PNG to ICO
One image in, one favicon.ico out, with the three sizes Windows and browsers
ask for inside it. Your image is never uploaded.
Drop an image here or click to choose
PNG · JPG · WebP — icons are built on your device
This image is not square, so it is centred inside the icon and the two shorter sides are padded. Nothing is cropped away.
The ICO holds 16, 32 and 48 pixel versions as PNG data, which every current browser reads. Internet Explorer 8 and older only understand the older bitmap form.
Convert in three steps
- Choose or drop a PNG, JPG or WebP image.
- Leave the background transparent, or pick a colour to sit behind the artwork.
- Create the ICO and download it.
ICO is a container, not a compression format
Unlike PNG or JPG, an .ico file does not describe one picture. It opens with a
short directory: how many images are inside, and for each of them the width, the height, the
colour depth, the byte length and where in the file to find it. The images themselves follow
one after another.
That structure is the whole point. A tab strip wants 16 pixels, a Windows desktop shortcut wants 48, and neither has to guess how to shrink the other. This tool encodes each size as a PNG and writes the directory around them, so the three versions travel as one file that a server can hand out from a single URL.
Getting a sharp result
Start from something square and comfortably larger than 48 pixels — 256 or 512 is plenty. Enlarging a small source cannot invent detail, and a 40 pixel screenshot pushed up to 48 will look soft in the tab.
If your source is not square it is scaled to fit and centred rather than cropped, so a wide wordmark ends up as a thin strip with empty space above and below. That is honest, but it is rarely what you want in a 16 pixel box; crop to a symbol first and the result reads far better.
Frequently asked questions
What is inside the .ico this makes?
Three images: 16, 32 and 48 pixels square, each stored as a PNG with its own directory entry. A program reading the file picks whichever entry suits the space it has.
Is a PNG inside an ICO allowed?
Yes. The format has permitted PNG-compressed entries since Windows Vista, and every current browser reads them. The alternative is the older uncompressed bitmap layout, which produces a noticeably larger file for the same pixels.
What will not read it?
Internet Explorer 8 and older, and a few very old Windows tools, understand only the bitmap layout. If you must support those, an icon editor that writes bitmap entries is the right tool, not this one.
Can I put a single large size in instead?
Not here. This writes the three sizes browsers and Windows actually request. A one-entry ICO at 256 pixels forces every small surface to resample it, which is precisely the blur multiple entries exist to avoid.
Does it accept JPG and WebP too?
Yes, despite the name. Any PNG, JPG or WebP the browser can decode works as the source. PNG is named on the page because it is what people arrive with when they want an icon, and because a logo saved as PNG usually still has its transparency.
Does the .ico keep transparency?
Yes. The entries are 32-bit with an alpha channel, and nothing is flattened unless you pick a background colour. If your source is a JPG it never had transparency to keep.
Where does the conversion happen?
In this tab. The image is decoded, resized and packed into the container by your browser, and the file you download was assembled on your own machine.