🖼️ Image Tools
🌐 Favicon Generator: Create Website Icons in All Sizes
Learn how to create a favicon for your website from any image, with all the required sizes for browsers, mobile home screens, and app icons.
⏱️ 5 min read🦉 365tool.net🌍 For everyone worldwide
A favicon is the small icon that appears in a browser tab, bookmarks list, and mobile home screen when a website is saved. Despite being tiny, a good favicon reinforces brand recognition and makes a site look complete and professional — a missing or broken favicon is a small but noticeable sign of an unfinished website.
Why Favicons Need Multiple Sizes
A single 16×16 pixel image looks fine in a browser tab but becomes blurry or pixelated when used as a mobile home screen icon (which needs to be much larger, often 180×180 or more). A complete favicon package includes several sizes for different contexts:
- 16×16 and 32×32: Standard browser tab and bookmark icons
- 180×180 (apple-touch-icon): iOS home screen icon when a site is saved to an iPhone/iPad
- 192×192 and 512×512: Android home screen and PWA (Progressive Web App) icons
- favicon.ico: A legacy multi-resolution format still checked by some older browsers
Design Tips for a Good Favicon
- Keep it simple: At 16×16 pixels, fine details and text become illegible — a bold, simple shape or single letter/icon works best
- Use your brand color: A favicon in your primary brand color helps with recognition among a row of browser tabs
- Test at actual size: Always preview the favicon at its real tiny size before finalizing — what looks great as a large logo can become an unrecognizable blob at 16×16
- Square format: Favicons should be based on a square source image; non-square images get awkwardly cropped or squished
How to Add a Favicon to Your Website
Once generated, upload the favicon files to your website's root directory and add link tags in your HTML's <head> section referencing each size — a favicon generator tool typically provides the exact HTML snippet to copy and paste.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What sizes does a favicon need?▼
A complete favicon package typically includes 16×16 and 32×32 (browser tabs), 180×180 (Apple touch icon for iOS home screen), and 192×192/512×512 (Android/PWA icons). Different devices and contexts require different sizes for a crisp appearance.
Why does my favicon look blurry on my phone's home screen?▼
Mobile home screen icons need much larger source images (180×180 or more) than a standard browser tab favicon (16×16 or 32×32). Using only a tiny favicon file for the home screen icon causes it to be stretched and blurred.
What image works best as a favicon source?▼
A simple, bold design in a square format works best. Complex logos with fine details or text become illegible at the tiny 16×16 pixel size most browsers display. Test your favicon at actual size before finalizing.
Do I need favicon.ico or just PNG files?▼
Modern browsers support PNG favicons directly, but favicon.ico remains a widely-supported legacy format some older browsers and tools still check for. Including both formats ensures maximum compatibility.