Favicon.ico

[pearlshoppe]

What is this, please? I've taken care of robots.txt problem but I have about 93 of these. Is it a problem or something normal? Thanks, Julie

[Samizdata]

Not a problem, perfectly normal - it is the small image you see in your browser address bar (before the "http") and also in your bookmarks/favourites. It is not compulsory.

You can add one to your site by making a 16 x 16 pixel gif of your choice, renaming it to "favicon.ico" and uploading it to the root/public/html directory.

If you just want to eliminate 404 errors you can use a transparent one.

...

[Demaestro]

Just so you know where the name comes from it is a condensed version of "Favorite Icon"

[jdMorgan]

Better yet, look for one of the many "free favicon" tools, and make yourself a multi-resolution .ico-format file, so that your attractive website-brand icon can be dragged and dropped to the desktop or into a folder as a shortcut. True .ico files contain three embedded images, one each at 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 pixels in size.

If your site supports mobile devices, be aware that Apple's iPhone will ask for "apple-touch-icon.png" or "apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png" in the same way that non-mobile browsers ask for favicon.ico, so you may also want to make a 57x57-pixel image for it as well.

I'm lazy; I make my original image at 57x57 with a 4-pixel border all around, save it as a .png for the Apple devices, then crop it to 48x48 (thus removing the border and one row of pixels from the bottom and left side), and then scale that 48x48 image down both to 32x32 and to 16x16.

Jim

[pearlshoppe]

Thanks! Wouldn't consider myself "lazy" busy yes so I'll take "good" shortcuts anytime :-)Found if I nip problems in the bud saves me alot of grief later on, in all parts of life. And being new to this stuff, never quite sure if it's a problem or not without asking. Again I appreciate the help.
Julie

[nomis5]

One tip for a problem that drove me round the bend when I tried to set up a favicon. When you have the favicon and have placed it on your site, it will only appear for you when you have cleared your browser history. I wish someone had told me that!

[wolfadeus]

I didn't know there were tools online and free that are sophisticated enough for the things you described; I havn't made favicons in a while, but remember that I did them with a Photoshop plug in.

[Debb]

Can one create a favicon by taking a jpeg or a gif and converting it to a ico? I'm not good at art. so it would be easier for me to convert our logo to an ico, if this could be done.

Also can someone offer a recommendation for a tool to create multi-sized ico files? I had no idea that one could save an image file with multiple images within it.

thank you

debb

[rocknbil]

An .ico file should be a layered file of two images, a 32 x 32 px image and a 16 x 16 px image (and can be more layers.) Save the images in .png format. My favorite proggie is png2ico, but there are many. Put the two images in the png2ico directory, open a DOS window (Start->Run-> type cmd or command, press enter), change to the png2ico directory. Type png2ico favicon.ico [image1] [image2] press enter. Upload and applaud.

[Samizdata]

Following Jim's earlier advice I looked into the options for Mac users - Iconographer, though no longer developed, was easily the best in my tests (and it is free).

...

[CWI Tech Guy]

Try this site

[tools.dynamicdrive.com...]

This is a free favicon.ico generator that will take a picture from your desktop, resize and format it, and tell you how to implement it into your site. Having used this times before, its definitely a site for your Goodie Bag.

[wolfadeus]

Yes, in fact, I have used the tool CWI Tech Guy mentioned, too - it is useful especially for those, who don't generate favicons en masse.

[mkgt2]

I found this thread looking for an icon generator and it was helpful. So when I found [snip] and thought it was well done. I thought I should share. It is another helpful tool for generating your own favicons, apple-touch-icons, iphone application icons... I hope others will find it useful as well.

[edited by: brotherhood_of_LAN at 7:59 am (utc) on April 24, 2009]
[edit reason] No URL specifics please, as per the ToS (few exceptions). Thanks [/edit]

[Slinger]

[What is this, please? I have about 93 of these. Is it a problem or something normal? Thanks, Julie]

If you had 94, I might think it's a problem,...but 93....your going to be fine.