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How do I include a "favicon.ico" on my Web pages?

An artist buddy of mine created a little favorites bookmark icon for my web site [they're properly called favicons or, if you want to use the name of the file, "favicon.ico" files] but I don't know how to specify on my pages that I have one of these favorites icons. Can you offer up the HTML I need?


Dave's Answer:

Wondering what we're talking about? Look up on the address bar of your Web browser right now and to the left of the actual URL of this page you should see a tiny little Dave icon, a nice little visual bookmark for the site that (I hope) doesn't appear on any other sites on the Web.

That's my "favicon.ico" and it looks like this:

favicon ico display

If you don't know how to create one for your own Web site or blog, check out the many, many matches for a Google search for 'how to create a favicon'. :-)

Now, once you have one, save it at the root level of your site, so that a URL like http://domain/favicon.ico works. Here's mine:

I used to include it in my Web pages with the following code:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico"></link>

but I found out that it's actually obsolete and there's a smarter, more XHTML legal and proper form, as detailed on the W3C site:

<link rel="icon"
  type="image/png"
  href="/somewhere/myicon.png" />

So to convert that to work on my site, my pages now have the following in the head:

<link rel="icon"
  type="image/png"
  href="/favicon.png" />

Note that I had to convert the ".ico" format to a more standard ".png" format for this to work, btw!

Also, please note that I am actually in the middle of this transition right now, so please don't leave a comment if you want to point out that it is NOT in fact what I have on the page at this moment in time. I'll fix it ASAP and all will be well. :-)

Hope that helps you out!


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Categorized: HTML, JavaScript and Web Site Programming   (Article 8886, Written by )
Tagged: bookmarks, favicon, favorites, xhtml
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Reader Comments To Date: 6

Joe said, on May 14, 2009 3:43 PM:

Converting ico image to png is not necessary it might however be something to consider.

From the w3c "The format for the image you have chosen must be 16x16 pixels or 32x32 pixels, using either 8-bit or 24-bit colors. The format of the image must be one of PNG (a W3C standard), GIF, or ICO."

Jehzeel Laurente said, on May 15, 2009 10:26 AM:

You can also use the type image/vnd.microsoft.icon if you're adding a favicon in blogspot blogs. Sometimes the rel shortcut icon doesn't work :(

Livio Moreno said, on May 19, 2009 11:58 PM:

I cannot make it work with IE8.

sam said, on September 29, 2009 7:18 AM:


THe code worked perfect, thanks very much for writing it down!

Cheers!!!

Skyfish said, on March 10, 2010 8:53 AM:

Hi Dave,
The method you suggest, does not work in IE. Instead I have been using a more versatile method...

Downside being you can not use a png/gif here.
Solution: I go to http://www.favicon.cc and upload my png/gif, convert it to a .ico and download it.

Joseph said, on January 10, 2013 7:49 PM:

Actually on my site, I just dropped the favicon.ico file in the root directory and it gets sent to the browser automatically. I didn't have to use any HTML whatsoever.

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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