1. What is a Favicon?
2. How can I make one?
3. How do I use it?
4. What are the security/privacy concerns related to favicon.ico
files?
5. Where are my favicons?
What is a Favicon?
The favicon (pronounced fav-eye-con, shortened form of 'Favorites
Icon') is specific to Internet Explorer 5, and the Konqueror web browser.
It is used to customise the icon next to your bookmarked web site to be your own
customised logo. This is useful because it will remind a visitor about
your site, as your link in the favourites will stand out. The favicon is a normal
Windows icon file (.ico). It generally measures 16x16 pixels and consists of
16 colours.
How can I make one?
There exists an online favicon
generator (requires Java support). This is fine if you only want to make
a couple of icons. However my preferred method is to use an icon editor.
There are a large number of shareware programs to choose from. I have used Microangelo
98 (on PC Pro coverdisc) and Axicons.
Microangelo 98 is a better program, but it is more invasive in your Windows
setup and therefore I am using Axicons. Another program that has been highly
recommenced is Icon Forge, and I plan to try it shortly.
Using these programs allows you to create an icon file containing two
icons if you wish, one using 16 colours and the other using 256. Using
256 colours allows a better icon to be displayed if the monitor supports
it. Browser recognition is not required for this to work.
Top
How do I use one?
Once you have created it you need to upload it to your root directory. Microsoft
reccommend that if you have pages outside your root directory then you add a
<link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="favicon.ico"> in the head of your
page. This is not advisable, as I believe it does not comply with
the standards laid down by the W3C.
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What are the security/privacy concerns related to favicon.ico
files?
When you bookmark a page, the browser requests the favicon.ico file. The web
surfer is unaware that a request has been made and users can not turn this feature
off. The web site can then use their logs to build a record of the user's bookmarked
pages. Visitors could then be tracked by a cookie. This would allow sites to
build more profiles of visitors interests. I'm not sure how you could do this,
so if anyone can fill me in on the details please contact
me. Most people do not think the privacy concerns that result from this
bookmarking/favicons scheme are anything to worry about. (No one has created
a real uproar regarding the privacy issues related to favicon branded bookmarks).
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I used to see favicons, but now they've all disappeared.
What happened?
Favicons are cached very similar to HTML documents. When they are deleted
from the cache, they revert to the standard IE icon. If you want to
prevent the icon from disappearing:
1. Create a local directory (i.e. c:\favicons)
2. Copy the desired favicon into the directory created above.
3. Right click the mouse over the favorite/bookmark and select properties.
4. Enter the path (or use the "Browse" feature) to the favicon you want
for that bookmark.
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© 4WebHelp and Peter
Page URL: http://www.4webhelp.net/tutorials/misc/favicons.php
Back to the "pretty" page!
© 2025, 4WebHelp Team.
<html>
<head>
<title>WEBSITE NAME</title>
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="favicon.ico">
<head>
<html>
Just load your favicon.ico file into the same directory as your main.php (or similar loading file).
**IMPORTANT: Put the above code right at the BOTTOM of your PHP code. For some PHP sites putting HTML coding at the top will stuff up font sizes etc. not sure why just does.**
Every now and then I come across a site that won't allow me to view their icon, instead producing a pop-up that asks me if I want to download the image instead.
Why does this happen, and how can I simply get a link to just view the favicon instead?
I have a new domain name hosted for me.
That domain name is masked by the host company I bought it from so it shows my pages under the new address domain address, they say I have no access to any page or file on their server that masks the domain name, so I can't add a favicon that way.
I do have a favicon on the free site that shows under the new domain name, if the domain name mask program can show my pages in a browser, why can't it show the favicon also in the html in the browser address bar.
Is it easy or is it impossible.
1- favicon.ico must be 16x16 (not larger)
This site lets you pick the size: http://www.favicon.co.uk/
2- link code to favicon directly under the <head> tag
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" >
3- upload the favicon.ico and revised html to your root directory.
it is completely advisable and standards compliant, as well as being compatible with all major browsers today (IE, FF, Opera, Safari, etc.)
<HEAD>
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.bizecom.com/favicon.ico">
<TITLE>My Title</TITLE>
</HEAD>
http://www.webscriptlab.com, Free and easy to use online tool that can create a favorites icon (favicon.ico) images for browser address bars, favorites and tabs, from pictures, logos and other graphics.
To easily create your own favicon for free hop on over to http://www.favicon.co.uk
However, I have a problem caused, I think, by using a Frames setup. When I create a shortcut to desktop it establishes a link to the page and not to the whole site! Is there any way of forcing the shortcut to the home- or index.htm file?
Where can I host my favicon? Photobucket doesn't support it and I created a myfilehut account and I am having problems uploading the file (the site doesn't seem to work).
I've been struggling with this for over 4 hours and all I want to do is host my favicon at a free site and then copy that url into my forum admin panel.
I hope you are able to help me
Cheers,
Karen
Quote:
So what do you suggest..?
thnx
bring your favicon to the party
http://johanrooms.com/favicons.php
[url]www.property-in-the-sun.com[/url]
Check out our favicon at http://www.property-in-the-sun.com
if someone could look at the source code of my webpage i would appreciate it
Ravish Kumar
http://www.audioenglish.net/
And guess what - it works like a charm!
However, when I put the code in, it still did not work. I might be putting it in the wrong html file. However, I am going to go over to the hosting forum and see what help I can get there. Thanks again!
When I edit the index.php file, I get errors. If I ONLY return ONE line at the beginning of the document without adding any code, and return BEFORE any code begins, I get the stupid errors!
I would love to have someone indicate how to get a favicon on a SMF forum that you simply did the automatic download, and it set it self up itself. I can't even find the html page that the view source code says I have and I own the site, have done hard coding on many of the tpgames pages, just NONE of the php nor for the forum.
Thanks!!!!
For php pages all you have to do is use the following structure:
<html>
<head>
<title>PAGE TITLE HERE!!</title>
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="[PATH]">
Then your php coding follows after
<HEAD>
<LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.bizecom.com/favicon.ico">
<TITLE>My Title</TITLE>
</HEAD>
Many thanks!
somewhere most likely you use a template for the pages where you hopefully define your meta tags etcfor a clean optimized SEO and that's where you enter your favicon link as described above.
just see my own example at
http://www.kriyayoga.com/love_blog/index.php
if you use several templates for different pages - then just add your favicon link to each of your templates
good luck
hans
Alternatively, put the icon wherever you want and use an absolute path in the href attribute.
1 prob. on one site (A sub-directory of the Root) I am getting a Netscape ICO while using IE?
See
http://www3.sympatico.ca/thinc/SoccerPool/SoccerPool.html where it does not
escape the quotation marks with \
eg
<link rel=\"SHORTCUT ICON\" href=\"favicon.ico\">
Thnx
WebDesignStudent: http://woodoven.tripod.com
/will remove those flash movies from my site, sorry, teacher needs them./
Jim
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