Creating a Favicon

Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic in the URL address box) for this Web site, but never did finish the work until now. I used a free program that allowed me to copy and paste an image to create an icon, but I believe it has spyware so I won't share its name. There are many icon creators out there.

In Photoshop (or whatever drawing program you have), I created a 16x16 pixel workspace. Added what I wanted in the icon (never could come up with a logo for the site, so I stuck with the m), select all (CTRL+A), copy (CTRL+C), and pasted it into the suspicious program. There, I saved it as "favicon.ico" and uploaded the file to my server.

It won't work yet. First, add a line to the of the index page. Here's the line to add using XHTML standard formatting (if you're using HTML, leave off the / at the end of the line):

<link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="/images/favicon.ico" /></xmP</p><p>If you keep the ico file in the root, then use this instead:</p><p><xmp><link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="favicon.ico" />

That's it. The first time you try it, nothing might happen. Give it a little bit to take effect as that's what happened with mine. You don't have to specifically create a 16 x 16 pixel image to make it into an icon with the program.

EzineArticles Expert Author Meryl K. Evans

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl's notes, eNewsletter Journal, and The Remediator Security Digest. She is also a PC Today columnist and a tour guide at InformIT. She is geared to tackle your editing, writing, content, and process needs. The native Texan resides in Plano, Texas, a heartbeat north of Dallas, and doesn't wear a 10-gallon hat or cowboy boots.