PNG to ICO Converter
Best for developers creating a favicon.ico from a square logo PNG.
Drop files or a folder here
or click to browse · paste from clipboard
Accepts .PNG · Up to 1,000 files
Generate ICO favicons from PNG — choose which sizes to pack (16, 32, 48, 64, 128 px). No upload.
How it works
Drop your files
Drag and drop, click to browse, or paste from clipboard. Up to 1,000 files at once.
Choose settings
Choose an ICO size option that will match your needs.
Click Convert
Files are converted in your browser and not uploaded to a server. So your PNG files are converted to ICO files locally.
Download
Download files individually or grab all at once as a ZIP.
What is a PNG file?
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is an image format similar to JPG or GIF. A group of developers created it in 1996 as a free image format that anyone can use without paying a license fee.
One huge advantage of PNG files is that they’re lossless, so images stay sharp. If you choose the PNG format, it’s encoded so that none of the detail is discarded. Every pixel stays where it should be. That’s why a PNG image still looks sharp even after you compress it.
This format also supports something called transparency, which means that part of the image is ‘transparent’ or something you can see through. For example, if you have a predominantly black penguin logo, you can save it so only the penguin shows without a background, and place it on any graphic seamlessly because no background color gets in the way.
Choose PNG for images like:
- Logos or icons
- Screenshots (anything with lots of text)
- Simple drawings or cartoons
- Any image that needs a transparent background
PNG isn’t great for:
- Photography shots with lots of detail (landscape, groups of people, etc.)
- Anything you want to load fast (since it’s a lossless format)
What is an ICO file?
ICO is short for ICON: a special format developed by Microsoft for Windows all the way back in 1985 (I bet most of you weren’t born yet). Its purpose is to hold tiny graphics that the computer reads and displays, such as icons in your application, in the folder on your desktop, favicons, basically anything that shows a logo of something.
What makes the ICO format unique from PNG or most other graphic formats is that it holds images (more of graphic files) of various sizes of the same image in one file. So a single ICO file can hold a 16 x 16, 32 x 32, 64 x 64, all the way up to 128 px, depending on how you’ll use it. The small logos you see in your browser beside the URL are an example of an ICO file. ConvertYard lets users convert a PNG into four ICO sets: Large only (single 128 px file), Full Set (16 to 128 px), Web Favicon (16 to 48 px), and Apple Shortcut (16 and 32 px).
ICO files are best suited for:
- Website icons (or favicons)
- Logos
- Windows shortcut icons for software
Don’t use ICO files for:
- Regular images
PNG vs ICO - What’s the Difference?
The biggest difference between these image formats is that PNG files hold a single image while the ICO format can hold different sizes of the same graphic. So when you’re converting a PNG file to an ICO file, you’re turning that single image (or graphic) into a format that holds multiple sizes.
There’s a new alternative format for PNG files, called APNG, that works like a GIF and supports movement (similar to the ones used for memes).
Frequently asked questions
The default output includes all 5 sizes (16×16, 32×32, 48×48, 64×64, and 128×128 pixels). The "ICO sizes" dropdown is used to select which of these sizes will be included in the generated ICO file. Favicons for browsers are generally created in sizes of 16-48px, Windows shortcuts in sizes of 32-64px, and high-DPI displays like Macs need a 128px size for the best result.
Note that each icon size is rendered in a square canvas to ensure that the icon fills the edges of the canvas. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to first crop the original PNG file to a square before converting it to an ICO file. The ConvertYard Image Cropper tool is also available to be used as part of the conversion process to crop the original PNG file properly.
Yes, a PNG of your square logo can be easily converted and added to your website. Upload the generated favicon.ico file to the root of your website and add a reference to the favicon in your HTML files. Most browsers will then pick up the favicon. Modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE support PNG favicon sizes of 32×32 and 48×48.
Yes, you can convert up to 1,000 PNG files at once, and ConvertYard will render one ICO file with 5 different resolutions and download the files as a ZIP archive.
Nothing is uploaded to any server since the files are converted in the browser. So it's safe to convert client files or any creative work.
ICO is a Microsoft-developed file format that contains multiple resolutions of the same image. It's best utilized for favicons (that's the classic favicon.ico) or Windows software icons. It's basically made for anything running on Windows. If you're developing software for Apple or any iOS devices, PNG is the preferred format.