A Basic Guide to Creating Favicons
Favicons are more important than most people think. In terms of Internet marketing, having a favicon website is similar to having a trademark or logo, improving brand recall and website appeal, both of which can ultimately produce greater traffic.
Favicons and Its Essential Characteristics
Favicon is the shortened term for "favorite icon." These are images you can see on the website address bar of your browser, particularly right before the address of the website you're currently viewing. Favicons will also appear on your bookmark list and, in the case of certain browsers, even in your tabs. The size of favicons can never be greater than a 16 x 16 frame and they have to be saved using a .ico file format.
How to Create a Favicon
Creating and using a favicon is simpler than most people think. All you need is an idea of what you want your favicon to look like and image editing software program like Photoshop and you’re all set.
Step 1 - Choose the right image for your favicon.
Always remember the size limitations you'll have to work with and let it guide you into choosing the right image or one that will still maintain its distinction and appeal even when it's reduced to having a 16 x 16 frame. In most cases, either one or two letters or a very simple logo would do as a favicon.
Another consideration would be color. Using too many colors isn’t considered a good thing because they can’t be as visible as they should be due to size constraints. It’s best to stick with a single color or a dual color combination; the colors will stand out even in a small frame. You should also consider using the same shades of your website's color theme to strengthen brand identification. The best designed favicons only require a glance for people to instantly recognize what websites they represent.
Step 2 - Choose an image editing software program to help you create your favicon.
Adobe Photoshop may arguably the most helpful tool you’ll find for creating a favicon. If the version of your Photoshop does not support favicon creation, you can visit the official Photoshop website and download the appropriate plugin.
Upon plugging and installing the application, you can now start creating and designing your website's favicon. Although Adobe Photoshop offers a wide variety of artistic options for design, it’s better to stick with the simpler ones as the more sophisticated effects won’t translate as well as they deserve to be when they’re used on a compact-sized image.
With Adobe Photoshop, you’ll have to work with a 64 x 64 frame size. Once that's done, you will have to resize the image. Make sure that you click on Resample Image to prevent the image from blurring when it’s been resized.
You can also use MS Paint in creating a favicon. While MS Paint is not as jam-packed with features as Adobe Photoshop is, that works to your disadvantage in this case. In MS Paint, you at least won’t get tempted to try on the more elaborate techniques and end up wasting your time. When using MS Paint, please do remember to save it first by JPEG then later on have an online or offline program to convert it to .ico.
Other applications may also be used to create favicons but you’ll probably notice a few changes in the commands and procedures used.
Favicons and Its Essential Characteristics
Favicon is the shortened term for "favorite icon." These are images you can see on the website address bar of your browser, particularly right before the address of the website you're currently viewing. Favicons will also appear on your bookmark list and, in the case of certain browsers, even in your tabs. The size of favicons can never be greater than a 16 x 16 frame and they have to be saved using a .ico file format.
How to Create a Favicon
Creating and using a favicon is simpler than most people think. All you need is an idea of what you want your favicon to look like and image editing software program like Photoshop and you’re all set.
Step 1 - Choose the right image for your favicon.
Always remember the size limitations you'll have to work with and let it guide you into choosing the right image or one that will still maintain its distinction and appeal even when it's reduced to having a 16 x 16 frame. In most cases, either one or two letters or a very simple logo would do as a favicon.
Another consideration would be color. Using too many colors isn’t considered a good thing because they can’t be as visible as they should be due to size constraints. It’s best to stick with a single color or a dual color combination; the colors will stand out even in a small frame. You should also consider using the same shades of your website's color theme to strengthen brand identification. The best designed favicons only require a glance for people to instantly recognize what websites they represent.
Step 2 - Choose an image editing software program to help you create your favicon.
Adobe Photoshop may arguably the most helpful tool you’ll find for creating a favicon. If the version of your Photoshop does not support favicon creation, you can visit the official Photoshop website and download the appropriate plugin.
Upon plugging and installing the application, you can now start creating and designing your website's favicon. Although Adobe Photoshop offers a wide variety of artistic options for design, it’s better to stick with the simpler ones as the more sophisticated effects won’t translate as well as they deserve to be when they’re used on a compact-sized image.
With Adobe Photoshop, you’ll have to work with a 64 x 64 frame size. Once that's done, you will have to resize the image. Make sure that you click on Resample Image to prevent the image from blurring when it’s been resized.
You can also use MS Paint in creating a favicon. While MS Paint is not as jam-packed with features as Adobe Photoshop is, that works to your disadvantage in this case. In MS Paint, you at least won’t get tempted to try on the more elaborate techniques and end up wasting your time. When using MS Paint, please do remember to save it first by JPEG then later on have an online or offline program to convert it to .ico.
Other applications may also be used to create favicons but you’ll probably notice a few changes in the commands and procedures used.
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