JPG to ICO converter
Make an .ico icon from a JPG or JPEG photo. Crop it square, pick the sizes and download; the conversion happens locally in your browser.
Making a photo work at icon size
JPG is built for photographs, and photographs are the hardest thing to shrink to 16 pixels. Three things help:
- Crop hard. Pick one face, one object or one shape and fill the square with it. Use “Crop to square”.
- Boost contrast first. A subject that stands out from its background survives downscaling; low-contrast detail turns grey.
- Accept the background. JPG can’t be transparent, so the icon will be a full square. That’s fine on light and dark tabs as long as the edges aren’t pure white.
For a brand favicon, a clean mark usually beats a photo. The favicon generator can build one from your initials, or take a transparent PNG logo and add a coloured tile behind it.
Questions people ask
How do I convert a JPG to ICO?
Drop the JPG into the converter, choose the sizes (16, 32 and 48 px for a favicon), choose Crop to square if the photo is not square, then Download .ico.
Can a JPG icon have a transparent background?
No. JPG has no transparency, so the icon keeps whatever background the photo has. If you need a transparent icon, remove the background first and export a PNG, then use the PNG to ICO converter.
My JPG is a rectangle. What happens?
Choose “Fit (pad)” to shrink the whole picture into the square with transparent bars, “Crop to square” to fill the square and trim the edges, or “Stretch” to squash it (rarely a good idea).
Why does my photo look muddy as a favicon?
At 16×16 there are only 256 pixels. Photos with lots of detail turn into noise. Crop tightly on one recognisable subject, or use a simple letter or symbol instead.