JPG to ICO and the background problem
A logo saved as JPG always sits on a solid background, usually white. JPG cannot store transparent pixels, so that white box becomes part of the icon. In a light browser tab it is barely visible. In a dark tab or on a dark Windows desktop, a white square shows around your logo.
There are two ways around it:
- Cut out the logo with Remove Background, which saves a transparent PNG, then turn that PNG into an icon with PNG to ICO.
- Keep the background on purpose and make it part of the design, such as a colored square with a white letter.
Choosing a picture that works at 16 pixels
The smallest icon size is 16 by 16 pixels, about the size of one letter on screen. A full photo shrinks to a colored blur at that size.
| Source JPG | As a small icon |
|---|---|
| Bold logo or single letter | Clear and recognizable |
| Face cropped close | Recognizable at 32 px and up |
| Group photo or landscape | Unreadable blur |
| Logo with a slogan | Slogan disappears |
Crop your JPG to a square around the most important part with Crop Image and its 1:1 preset. A picture that is not square still works: it is scaled to fit and the empty sides are filled with transparent space, which can make the icon look small.
Putting your new icon to use
For a website, upload the file as favicon.ico to the root folder. Browsers keep old favicons in their cache for a while, so check the result in a private window.
For Windows, right click a folder, open Properties, go to Customize and choose Change Icon, then browse to your .ico file. A shortcut has the Change Icon button on its Shortcut tab.