.ico - The icon format for Explorer

[tedster]

Does anyone have any technical information about the .ico format? You use it to create an icon for Internet Explorer that pops up next to your site's name when a visitor bookmarks a page.

There are a couple freeware programs that generate the format, but I can't figure out what the limits/possibilities are, and I'd like to get a bit creative with it. Knowing a few things -- like how many (and which) colors, etc -- would be very helpful.

[tedster]

Thanks, that is a helpful thread. I've explored those links, but I still can't find what I'm looking for.

To rephrase my question, does anyone know how the .ico format differs from the .gif format? Specifically, how is the color palette restricted?

With conversion from gif to ico, there is a color shift, sometimes two different colors will map to the same color. I'd like to know what the rules are so I can design the icon with them in mind.

[oilman]

24 bit color dude - rock on!

of course to be on the total safe side you might want to play with the 256 color palette.

[rcjordan]

Like anyone can actually SEE a -what?- 16x16 at 800+ res!

[tedster]

>> 24 bit color dude - rock on!

OK, oilman, I trust you on this BUT.... I've been playing with favicon.ico for a while using the Irfan Viewer. I still feel like it's a hit or miss thing for me.

What seems to happen is that I start with a 32 or even 16 color GIF, but converting to the ico format creates a color shift that wipes out the effect I had in mind. So I just keep playing until I stumble on something that looks OK.

I'd rather understand it so I don't have to hunt around for so long. Any insights on why this happens?

[luckynh]

Does the fav.ico only work for I.E
I think it can't work in NS but maybe it can in NS6.
Someone have any insite on NS6?

[msgraph]

Have you tried Icon Forge?

info here [cursorarts.com]

Has a feature for creating Favorites icons.

[tedster]

Thanks for the link.

I notice that the download is over 6MB. That's a lot of program! And I also noticed that they say their mouseover sitemap is "Java enabled" when it's JavaScript plus an image map. That's one of my technical pet peeves -- not getting that JavaScript isn't Java.

Picky, picky, picky! But I'll still check it out.

[mivox]

favicon.com has a lot of information about the little buggers, and an online java icon generator. You build the .ico at their site and they email it to you. You can preview it in the 'construction' window, so no suprises as far as how it looks.

[tedster]

Thanks. This site answers the color question -- 16 colors. Not 16 bit, just plain old 16 -- the standard Windows 16, thus accounting for color shifts when I start with a custom palette.

That makes for quite an adventure in design -- talk about restrictions! There is some debate, they say, about whether 256 colors might work, and some sites (msnbc, for instance) do offer it. But they recommend 16.

I learned that the .ico format is actually a repository of what can be several bitmap images at different sizes. Depending on where the visitor drags an icon, it may need to be 32x32 rather than 16x16.

Interesting to note: The Microsoft site does NOT have a favicon.ico!!!!

[tedster]

Here's some added information about how to design for a Windows 16 color palette, which the ico format requires.

Article [the-light.com]

<added>
lucynh, the answer is no, Netscape 6 does not support the favicon.ico. My guess is that it requires some deep integration with the Windows OS.

Any Mac users see the favicon in IE on Mac?

[tedster]

Thanks. That PlayingWithFire.com site is really well done. I picked up another tidbit from them:

Name it favicon.ico and place it in each folder of your web site. If you don't wish to put an icon in each folder, place it in the root folder and add the following code to the head section of your pages:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.mywebsite.com/favicon.ico">

[Drastic]

I have read you only need to place the favicon.ico in your root dir. IE looks for it in the current dir, and if it doesn't find it, it looks in root (without specific page coding.) I don't recall the resource on this, it may work only work on newer versions of IE, but I tested it myself a year or so ago with (I think) IE 5, and it did work.

[tedster]

Glad you commented, Drastic. That was what I always thought, too. The contradictory information kind of startled me.

I just checked the Micorosoft site [msdn.microsoft.com] and they seem to agree. That'll teach me not to believe what I read without double-checking.

This may be the source of confusion -- the HEAD section code from PlayingWithFire is used when you want to associate a different icon with a certain directory. But, you would need to use the different file name, of course, not favicon.ico.

[Drastic]

aahhhh... now that makes sense. Using different icons for different pages but storing them in the same dir.

I have seen that code before and wondered why it existed. Now I know, thanks!

[mivox]

>Any Mac users see the favicon in IE on Mac?

Nope. IE Mac doesn't support them yet, AFAIK. Who knows, maybe 5.5 does, but I haven't checked that one out yet.

[Xoc]

The format of an icon file can be found here: [msdn.microsoft.com...]

[rzfree]

Just wondering, which log stats programs show # of favicon.ico requests, if any? Or more sophisticated stats on who has bookmarked you?

[tedster]

I'm using FastStats -- it's easy to customize a filter to read the hits for any particular file or group of files, including favicon.ico

I'd love to know if Netscape bookmarks show up somehow in the logfile -- I'd guess that all the action is client-side. Does anyone know for sure?

[GWJ]

rzfree,

I had 162 calls for it last month.

Brian

[chiyo]

We get around 100 hits for favicon a day. Good to know that people are bookmarking you and what direcories. In your log analysis porgram just apply a filter to display favicon.ico hits only in a section or report. Easy in analogue too.

[Marn]

This is all interesting about favicons. I notice that favicons are inconsistent in showing up in the browser as I surf the same sites on different desktops using IE 5.x.

I have noticed this for well over a year.
Curious, what do you think could be the cause in such an inconsistency.

It could just be the Tools settings in the different IE browsers I use.

[mivox]

Assuming they're all Windows machines, there could be two reasons:

1. If *some* favicons are missing, but others are showing: You bookmarked a site on one machine *before* they installed a favicon on their server, and you would have to delete the bookmark and re-bookmark the site to pick up the icon. IE only asks for the favicon file the first time you bookmark a site.

2. If no favicons are showing on the machine at all: I believe there is a setting somewhere in the IE browser preferences that allows you to 'turn off' favicons.

Of course, if one of them is a Mac, that explains why you get no icons there.