touch icon should have a solid background, because iOS fills transparency with black.

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