Let Us Design a Custom Favicon for Your Web Site

What is a favicon?
Favicon (pronounced fav-eye-con) is short for 'Favorites Icon.' A Favicon is a multi-resolution image included on nearly all professional developed sites. Within Internet Explorer the Favicon is displayed on the Address line and in the Favorites menu. The Favicon allows the webmaster to further promote their site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor's browser. Often, the Favicon reflects the look and feel of the web site or the organization's logo.

Where and when will our Favicon be seen? The Favicon was first popularized by its appearance in the Address Bar and Favorites Folder using Internet Explorer and is now a prominent fixture of web browsers such as Mozilla and Netscape. Each web browser has a unique user interface, and as a result uses the Favicon in different ways. For additional detail, please look at our documentation on specific web browsers such as KONQUEROR, INTERNET EXPLORER, GALEON, and MOZILLA/NETSCAPE.

What is an ico file? An ico file is actually a repository of bitmap like images. They are used because in some locations a 16x16 pixel image is desired, and sometimes a 32x32 image may be needed. Sometimes a 16 color image is desired, and sometimes a 256 color icon is desired. This repository is scanned for the image size/color count appropriate for the location and the computer's color capability. If the image is not ideal, it may be compressed, expanded, and/or colors may be modified producing unexpected results.

How to Create a "Favicon.ico" File

1. Create an image 16X16 pixels in size. Yes, it is really small and you can't really draw much in it. You should also restrict yourself to the standard Windows 16 colours, although I suspect that 256 colours will work fine. If you like, you can also create a 32X32 pixel icon, which will be scaled to size for the Favorites menu and the location bar. You can even put both 16X16 and 32X32 pixel icons into the same icon file. Windows will use the former for its menus and the latter when the user opens up a folder that is set to display large icons. It's probably not really necessary to do this if you can't be bothered.
   
2. Save the image as an ICO file (named "favicon.ico", of course).
   
3. Upload it to your website. You don't need to upload one to every directory of your site if you don't want to waste space - simply put it in your root directory and IE will apparently locate it eventually. You can also upload it into your images directory, but you will need to modify your web pages if you do. See later in this article for more information on this.

Help! My Web Host Doesn't Allow ICO Files!
If your hosting company does not allow files with the .ICO extension to be uploaded, you might try to work around it by uploading it (in binary mode) with some other extension (like GIF). Once it's on your site, rename it using your FTP program to the correct extension.

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