Favicon Converter
Generate favicons in every size from any image. ICO, Apple Touch Icon, Android Chrome, Microsoft Tile - all generated privately in your browser.
Upload Source Image
Upload a PNG, JPG, or SVG image. For best results, use a square image at least 512×512 pixels.
Preview All Sizes
Upload an image first to see all favicon sizes side by side.
Web App Manifest
A web app manifest snippet for Progressive Web Apps. Save as site.webmanifest in your site root.
{
"name": "Your App Name",
"short_name": "App",
"icons": [
{
"src": "/android-chrome-192x192.png",
"sizes": "192x192",
"type": "image/png"
},
{
"src": "/android-chrome-512x512.png",
"sizes": "512x512",
"type": "image/png"
}
],
"theme_color": "#ffffff",
"background_color": "#ffffff",
"display": "standalone"
}
Understanding Favicons and Web Icons
Favicons are small icons associated with a website, displayed in browser tabs, bookmarks, history lists, and address bars. The term "favicon" is short for "favorites icon," originating from Internet Explorer's bookmark feature in 1999. Today, favicons have evolved far beyond the original 16x16 ICO file to encompass a wide range of sizes and formats used by different browsers, operating systems, and devices.
Our Favicon Converter takes any source image and generates all the icon sizes you need for comprehensive cross-platform support. From the classic 16x16 browser tab icon to the 512x512 Android Chrome splash screen icon, every format is created client-side in your browser using the Canvas API. No images are uploaded to any server, ensuring your brand assets remain private and secure.
The ICO Format
The ICO file format is the traditional favicon standard, originally developed by Microsoft. An ICO file is a container that can hold multiple images at different sizes and color depths, allowing the browser or operating system to select the most appropriate version for each display context. Our converter generates ICO files containing 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 pixel images, covering the most common use cases for browser tabs, bookmarks, and taskbar shortcuts.
While modern browsers support PNG favicons specified via HTML link tags, the ICO format remains important for backward compatibility and for the automatic favicon discovery mechanism. When no explicit favicon link is specified, browsers look for favicon.ico in the site root. Including both ICO and PNG favicons ensures maximum compatibility across all browsers and devices.
Apple Touch Icon
Apple Touch Icon is a 180x180 pixel PNG image used by iOS and iPadOS when users add a website to their home screen. Without a specified touch icon, Apple devices will generate a thumbnail screenshot of the page, which typically looks poor compared to a properly designed icon. The icon should be a square image without rounded corners or transparency - iOS automatically applies the rounded corner mask and optional gloss effect.
The Apple Touch Icon is specified using a link tag: <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png">. While Apple previously supported multiple sizes with the sizes attribute, modern best practice is to provide a single 180x180 image, which iOS will downscale as needed for different device resolutions.
Android Chrome and PWA Icons
Android Chrome uses icons from the web app manifest file to display on the home screen, splash screen, and in the app switcher when users install a PWA (Progressive Web App) or add a site to their home screen. The standard sizes are 192x192 and 512x512 pixels. The 192x192 icon is used as the home screen launcher icon, while the 512x512 version is used for the splash screen displayed during app startup.
These icons should be PNG files with transparency support. The web app manifest also specifies the purpose field, which can be set to "any" for standard icons or "maskable" for icons that can be masked to different shapes by the operating system. Our converter generates standard "any" purpose icons that work well across all Android devices.
Microsoft Tile Icons
Microsoft uses tile icons for the Windows Start menu, taskbar, and Microsoft Edge browser. The msapplication-TileImage meta tag specifies a 144x144 pixel icon, while the msapplication-TileColor meta tag sets the background color for the tile. These meta tags ensure your site looks polished when pinned to the Windows Start screen or taskbar.
Best Practices for Favicon Design
Start with the highest resolution you need (at least 512x512 pixels) and design your icon to be recognizable at small sizes. Simple, bold shapes with high contrast work best at 16x16 pixels. Avoid fine details, thin strokes, and small text that become invisible when scaled down. Use your brand's primary color or mark rather than your full logo. Test your favicon at actual size (16x16 in a browser tab) to ensure readability.
Use a transparent background for PNG favicons when possible, as this looks better on dark browser themes and different operating system color schemes. For the ICO format, transparency is fully supported. For JPEG-based icons (which some older systems might use), provide a background color that matches your site's theme. Our converter preserves transparency from your source PNG and SVG images across all generated sizes.
Community Questions
- How to convert PNG to ICO format? 10 answers · tagged: favicon, ico, conversion
- ICO file format - multiple sizes in one file? 7 answers · tagged: ico, format, favicon
- SVG favicon support in modern browsers? 9 answers · tagged: svg, favicon, browser
How This Tool Works
The Favicon Converter transforms your input from one format into another using algorithms that run entirely in your browser. No data is uploaded to any server, which means the conversion is instant, private, and works offline after the page loads.
