How do I make a favicon?

1) First off create an image 16px X 16px in size (72dpi), and yes, it is really small :icon_smile:
To be honest you can't really draw much in such a small area so the simpler the design the better.

2) Next save it as a .gif, then visit a FREE site like: Favicon Generator and Gallery
Upload your file, select 16x16 and click the generate button. Save the file which will be a .ico extension, if it hasn't already been named favicon ensure that it is.

3) Upload the file favicon.ico to the root directory of your website.

4) Most browsers will pick it up automatically, however, to make sure add the following tag to the <head> section of any page you want it to appear on.


HTML:
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.yourdomainname.co.uk/favicon.ico" />


If you only add this code to your index/home page then if a customer/browser visits one of your other pages without landing on your index/home page first, for example via a direct link on a search engine, then it won't display so my recommendation is to add the code to the head section on all of your pages.

Here's ours:
favicon.ico


Hope that helps, as always any problems do not hesitate to ask.
 
Just out of interest, if anybody else has designed some good favicons then lets see them. My personal opinion is that they are really simple to do and they are a nice finishing touch to any website.

Some famous favicons:

My Space
favicon.ico


Yahoo
favicon.ico


Face Book
favicon.ico


You Tube
favicon.ico
 
I downloaded the file format for photoshop so i can save directly from that.

You can download it from here:

.ico plugin

I created an animated one for my website (only visible in Firefox though)

favicon.ico
 
Cheers Col

What a great plugin which is now installed.

You have a very cool favicon, just to let you know that the animation is also visible in IE7 above although from what I can see it is not on an indefinite loop so rotates a few times and then stops.

However, when I visit your site in IE7 it doesn't display at all, on checking your code you have not added a link to it anywhere in the <head> section which should sort it.
 
Just to say, to create the animated one, create an animated gif and upload it to your websites root directory then edit the file extension from .gif to .ico

Simple.

You can even have the animated gif bigger than 16px x 16px as it will just be scaled down automatically. However, I find if you scale it frst in photoshop you get a better result.
 
haha. I have a 21st that i'm off to in about 2 hours, then i'm DJ'ing from 7pm - 3am.

If I don't post now there isn't a hope in hell of me being able to do it tomorrow :D
 
Thats really good advice, I have seen some really good animated favicons at the minute, but didn't realise that you didn't have to make them small like usual but will take on board what you have said.

thanks also
 
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