Codex

Creating a Favicon

A favicon (short for "favorites icon") is an icon associated with a website or webpage intended to be used when you bookmark the web page. Web browsers use them in the URL bar, on tabs, and elsewhere to help identify a website visually.

A favicon is typically a graphic 16 x 16 pixels square and is saved as favicon.ico in the root directory of your server. You can use a favicon with any WordPress blog on a web server that allows access to the root directories.

An example of the favicon for the Codex

Creating a Favicon

A favicon can be easily created using any graphic program that will allow saving of .ico graphic files, such as The GIMP. There are also online services that will allow you to create a favicon for free.

The image should be clear and is usually designed to match your blog image and/or content, a big task for something so small.

To prepare the image to be saved as favicon.ico:

  1. By cropping or adding space around the image, make the image square.
  2. Resize the image to 16 x 16 pixels.
  3. Save the file as favicon.ico.

If using an online service to create your favicon, such as favicon.co.uk, follow the instructions provided by the site. Then download the image of the favicon.ico to your computer.

Installing a Favicon in WordPress

If there is already an old favicon.ico file in your current theme’s main folder, delete it using FTP Clients.

  1. With an FTP Client, upload the new favicon.ico file into your current theme’s main folder.
  2. Upload another copy of your favicon.ico file to the main directory of your site (ie. http://example.com/favicon.ico). This will display the favicon in your subscribers’ feedreaders.

In order for your favicon to show up in some older browsers, you will need to edit your page header.

  1. Go to your WordPress Administration Panel.
  2. Click on Design (called Presentation in WordPress 2.3.x and below, and Appearance in WordPress 2.7+).
  3. Click on Theme Editor.
  4. Select the file called Header or header.php to edit the file.
  5. Search for the line of code that begins with <link rel="shortcut icon" and ends with /favicon.ico" />. Overwrite it, if it exists, or add the following code below the <head> HTML tag.
    <link rel="shortcut icon" href="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/favicon.ico" />
  6. Save the changes.

To see your new favicon, clear your WP-Cache and your browser’s cache. You may need to restart your browser in order to see the new favicon.

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