Makes a Windows icon from a JPEG. It works, and it is worth saying that a photograph rarely makes a good icon at 16 pixels — at that size you have room for a shape, not a scene.
What survives at 16 pixels
What reads at that size is a single bold shape with high contrast against the background: a letter, a simple silhouette, a distinctive outline. If the icon matters, crop hard to the one element that identifies it before converting — or draw something simple instead.
The larger entries in the icon (48, 128, 256) do keep recognisable detail, so a photographic icon can look fine on the desktop and poor in the browser tab. That is worth checking before you ship it.
No transparency to keep
Which sizes to put in
Other names for this
Also searched as “jpeg to ico”, “photo to favicon”.
Questions
- My icon is unrecognisable in the browser tab.
- At 16 × 16 there are 256 pixels in total. Crop to the single most identifying element before converting, or use a simple graphic.
- Can the icon have transparent corners?
- Not from a JPEG, which has no alpha channel. Start from a PNG.
- Can I convert a whole folder of images?
- Yes. Drop as many files as you like, or a whole folder. Each keeps its original name with the new extension —
IMG_4032.heicbecomesIMG_4032.jpg, neverconverted_1.jpg— and you can download them individually or as a ZIP. - Are my photos uploaded?
- No. The decoding and re-encoding happen in this tab using the browser’s own image support. Photos are personal in a way most files are not, and none of them is transmitted. Turn your Wi-Fi off and the converter keeps working.