Favicon Pixel Editor

Design pixel-perfect favicons with our free online editor. Draw on a 16×16, 32×32, or 48×48 grid, import images, and download as .ICO or .PNG.

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How to Create a Favicon with the Pixel Editor

Start by choosing your canvas size — 16×16 for classic favicons, 32×32 for retina displays, or 48×48 for Windows taskbar icons. Select a color from the palette or use the color picker, then click on pixels to draw. Use the pencil tool for freehand drawing, the fill bucket for large areas, and the line and rectangle tools for geometric shapes. The eraser removes pixels to create transparency (shown as a checkerboard pattern). As you draw, the preview panel shows your favicon at actual size on both light and dark backgrounds, plus mockups of how it will look in a browser tab and bookmark bar. When you're happy with your design, download as .ICO (for maximum browser compatibility) or .PNG. You can also import an existing image to use as a starting point — it will be resized to the grid, and you can refine individual pixels.

What Size Should a Favicon Be?

The classic favicon size is 16×16 pixels, which is what most browsers display in the tab bar. However, modern high-DPI displays and various contexts require larger sizes. A 32×32 favicon looks sharp on retina displays and is used by some browsers for bookmarks. The 48×48 size is used by Windows for taskbar and desktop shortcuts. For the best coverage, create your design at 32×32 — it downscales well to 16×16 and upscales acceptably to 48×48. Our editor's .ICO export includes multiple sizes automatically, so your favicon looks great everywhere. The .ICO format is recommended over .PNG for favicon.ico because it's universally supported by all browsers, including older versions of Internet Explorer.

Frequently Asked Questions

32×32 pixels is the best starting size for modern browsers. The .ICO file format can contain multiple sizes (16×16, 32×32, 48×48) in a single file, and our editor generates all sizes automatically when you download.

Yes. Click 'Import Image' or drag and drop any image onto the canvas. The image is resized to fit the current grid size, and you can then edit individual pixels to refine the result. Supported formats: PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, ICO, SVG, BMP.

.ICO is recommended for the favicon.ico file because it's universally supported by all browsers and can contain multiple sizes. Use .PNG if you only need a single size for modern browsers or for apple-touch-icon.

Place the favicon.ico file in your website's root directory, then add this to your HTML head: <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">. Most browsers will also automatically check for /favicon.ico at the root of your domain.

Yes. Empty pixels are transparent (shown as a checkerboard pattern in the editor). Use the eraser tool to make pixels transparent, or adjust the alpha slider to create semi-transparent pixels. Both .ICO and .PNG exports preserve transparency.

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