How to Generate a Complete Favicon Package from Your Logo

You've finally got a logo you're happy with, and now you need that tiny icon that shows up in a browser tab, a bookmark bar, and a phone's home screen when someone adds your site. What should be a two-minute task turns into a maze of required sizes: 16x16, 32x32, 180x180 for Apple touch icons, 192x192 and 512x512 for Android, plus an .ico file for older browsers. Most favicon generator sites make you upload your logo to figure all of this out for you, which is an odd ask for a file that's often tied to an unlaunched brand or product.

A favicon package is really just the same image resized and re-encoded into a specific set of dimensions and formats. That's exactly the kind of repetitive resizing work a browser can do on its own.

Why Generating Favicons Locally Makes Sense

Your logo is one of the more sensitive assets you'll handle before a launch, it often represents a brand name, product, or company that hasn't been publicly announced yet. Uploading it to a third-party favicon generator means that unreleased identity sits on someone else's server, even if only for a few seconds. Generating the full icon set, resizing the same source image down to a dozen different dimensions and bundling an ICO file, is pure image processing, nothing about it needs a server's help.

Doing it client-side also sidesteps the common bait-and-switch of these tools, where the free tier gives you one or two sizes and locks the full package behind a paywall. Since there's no server cost to generating extra sizes locally, you get the complete set every time.

How to Generate a Favicon Package with ihatetools

The Favicon Generator builds your entire icon set directly in the browser from one source image.

1. Open the Favicon Generator.
2. Upload your logo, ideally a large, square, high-resolution version for the cleanest results at every size.
3. The tool generates the full set of required favicon sizes and formats automatically.
4. Preview how the icon looks at the various sizes to make sure small details are still legible.
5. Download the complete package and drop the files into your site's root directory or wherever your framework expects them.

Because the resizing happens locally, you can re-upload a tweaked version of your logo and regenerate the whole package as many times as you need while you're dialing in the final look.

Why a Complete Favicon Set Actually Matters

• Browser tabs: the classic 16x16 and 32x32 icons shown in desktop browser tabs and bookmarks.
• Apple touch icons: the 180x180 icon used when someone adds your site to their iPhone or iPad home screen.
• Android and PWA icons: the 192x192 and 512x512 sizes used for home screen shortcuts and progressive web app manifests.
• Legacy ICO support: some older browsers and Windows shortcuts still specifically look for a .ico file rather than a PNG.

Tips for a Favicon That Actually Looks Good

• Start from a square image. If your logo isn't square, crop it to a square first with the Image Crop tool so the favicon generator doesn't awkwardly stretch or squeeze it.
• Simplify before you shrink. Fine details and thin lines in your logo often disappear entirely at 16x16, consider a simplified mark or just an icon/symbol version of your brand for the smallest sizes, rather than a full wordmark.
• Check contrast against both light and dark browser tab backgrounds, an icon that looks great on white can vanish against a dark theme.
• If your logo has transparency, the Round Image tool can help you create a circular version first if you want a rounded icon style rather than a square one.

Frequently Asked Questions

What image should I start with for the best favicon result?

A large, square, high-resolution PNG with a transparent or solid background, ideally at least 512x512 pixels, gives the generator the most room to produce clean results at every smaller size.

Why does my favicon look blurry or cluttered at the smallest size?

Fine detail and small text in a logo tend to get lost once scaled down to 16x16 pixels. Simplifying your logo to its core icon or mark, rather than using a detailed full wordmark, usually fixes this.

Do I need every size in the package, or just one?

Different platforms and browsers look for different sizes, so including the full set ensures your icon displays correctly everywhere, from a browser tab to a phone's home screen.

Where do I actually put these files once downloaded?

Typically in your site's root directory, with references added in your HTML's <head> or your site's manifest file, depending on your framework's conventions.

Generate Your Favicon Now

A proper favicon set is a small detail that makes a site feel finished and professional. Try the Favicon Generator on ihatetools and get your complete icon package instantly, with nothing uploaded. Need a palette to match your new icon to the rest of your site? The Color Palette Extractor can pull exact hex codes straight from your logo.