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Favicon Generator

Design

Generate a simple letter-based favicon in any colour and shape. Pick a size from 16px to 512px and download as PNG, instantly in your browser.

Reviewed by the thecalcu.com team · Last updated July 5, 2026

What is a Favicon?

A Favicon Generator creates the small icon that appears in a browser tab next to your website's title, one of the most frequently seen but easiest to overlook pieces of a site's branding. Because favicons are displayed so small, intricate logos and detailed designs rarely work well; a bold, simple design using a single letter or initial on a solid background tends to stay legible and recognisable even at 16×16 pixels.

This generator lets you create exactly that kind of favicon, a letter on a coloured shape, in any size you need, from the standard 16×16 browser tab size up to 512×512 for Progressive Web App manifests. It pairs well with the Avatar Generator for a consistent visual style across your site's branding and user-facing avatars.

Why Use a Favicon Generator?

Many websites launch without a custom favicon, leaving browsers to show a generic blank-page icon in the tab, a small but noticeable gap in an otherwise polished site. Designing a favicon from scratch, even a simple one, means opening an image editor, working at an awkward tiny canvas size, and exporting at multiple resolutions for different contexts.

This generator skips all of that. A developer launching a new project, a small business setting up their first website, or anyone who just needs a quick placeholder favicon can produce a clean, legible result in seconds, at exactly the size needed for browser tabs, Android home screens, or PWA install icons.

Who Should Use This Generator?

  • Developers launching a new website or app who need a quick, functional favicon without commissioning custom design work.
  • Small business owners setting up their first website and wanting a simple branded icon using their initial and brand colour.
  • Students and hobbyist developers building personal projects who want a polished finishing touch.
  • Anyone prototyping a website who needs a placeholder favicon before a final logo or brand identity is finalised.
  • PWA developers needing the larger 192×192 and 512×512 icon sizes required by web app manifests.

What Insights Does the Favicon Generator Give You?

The generator shows you exactly what your favicon will look like at your chosen size before downloading:

  • Live preview, see the favicon update instantly as you adjust the letter, colours, shape, or size.
  • Size-specific rendering, since text and shapes scale differently at different pixel sizes, the preview shows exactly how legible your design stays at the size you've selected.
  • Colour contrast check, seeing the live preview helps you quickly judge whether your chosen background and text colour combination stays readable at a glance.

How to use this Favicon calculator

  1. Enter a Letter / Symbol, typically your brand's first initial.
  2. Set the Background Colour and Text Colour using hex codes (e.g. #2F6FED).
  3. Choose a Shape, Rounded Square, Square, or Circle.
  4. Select the Size you need, 32×32 for a standard favicon, or 192×192 / 512×512 for app icons.
  5. Review the live preview to confirm it's legible and on-brand.
  6. Click Download PNG and add the file to your website's favicon setup.
Show formula & methodology ↓Show less ↑

Formula & Methodology

The generator draws directly onto an HTML canvas at your chosen pixel size: a background shape filled with your chosen colour, followed by your letter or symbol centred on top in a bold, large font sized proportionally to the canvas.

Example: entering "T" with background #2F6FED, text colour #FFFFFF, Rounded Square shape, and size 32 produces a 32×32 pixel PNG with a blue rounded square background and a bold white "T" centred on top, ready to use as favicon.png.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a favicon?
A favicon (short for 'favourite icon') is the small icon displayed in a browser tab, bookmarks bar, and history next to a website's title. It's one of the smallest but most frequently seen pieces of a website's branding, since it appears every time someone has the site open.
What size should my favicon be?
Browsers commonly display favicons at 16×16 or 32×32 pixels in the tab itself, but it's worth generating larger sizes too, 192×192 for Android home screen icons and 512×512 for Progressive Web App (PWA) manifests, so your site looks sharp across all these contexts.
Why does my favicon look blurry at small sizes?
Detailed designs lose clarity when scaled down to 16×16 pixels, which is why simple, bold designs, like a single letter or basic shape, tend to work much better as favicons than intricate logos. This generator's letter-based approach is designed specifically to stay legible even at the smallest favicon size.
How do I add the generated favicon to my website?
Save the downloaded PNG as favicon.png (or convert it to .ico if your setup requires that specific format), place it in your site's root or public folder, and reference it in your HTML's <head> with a tag like <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.png">.
Can I use more than one letter for my favicon?
Yes, you can enter up to two characters, though a single letter or initial typically reads more clearly at small favicon sizes than two characters competing for the same tiny space.
What's the difference between a favicon and an avatar?
A favicon represents a website or brand and appears in browser tabs, while the [Avatar Generator](/avatar-generator/) creates a profile picture representing an individual person, typically shown in user interfaces like comment sections or team directories. Both use a similar letter-on-background visual approach but serve different purposes.
Do I need a designer to make a favicon?
Not necessarily, for a simple, clean favicon using your brand's initial or symbol and colour, a generator like this one can produce a usable result in seconds. More elaborate or detailed favicon designs (using a custom logo mark) would benefit from a designer's input.
What colours should I use for my favicon?
Using your brand's primary colour as the background, with a high-contrast text colour (commonly white or black) for the letter, ensures the favicon stays legible and recognisable at a glance, which is all a favicon really needs to do, given how small and briefly viewed it typically is.
Is my favicon design stored or uploaded anywhere?
No, the favicon is generated entirely in your browser using the HTML canvas API. None of your inputs are sent to a server or stored.
Do I need different favicon files for different devices?
Many sites use a single favicon.png referenced at multiple sizes via different <link> tags, but for the best results across browsers, bookmarks, Android home screens, and PWA installs, generating a few key sizes (32px, 192px, and 512px) covers most real-world use cases.
Also known as
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