Website favicon.ico
A is a small icon associated with a particular website or web page. It stands for "favorite icon" and is the icon the browser uses when displaying the page, typically appearing in browser tabs, bookmarks, and history results. Although not required, favicons are important because they help users identify a site and reinforce brand recognition.
The favicon is usually a square image, commonly sized at 16x16 pixels, but can also be 32x32 or 96x96 pixels for higher resolution displays. It can be in formats such as PNG, ICO, or SVG.
When a website does not have a favicon, browsers may display a 404 error when attempting to load the favicon.ico file.
To use a favicon on a website, you typically place the file in the root directory of your web server and include a link tag in the HTML head section.
For example, you can add the following code to your HTML:
<link rel="icon" href="/path/to/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon">
animated
A favicon.gif is a GIF file used as a favicon, which can include animation. However, not all browsers support animated GIF favicons; Firefox is one of the few that does. A favicon.ico is an ICO file, which is a standard format for favicons that works well across all browsers.
For creating and using favicons, you can upload an image to a converter tool and generate an ICO file. If you want to use a GIF as a favicon, you should ensure that you also provide a non-animated ICO file as a fallback for browsers that do not support animated GIFs.
For animated GIF favicons, you might need to use JavaScript to change the favicon dynamically, as direct support is limited.
In summary, while ICO files are widely supported and recommended for standard favicons, GIF files can be used for animated favicons with appropriate fallbacks.
gimp
GIMP can save an image as a favicon.ico
Steps:
- Create or open a square image (typically 16×16, 32×32, or 64×64 pixels).
- Convert it to RGB mode (Image -> Mode -> RGB).
- File -> Export As.
- In the “Name” field, enter favicon.ico.
- Click “Select File Type (By Extension)” at the bottom.
- Choose Microsoft Windows icon (*.ico).
- Click Export, then confirm any options.
You can include multiple sizes in one .ico file by preparing separate layers or images and exporting them together.
compatibility
16×16 pixels is the most common and widely compatible size for favicon.ico files. It’s supported by all major browsers and is the default size shown in browser tabs.
Most modern browsers also support multi-resolution .ico files (e.g., 16×16, 32×32, 48×48) for better appearance on high-DPI displays.