I’ve decided to change things up a bit on the blog in an attempt to make it more fun and functional and to spice things up. I’m going to start doing a few regular series on things I like, and tools to help others like myself: Resources, Top 10s, Other Little Creative Shops + Individuals, Tips + Tricks, Design Inspiration, and the like. My first feature is this: How to Create a Favicon.
What is a favicon? It’s that nice little icon that displays in the bar of your web browser. The file format is a special one with the file extension .ico, which means that you can’t simply save a JPEG out of PhotoShop and call it a day. It is limited to 16×16 square pixels, but (like a GIF) it can hold a transparent pixel.
The tool I recommend to create a favicon is: http://www.favicon.cc/. All you have to do is either paint a design in the enlarged grid they’ve provided, or you can import an image (JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP). You can easily use an image as a base and paint over it, or just make the file and it’ll convert it completely. Fortunately you can also see a preview in the browser as you paint each pixel. Once your design is complete, just download the favicon file and upload it to the root of your web host.
