AnyFormat

00 PNG → ICO

PNG to ICO

Real multi-resolution icon, transparency kept.

Drop files or a folder here

or choose from your device · paste with ⌘V / Ctrl+V

.png

03Options 2

An .ico holds several resolutions. Windows and browsers pick whichever fits.

Any CSS colour. Without one, transparency becomes black — which is what an empty canvas is.

  • No upload The conversion runs in this tab. Your file never travels — not to us, and not to the advertising.
  • No sign-up, no email, no daily cap There is no account system to sign up to.
  • No size limit we invented Only your device's memory — about ~2 GB on a desktop browser, ~400 MB on a phone.
  • Turn your Wi-Fi off and convert anyway The conversion needs nothing but this page. Ads will not load without a connection; your file will still convert. That is the whole claim, and it takes five seconds to check.

Makes a proper Windows icon from a PNG. An .ico is a container holding several resolutions at once, and this writes all of them into one file — not a single image with the extension changed.

Why an icon holds several sizes

Windows and browsers ask for whatever size suits the context: 16 pixels in a browser tab and a file list, 32 in the taskbar and on the desktop, 48 in a large-icon folder view, 256 for the extra-large view.

Given only one size the system scales it, and scaling a 256-pixel image down to 16 turns fine detail into mush — which is why a favicon made from a detailed logo so often looks like a smudge in the tab.

Each size here is rendered separately from the source at full quality rather than downscaled from a larger rendering, which is the best a converter can do. For a genuinely good 16-pixel icon you want a simplified design drawn for that size — no automatic process substitutes for that.

Transparency and the PNG-inside-ICO trick

Each entry is stored as a PNG inside the icon container. Windows has accepted that since Vista and every browser reads it, and it keeps the full 8-bit alpha channel.

The older approach — a BMP inside the icon with a separate 1-bit mask — gives hard, jagged edges wherever the icon is not fully opaque. PNG entries avoid that entirely.

Using it as a favicon

Put favicon.ico at the root of your site. Browsers request it there automatically even with no markup, which is exactly why the .ico format persists.

To be explicit, and to add a modern SVG alongside it:

<link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" sizes="any">
<link rel="icon" href="/icon.svg" type="image/svg+xml">

Start from a square source. A non-square image is squashed to fit, and the tool tells you when that happens.

Other names for this

Also searched as “png to favicon”, “make favicon from png”, “png to icon”.

Questions

Which sizes do I need?
16, 32 and 48 covers browsers, the taskbar and file listings. Add 256 if the icon is for a desktop shortcut.
Is transparency kept?
Yes. Each entry is a PNG inside the container, which keeps the full alpha channel with clean edges.
My source is not square.
It is squashed to fit, and you are told. Crop it square first for a good result.
Do I still need a favicon.ico?
It is still the most compatible option, and browsers request it from the site root without any markup. Pair it with an SVG icon for modern browsers.
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.heic becomes IMG_4032.jpg, never converted_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.