Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is a FavIcon?

The term "FavIcon" is made up of a combination of two words, "Favorite" and "Icon", and originally was created by Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 in 1999.

 

What are the other names for a Favicon?

   • shortcut icon,

   • Web site icon,

   • URL icon,

   • bookmark icon 

 

What are the sizes of FavIcons?

The standard favicon size is 16x16 pixels. Two other popular icon sizes are 32x32 and 48x48. These larger sizes are more for desktop icons.

 

Why is there a white square around my Favicon?

If you make a Favicon from a .jpg file, it will always have a square shape and include a non-transparent background. To make a Favicon with a non-square shape or transparent background, you must use our generator and upload a GIF or PNG file with a transparent background.

 

What browsers support favicons? What types?

All browsers support favicons, but Internet Explorer only supports the .ico extension at this writing.

Browser	ICO	PNG	GIF	animated GIFs	JPEG	APNG	SVG
Google Chrome	Yes	4.0	4.0	No	4.0	No	Yes
Internet Explorer	5.0	No	No	No	No	No	No
Firefox	1.0	1.0	1.0	Yes	Yes	3.0	No
Opera	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	9.5	9.6
Safari	Yes	4.0	4.0	No	4.0	No	No

 

Where are Favicons displayed?

Different browsers display favicon images in different places - the latest versions of most popular browsers are fairly consistent, as the table below shows... with the exception of Safari.

Browser	address bar	links bar	bookmarks	tabs	drag to desktop
Google Chrome	Yes	Yes	Yes	1.0	Yes
Internet Explorer	7.0	5.0	5.0	7.0	5.0
Firefox	1.0	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Opera	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0
Safari	Yes	No	Yes	No	No

 

 

What is the right code for displaying a Favicon?

See our page on the favicon meta tag for the full answer and sample code.

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