PNG to ICO: How to Create a Favicon Without Blurry Results
A good PNG-to-ICO conversion starts with icon-scale artwork; shrinking a detailed logo to 16 or 32 pixels cannot preserve detail that no longer fits.
Read guide →Generate Favicon
Turn any image into a favicon .ico file at 16, 32, 48, or 64 pixels, resampled in your browser with high quality smoothing.
Drop image(s) here or click to browse
Editor & live preview appear below once you add an image.
Reviewed 2026-08-15
Free Generate Favicon – how it works
A favicon is the small image a browser shows in the tab, the bookmark list, and the history entry. This tool resizes your source image to one of the standard square sizes and writes a real .ico file, which is still the format with the widest support across browsers and operating systems.
The resize uses the canvas high quality smoothing path, which matters more than it sounds at these dimensions. Squeezing a detailed logo into 16 by 16 pixels throws away almost all of it, and a poor resampling filter turns what remains into mush.
Design for the size you are targeting. At 32 pixels you have room for a simple mark or one or two letters. At 16 you effectively have a silhouette. A logo with a wordmark or fine linework will not survive either, so crop to the distinctive symbol before generating.
How to use Generate Favicon online
- Prepare a square source. Start from a square image so nothing is distorted. Crop to the recognisable part of your logo first with Crop Image if the original has a wordmark or wide margins.
- Choose the size. Pick 16, 32, 48, or 64 pixels. Generate 32 if you only make one, since that is what most desktop browsers display on a normal density screen.
- Save it as favicon.ico. Download the file and place it at the root of your site as favicon.ico. Browsers request that path automatically even without a link tag in the HTML.
When to use it
- Add a tab icon to a site or internal tool that is still showing the browser default.
- Generate an icon from a logo without installing a graphics editor.
- Produce a matching favicon for a documentation site or landing page.
- Replace an old low resolution favicon with a cleaner version.
Known limitations
- Each export contains one size. Generate the sizes you need separately rather than getting a single multi-resolution .ico.
- Detail disappears at small sizes. Wordmarks, thin strokes, and gradients are unreadable at 16 and 32 pixels regardless of the source quality.
- This produces the classic .ico only. Apple touch icons and Android maskable PNGs have their own size and padding rules and are not generated here.
Frequently asked questions
What size favicon should I use?
Thirty-two pixels is the practical default for desktop browsers. Sixteen is the legacy size still used in some interface positions, and 48 or 64 give sharper results on high density displays.
Where do I put the favicon file?
At the root of your domain, named favicon.ico. Browsers request that path on their own. You can also point at it explicitly with a link rel="icon" tag if the file lives elsewhere.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. The work happens in the page using the Canvas API and WebAssembly, so the file is read straight from your disk into the tab. Nothing is transmitted and there is no copy on a server to worry about.
Why does my logo look unreadable as a favicon?
There is not enough room. A 16 pixel square holds 256 pixels in total, so text and fine detail cannot resolve. Crop to a single symbol or letter from your logo and generate from that instead.
Can I use a PNG instead of an ICO?
Modern browsers accept PNG favicons declared in a link tag, and Resize Image will produce one. The .ico at the site root remains the most reliable fallback, which is why this tool outputs that format.
Related free tools
Browse every image tools, or jump straight to web & design.
Guides related to Generate Favicon
How to Resize an Image Without Stretching or Distortion
Prevent stretched images by respecting aspect ratio and choosing explicitly between cropping, empty space, and a different frame.
Read guide →Social Media and Open Graph Image Sizes for 2026
A 1200 × 630 Open Graph image is a strong link-preview baseline, but feeds, stories, and platform crops still need dedicated checks.
Read guide →