The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

Question

Does anyone know a good explanation or tutorial on how to implement an image that is displayed in the address bar of a browser (like the current page!)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Charles

Charles Donald
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

I believe you need a file at the root of your site called favicon.gif, IE will look for it without prompting.

If memory serves, it should be 16 x 16.

Steve Barbour
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Are you referring to the .ico file that appears to the left of http:\\...? That's a favicon.

If so you'll need to create a favicon.ico file at the root of your site (IE looks for it there). Other browsers will look for <link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="favicon.ico"> but I think they default to looking in the root as well (by this I am referring to Mozilla).

The specs differ on this feature, I think it's a 16x16 image limited to 8-bit color, athough different browsers support different color depths.

Lou
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

This site has an online favicon generator: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/

It can generate a favicon from an image on your PC. It takes a little work to get the original image sized so that your favicon comes out looking good, but it's a neat tool.

The same site also has a list of sample favicons: http://www.html-kit.com/e/favicon.cgi?m=1

The site is for HTML-Kit. It's a windows HTML Editor.

Richard Terry
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Note that when testing this, you can get incorrect results with IE, as it's known not to clear the favicon from cache even if you do that manually. It's better to fine tune in mozilla first, then in IE just to see if it works.

TomA
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Thanks for the help - I've got it working in Netscape/Mozilla/et al. but I'm still trying to get IE 6 to recognise it but its not playing ball. Grrr!

Thanks again guys,

C.

Charles Donald
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Don't waste your time. At least IE 5 & 6 don't work correctly with the favicon. It will display it for a while and then eventually lose track of it and stop displaying it. I've yet to find a favicon at a website, including my own, that IE will display more than a few days before reverting back to the generic icon.

DaveF
Wednesday, May 19, 2004

peenisepea
Tuesday, May 25, 2004