Perfect Renders
Don’t know what favicons are and how useful they can be? In a nutshell, they are those small icons that appear beside the browser’s address bar when you visit a web site. Usually has a size of 16×16, 32×32 or 64×64, they are also called web site icons, bookmark icons and URL icons. For example, the favicon for Perfect Renders:
They also appear as the icons associated to those sites when you bookmark them on your browser. Hence the name favicon. Here are other favicons which I bet you can easily identify:
Other than adding professionalism to your site, favicons can’t do anything more. Now, I don’t want to dive into the technical stuff. If you want to learn more about its history, browser compatibilities, standardization and implementation issues, there’s always Wikipedia.
How can we make our favicons? I was able to come across by doing five easy steps!
1. Save your desired-to-be-favicon 32×32 logo as a JPG, BMP or PNG file with your favorite image editing software
2. Download and install the free software w/c can export ICO files IrfanView here
3. Import your saved image in IrfanView
4. Export as ICO file strictly with the name favicon.ico
5. Upload it to the root directory of your web site and voila!
*6. Refresh your browser’s cache and reload if you still can’t see your favicon
There are tons of ways of creating favicons. Some sites even have automatic favicon generators as well as having services cater to such. You just have to punch in to Google the right words.
Having your own favicon adds pizzazz and personality to your site, which also indicates that you are a web developer who attends to even the smallest but useful things. Take a look at Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Favicons help build their brand. No reason why you can’t as well.