Convert JPG to ICO (favicon)
Photos can make good favicons — a face, a product, a distinctive mark — but only if you crop tight first: at 16 pixels, a whole scene reads as noise. The tool center-crops to a square and writes 16, 32 and 48px icons into a single .ico. JPG has no transparency, so the icon fills its square edge to edge.
Need the other direction? Convert ICO to JPG
How it works
Crop your photo to the subject first — a face, a product, a sign — then drop the JPG here.
The tool squares the image by center-cropping and renders 16, 32 and 48px icons into a single opaque .ico.
Glance at the 16px preview before shipping: if the subject still reads, the favicon works; download alone or zipped.
JPG vs ICO
A photo versus a purpose-drawn mark is no contest at 16 pixels — the mark wins — but a tightly cropped face or product genuinely holds its own at 32 and 48. The judgment call is simple: crop until one subject fills the square, or don’t bother converting.
| JPG | ICO | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy | Lossless (BMP or PNG entries) |
| Transparency | No | Yes (full alpha) |
| Animation | No | No |
| Support | Universal — the safest format there is | Universal for favicons |
| Best for | Photographs and strict upload forms | Favicons and Windows app icons |
Frequently asked questions
No — that is the whole reason I built this. The conversion runs in your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device; there is no server in the loop at all. It also means the tool keeps working offline once the page has loaded, and there is no file size limit beyond your device’s memory.
Only if one subject dominates the frame. A favicon’s biggest common size is 48px and its most common is 16px — a face or object filling most of the image survives that; a landscape or group shot becomes colored static. Crop to the subject in any editor before converting, and check the preview at small size.
No — JPG has no alpha channel, so the icon is a fully opaque square. For photos that is usually what you want anyway. If you need transparent corners (a round logo, say), start from a PNG version with real transparency and use PNG to ICO.
They let each consumer pick its native resolution: browser tabs read the 16px entry, bookmark bars and taskbars the 32px, Windows shortcuts the 48px. Shipping all three in one .ico means nothing gets scaled at display time, which is where small icons usually turn to mush.
Usually, yes — and if you have one, run the transparent version through PNG to ICO instead. But plenty of real sites are personal: a portrait, a storefront, a product shot. Those work when one subject fills the frame. The test is simple: shrink the photo to 16px in your head — if you can still say what it is, it will make a fine tab icon.
Landscapes, group shots and anything where the subject occupies under half the frame — at 256 pixels total (16×16) there is no room for context. Busy backgrounds read as noise behind the tab title. Crop to a face or object first, boost contrast a little, and prefer bold color blocks over fine texture.
Related tools
Convert PNG to ICO (favicon)
Convert PNG to a multi-size ICO favicon in your browser — free, no upload. One file with 16, 32 and 48px icons with full alpha, ready for any site root.
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Convert WebP to ICO in your browser — free, private, no upload. Turn a logo saved as WebP into a proper multi-size favicon, transparency carried through.
Convert HEIC to ICO (favicon)
Convert iPhone HEIC photos to ICO favicons in your browser — free, no upload. Decoded on your device, center-cropped and saved at three standard sizes.
Convert ICO to JPG
Convert ICO to JPG in your browser — free, private, no upload. Extract a favicon or Windows icon as a JPG that any app, upload form or CMS will accept.