Understanding Favicon: Its Importance in Website Design

Website interface design involves numerous tasks. While many focus on layout, cover images, colors, etc., they often overlook another small yet significant detail, which is the Favicon. So, what exactly is a Favicon? What are its benefits and effects? The following article will introduce you to this.

What is a Favicon?

A Favicon (short for Favorite icon) is a small 16 × 16 pixel icon, with 16 or 24-bit color and support for transparency, appearing at the beginning of each tab in a web browser. It serves as the brand of the website and is a convenient way for viewers to 'locate' your page when they have multiple tabs open. Due to their small size, Favicons work best when they are simple images or one to three text characters.

Favicon: The Digital Business Card of Your Website

Dimensions and Formats of Favicons

The standard size for desktop web browsers is 16 × 16 pixels. However, many Website Builders may require larger sizes. For example, WordPress requires 512 × 512 pixels, and Squarespace demands 300 × 300 pixels.

Favicons serve not only on browser tabs but also when users bookmark a website or save shortcuts to their computer or phone home screens. In these cases, the icon size will be larger.

The standard file format for Favicon is .ICO, although most website platforms also accept .PNG.

Benefits and Functions of Favicon

The primary reason your website should have a Favicon is to enhance user experience.

Clearly, identifying the necessary page through an image linked to that website is much easier than sifting through various URLs. Nowadays, you can see Favicons being used by all popular websites, as well as modern browsers in their tabs.

Global companies always possess recognizable icons, aiding them to stand out amidst a sea of other web resources. Undoubtedly, it's a valuable tool for all types of websites. It's crafted to swiftly locate the necessary website among thousands of bookmarks on the Internet, making it easier for your target audience to find you faster and more effortlessly.

A website lacking its own distinctive identifier will default to the browser's generic icon, meaning if you care about your brand, you must have a Favicon.

Examples of Favicons

Favicon is becoming a prominent element in web design. To encourage you to create your own Favicon, here are some examples. There are several easily recognizable Favicon images associated with popular websites that you commonly see on web browsers:

How to Create a Favicon?

To obtain a desired Favicon, you can hire a designer or utilize online generators. The former option is certainly more appropriate, but it requires money. The latter is quite convenient and simple, but you're unlikely to obtain a unique image for your website (since it's free, anyone can use it).

Firstly, you need an icon. You can search through some databases containing free icons - like Iconfinder.com or Freepik.com. After selecting the desired Favicon image, the next step is to resize it properly. Here are some Favicon creation tools:

- freshfavicon.com;

- Explore thefavicongallery.com;

- Discover favicon.io.

As you can see, you don't need a graphic designer to obtain a Favicon. However, if you're planning to launch a significant website and establish a brand, perhaps you should switch to a professional designer to create a unique and brand-appropriate icon.

How to Add a Favicon to Your Website?

Once you have a ready-to-use Favicon file, the first thing you need is access to a text editing tool and the root directory on your website. This allows you to adjust the HTML code of your website. Here's a quick guide:

Step 1: Upload the relevant file to the server

Access the FTP Server and upload the Favicon file to the root directory.

Step 2: Edit HTML

If your website is created with simple HTML, insert the following code snippet into the head section of the index.html file:

(Replace http://yourwebsite.com with your website's URL)

In case you're working with WordPress, insert the following code snippet into the head section of the header.php file:

By now, you understand what a Favicon is, its benefits in web design, as well as how to create and display a Favicon! If you're planning to design a website, for any purpose, you should have your own Favicon. It not only represents your brand but also makes the website more user-friendly. Hopefully, the information shared above will be helpful to you!