As you all know, most websites have a favicon that relates to their website or can been seen in the status bar next to the website link. This plays an important role to some extent, that’s my opinion.
Definition from Wikipedia
A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, shortcut icon, url icon, or bookmark icon is a 16×16 pixel square icon associated with a particular website or webpage. A web designer can create such an icon and install it into a website (or webpage) by several means, and most graphical web browsers will then make use of it.
Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page’s favicon in the browser’s address bar and next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page’s favicon next to the page’s title on the tab. The Microsoft Windows Shell also uses favicons to represent “Internet shortcuts” to web pages
Link to definition of favicon from Wikipedia
The image below displays the favicon for Serradinho.com
Serradinho.com favicon
From the image above, my favicon consists of four coloured blocks namely red, green, blue and then yellow. I know I could probably have a better favicon, but this will do for now. I might change it in the near future 
I found a site whereby you can create your own favicon and wanted to share it with you.This post will be about favicon.cc, but I will list other favicon websites that you could use as well so make sure you read on.
The site is not new and I’m sure most of you have come across it sometime or another, it’s called favicon.cc. It’s a very basic website whereby you can create a normal or animated favicon or you could upload your own image and create one from there.
The options available to you are a main menu, an editor, a colour picker, a preview pane, a tags box and a small box with a few directions of how to use the site.
Easy directions for use:
- Choose a color
- Click on the squares and paint your logo
- Download when you are finished
- Put the favicon.ico file into your webserver directory
- Optionally publish it under the CC (Creative Commons) license
The Colour Picker:
What I liked about the colour picker was that you could decide what colours to use.
Another cool feature was when you used a certain colour, it would remember the exact colour and you could use that colour again once you’ve changed colours a few times.
I also liked the fact that you could erase a block if you made an accident by mistake.
Maybe a downfall, but you don’t have many colours to choose from. You are limited to a few and you have to make due with them. Would be nice if you were able to enter a value for a certain colour.
Website Menu:
You can select the create new favicon button and start from scratch or you could select the
Import image – supported file types are jpg, jpeg, gif, png, bmp, ico. The maximum file size has been set to 5MB which is reasonably high enough.
Latest Favicons – this will show you the latest favicons made by new or registered members. Also stating how long ago it was created and you can also have tags associate with your favicon. More than 34,000 favicons have already been created so this tool seems to be helping many.
Top Rate Favicons – shows top rated favicons, seems thought that you can only vote for a favicon if you are a registered member.
The Favicon Editor:
the editor is very user-friendly and it’s not hard to understand at all.
Using Animation:
You can decide how long each frame must appear and thats cool.
You also have the ability to copy the previous frame, this comes in handy when you need to duplicate something. You won’t be wasting any time here.
You can clear the frame if you need to start with a clean frame/slate.
You have the option to delete a frame if you don’t require it anymore.
Once you have created frames, you will be able to move to the previous or go to the next frame just with a click of a button.
Preview of your Favicon
The little preview box is really cool and it will be able to give you an idea of how your favicon will look like once you have uploaded it to your server. You can see the image below of an example of this.
Final Thoughts and links
There are so many sites that you could visit to create your own favicon, the list would probably be endless. There many new image editors that can do the same job, maybe even better.
I have listed a few below for you to try, let me know of your experiences with them.
- Genfavicon
- Favikon
- Graphics Guru: Favicon Generator
- Buddy Icon Generator
- Favicon Editor
- Favicon.ru
- FaviconGenerator.com
- Favicon Generator and Gallery
- Webscriptlab Favicon Generator
- FaviconTool
- Favicon2dots
- Favicon.ico
- Convertico.com (mentioned by Compute Live and Hehh)
I would like to know how you created your favicon?
Did you use this favicon.cc, another site or an image editor?
Do you even have a website favicon or are you to lazy?
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WordPress & Thesis Customizations
This webiste is using Thesis theme & WordPress. I can create you a similar website or update yours.
Author Information
Article by George Serradinho
I am the proud owner of Serradinho and have made this my second home. I'm into blogging, downloads, WordPress and the internet in general. I also love meeting and helping others and learning new techniques.
blinkky
Tom@Your Practice Website
Web Design India
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Insurance advisor
Dennis Edell
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That is a big list George,
I used favicon.cc to create a favicon for my website. It is really easy to use it.
Ricky´s last blog ..[How To]Find The Best Free Web host Provider
@Ricky – some users will like some and not the others.
I don’t use a favicon. I probably should start using one. It doesn’t take a long time to do. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog ..What are the ways do you make money?
@Greg – get one and set it up, should take you no time and then just forget about it
Hello George,
This is really cool list.
Favicon is the most important for blogs.It can give more exposure of the blog.
Even some search engines indexes the url following favicon near the url link.
Like Google and yahoo’s favicon.We can identify just with the favicon whether it is related yahoo or Google.
Surender Sharma´s last blog ..Do you Dream of Creating a Massive Blog
@Surender – you are absolutely correct about it being important.
