Favicons are those little graphics that appear in the address bar of your browser when you go to certain websites. To get a favicon on your site, follow these steps:
- First you need to create a favicon. (See below for instructions on creating a favicon.)
- After you have created a favicon, go into the Main Preferences of the CMS, scroll down to the "Advanced Options" section, and upload the Favicon. Then go look at your site.
- If you are using Internet Explorer, the favicon may not immediately appear. You can use the following "trick" to force it to show up (taken from favicon.com):
In Internet Explorer, click the icon in the address bar. Hold down the button and move the icon a tiny bit to the right and let go. Try this two or three times. Usually that is all you need to do!
Create a favicon using Photoshop (Windows or Mac)
- Download the Windows Icon (ICO) Photoshop plug-in (free download), and install it in Adobe Photoshop.
- You will ultimately end up outputting a file that is 16 by 16 pixels, but I recommend working with a larger canvas (128 x 128) and then downsampling the image. (Photoshop CS users note: use the Bicubic Sharpener when downsampling for a crisp final icon.)
- Once you've designed your icon to your satisfaction and re-sized it to 16 by 16 pixels, choose Save As... from the File menu. Select "Windows Icon (ICO)" as the format, and name the file favicon.ico.
Create a favicon on Windows
- Using any paint program (e.g. MS Paint), create a 16x16 pixel image (it must be exactly 16x16, no more, no less).
- Save the image as a bmp, png, or gif — NOT jpeg —.
- Convert it to favicon (.ico) format using Irfanview (free download).
Create a favicon on Mac
- Create a simple icon in the image editing application of your choice and save it as either a bmp, gif, or png (not jpeg).
- Open it in GraphicConverter (free download). Under the Picture menu go to Colour and select 4-bit (16 colours). Save out the file as a Windows Icon (.ico).
Other resources
For other favicon creation tools, see this web page.