ICO vs PNG vs SVG: Choosing the Right Favicon Format (2025)

Atualizado em

Your choice of image format for a favicon impacts compatibility, quality, and even performance. Although IcoSmith generates all the necessary formats for you, understanding the differences between ICO, PNG, and SVG is crucial for any developer. Here’s a detailed breakdown.

Quick decision summary

  • Browser tab / universal fallback: favicon.ico.
  • Shortcut/PWA (Android): 192×192 and 512×512 PNG (purpose: <em>any maskable</em>).
  • Safari pinned tab: monochrome mask-icon SVG + theme-color.
  • Max coverage/quality: ship ICO + PNG + SVG.

1. The ICO Format: The Universal Standard

The .ico format is the oldest and most traditional for favicons. Its main advantage is the ability to bundle multiple bitmap images of different sizes into a single file. This allows the browser to choose the best resolution for each context (tab, bookmark bar, etc.), ensuring maximum sharpness.

  • Pros: Maximum compatibility with all browsers, including legacy ones. It's the only format guaranteed to work everywhere.
  • Cons: It's a raster format (pixel-based), so it doesn't scale infinitely. The file size can be larger if you include many resolutions.
  • When to use: Always. A favicon.ico file in your site's root is the foundation of a robust, fail-safe favicon strategy.

2. The PNG Format: The High-Resolution Standard

The .png format is ideal for icons that require high quality and transparency support. It doesn't replace .ico for browser tabs, but it's essential for other important use cases.

  • Pros: Excellent image quality, lossless compression, and full alpha channel support (transparency).
  • Cons: It is not a "multi-size" format like ICO. Each PNG file has a fixed resolution.
  • When to use: Primarily for the apple-touch-icon (the iOS home screen icon) and as the icons referenced in your site.webmanifest for PWAs and Android devices. IcoSmith generates the necessary sizes for you.

3. The SVG Format: The Scalable Future

The .svg format is vector-based, meaning it's defined by mathematics, not pixels. This allows it to be resized to any dimension without any quality loss, resulting in extremely small files and perfectly crisp icons on any screen.

  • Pros: Tiny file size, infinite scalability, and can be styled with CSS or animated.
  • Cons: Support is not yet universal. Some older browsers and contexts do not recognize it as a favicon.
  • When to use: Required for Safari's mask-icon** (pinned tabs). It can also be declared as the main favicon for modern browsers, which will use it in preference to the .ico. The best practice is to offer both.

Practical limitations of SVG as favicon

Although uncommon, some legacy contexts still don’t render favicon.svg everywhere (or force an unwanted color). Always keep a favicon.ico fallback and declare both in <head>.

Conclusion: Don't Choose One, Use Them All

The modern favicon strategy isn't about choosing one format; it's about providing a complete set to cover all bases. The ideal implementation, which IcoSmith generates for you, includes:

  1. A favicon.ico for universal compatibility.
  2. An apple-touch-icon.png for iOS devices.
  3. High-resolution PNG icons for the site.webmanifest (Android/PWA).
  4. A favicon.svg for modern browsers and the mask-icon.

By providing all these files, you ensure the best experience and a professional appearance for your site on any device or platform.

Open Converter