I used MS paint and Photoshop a few years back when I was creating my first HTML-page on my slow modem. Today I always tend to use favicon.cc which is a fantastic simple service for creating a favicon.
Stefan´s last blog ..The Advantages Of Being Small
@Stefan – favicon.cc is awesome, I had great fun and you could use it for other icons as well.
Hey George
I have seen many posts on create your blog favico and its great to see instead of just dropping a link, you have given the complete tutorial. Great work George. Post stumbled and Tweeted
Man with iPhone´s last blog ..Deploying Java Web App : Creating war file with JDeveloper
@Man with iPhone – or should I say Harsh? I did explain the details, but then also had other links at the bottom of other sites. Thanks for stopping by.
I created my favicon by using photoshop and then at http://www.convertico.com, I converted my pic from PNG to ICO format.
Nehh´s last blog ..Madonna and Jesus Luz photographed kissing at her 51st birthday
@Nehh – I went to Covertico.com, but it seems up for sale. You must have created yours a long time ago.
I think Nehh entered the URL wrong
http://www.convertico.com/
Compute Live´s last blog ..Magnavox 32MF338B and 32MF339B for $299.99 | 32′ 720p LCD HDTV
@compute Live – your url is 100% correct. I will update his comment. Thanks for the link
@ Compute Live- Thanks for correcting the url.. I may have entered it wrong.
@ George Serradinho- Thanks for updating it.
Nehh´s last blog ..Gwyneth Paltrow hates, avoids, ignores Scarlett Johansson on sets of Iron Man 2
@Nehh – thanks for your suggestion. I have updated the post and added this url as well.
Glad I was able to help you
Nehh´s last blog ..Amber Rose topless
Great list George! I did not know there were so many Favicon companies out there. I need to update ours one of these days, as a dollar sign is pretty boring, but not sure what to use yet.
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..Make Your Blog More Interactive
@Doug – no problem buddy. I also think mine needs an update, but still debating on it.
Helpful tutorial. For my favicon I did a similiar thing as you. I think I used favicon.ico to reduce the picture of the globe, and then I transported it to my server. I did create a step by step tutorial a while back, but can’t seem to find the forum I published it, as I think it’s no longer available.
Ana´s last blog ..Going behind identity; Who are you?
@Ana – just visited your site and I can see your favicon, seems nice.
Nice post…There are lots of websites over the net offering this kind of free services…Thanks for the list George….Will check them out..
Compute Live´s last blog ..Magnavox 32MF338B and 32MF339B for $299.99 | 32′ 720p LCD HDTV
@Compute Live – I agree that there are plenty sites offering this kind of service. It gives us a choice to see what works best for us.
favicon.cc was pretty easy – just uploaded my gravat and it made me a favicon.
Now I just need to figure out how to insert it into WordPress – preferable without loosing it during a theme change.
@Klaus – I have put it in my theme directory as well as my root directory so that I always have a backup. You could do the same if you wanted to.
Cool article! Many people don’t now what a favicon is! This will surely help them create one and also make them aware about it.
Tech-Freak Stuff´s last blog ..Reveal the Real Long URL behind the Masked Shortened URL
@Tech-Freak Stuff – thanks, I hope it makes a difference to others.
Animate favicons are cache..I wrote a similar kind of article long time back. But this one is very informative.
TechZoomIn´s last blog ..Optimize AJAX pages for Search Engines
@TechZoomIn – I wanted to help those who have not got a favicon to have a wide selection of choices.
I used favicon.cc just last month to create a favicon for my blog. It was so simple that I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Like you, I feel my favicon will do for now, but I will probably change it in the near future.
Tycoon Blogger´s last blog ..How to Improve your Alexa Ranking
@Tycoon – it is so easy, but we need to keep changing as time goes on.
Where were tools like this 10 years ago when I started out? Talk about making everything nice, quick and simple. You did a great job on this post George.
Extreme John´s last blog ..Strikeforce and Fedor Can Shove It
@Extreme John – thanks man, appreciate the kind words
I had also posted a similar article for blogger users and had a great response. this is great too!
gautam hans´s last blog ..350+ Fresh Twitter Icons
@gautam – glad to know, webmasters need to know about these websites and find what works for them.
I have used FaviIcon to create my blog’s favicon. Very good web service. Has lots of features.
Nihar´s last blog ..How to Move Feeds from FeedDemon / Newsgator to Google Reader
@Nihar – thanks for sharing that, would be nice to know what works for others
You can also add http://www.htmlkit.com/services/favicon/
I always used that for all my favicons.
Kurt Avish´s last blog ..Google Hot Trends for other Countries
I have used favicon.cc in order to create one for my blog and I felt it to be very easy to use this. The ease at which I created a favicon for my blog without any planning was indeed loved by me and I would definitely prefer to use this and recommend to others.
Suneel´s last blog ..Back up your Tweet data from Twitter
@Suneel – thanks for your experience, glad to know others like it as well. It’s nice when people make it easy to use and work with.
@Nehh – you did not just help me, but all my readers as well
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