The conversion process validates your input first to catch syntax errors or unsupported characters before attempting the transformation. If the input is valid, the tool applies the appropriate encoding, decoding, or reformatting rules and displays the result. Invalid input produces a clear error message explaining what went wrong.
You can convert repeatedly without any limits. Paste new input, adjust options if available, and get a fresh result each time. The tool also supports copying the output to your clipboard or downloading it as a file for convenient integration into your workflow.
Features and Options
The tool provides a clean interface with clearly separated input and output areas. Paste or type your source data on one side and see the converted result on the other. Options for controlling the conversion behavior, such as formatting, encoding variants, or delimiter choices, are grouped logically near the top.
One-click copy buttons eliminate the tedious select-all-and-copy routine. For larger outputs, a download button lets you save the result directly as a file with the correct extension and encoding. These small conveniences add up when you are converting data frequently.
Error handling is built into every step. The tool highlights problems in your input, explains what is expected, and in many cases offers suggestions for fixing the issue. This makes it useful for learning a format as well as for routine conversion tasks.
Real World Use Cases
Software developers use format converters daily when working with APIs, configuration files, data imports, and interoperability between systems that expect different formats. Having a reliable browser tool for quick conversions avoids writing one-off scripts.
Data analysts convert between formats when moving data between tools. A CSV exported from one application may need to become JSON for another, or a timestamp in one format may need to match a different system's expected layout. This tool handles those transformations instantly.
System administrators and DevOps engineers use converters for encoding credentials, transforming configuration snippets, and debugging data that arrives in an unexpected format. The browser-based approach means no additional software needs to be installed on production machines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Hacker News Discussions
- Show HN: Oxyde – Pydantic-native async ORM with a Rust core 155 points · 79 comments
Source: Hacker News
Research Methodology
This favicon converter tool was built after analyzing search patterns, user requirements, and existing solutions. We tested across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. All processing runs client-side with zero data transmitted to external servers. Last reviewed March 19, 2026.
Performance Comparison
Benchmark: processing speed relative to alternatives. Higher is better.
PageSpeed Performance
Measured via Google Lighthouse. Single HTML file with zero external JS dependencies ensures fast load times.
Live Stats
You can upload PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, BMP, WebP, and SVG files. For best results, use a square PNG image at least 512x512 pixels with a transparent background. SVG files are ideal since they scale perfectly to any size without quality loss.
The tool generates favicons in eight sizes: 16x16 (browser tabs), 32x32 (browser tabs, taskbar), 48x48 (Windows site icons), 64x64 (Windows site icons), 128x128 (Chrome Web Store), 180x180 (Apple Touch Icon), 192x192 (Android Chrome), and 512x512 (Android Chrome splash screen). Additionally, it creates an ICO file containing 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 versions.
ICO is the traditional favicon container format originally developed by Microsoft. It can hold multiple image sizes in a single file, allowing browsers to select the best resolution. Our tool generates an ICO containing 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 pixel versions. Place it as favicon.ico in your site root for maximum compatibility.
The Apple Touch Icon is a 180x180 pixel PNG used by iOS devices when users add your website to their home screen. It appears as the app icon next to native apps. iOS automatically applies rounded corners to the icon. Reference it with <link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/apple-touch-icon.png"> in your HTML head.
Android Chrome uses icons from the web app manifest (manifest.json) for home screen shortcuts and PWA installations. Standard sizes are 192x192 (launcher icon) and 512x512 (splash screen). These are specified in the manifest's icons array with their sizes and MIME types.
No. All image processing, resizing, format conversion, and ZIP archive creation happens entirely in your browser using the Canvas API and JavaScript. No images or data are ever uploaded to any server. The tool works completely offline after the page loads.
Download the generated icons and place them in your site's root directory (or an /icons/ subfolder). Copy the HTML link tags from the HTML Tags tab and paste them into your page's <head> section. For PWA support, also include the web manifest file and reference it with a link tag.
A web app manifest (site.webmanifest) is a JSON file that tells browsers about your web application. It specifies your app's name, icons, theme color, background color, and display mode. Browsers use this file when users install your site as a PWA or add it to their home screen. Reference it with <link rel="manifest" href="/site.webmanifest">.
Last updated: March 19, 2026
Last verified working: March 19, 2026 by Michael Lip
Update History
March 19, 2026 - Initial release with full functionality
March 19, 2026 - Added FAQ section and schema markup
March 19, 2026 - Performance optimization and accessibility improvements
Wikipedia
A favicon, also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons associated with a particular website or web page. A web designer can create such an icon and upload it to a website by several means, and graphical web browsers will then make use of it.
Source: Wikipedia - Favicon · Verified March 19, 2026
Video Tutorials
Watch Favicon Converter tutorials on YouTube
Learn with free video guides and walkthroughs
Quick Facts
10+
Format conversions
Multi-size
ICO generation
All browsers
Compatible output
0 bytes
Sent to any server
Browser Support
Uses the Canvas API, supported in all modern browsers. No plugins or extensions required.