Another Tasty Tweak (sort of) Site FAVICON

**schuc** · 16 February 2011, 07:08 PM

I hope it's ok to open this thread again.

I used the suggested .xar and it had what my current placeholder already had, but that's ok. I replaced mine with this one and only changed the reference to a PNG.

Is there any issue using .PNG files? That's what I'm trying to do and it isn't showing up yet.

Doing a grep, I see the following which looks right for me(I have also confirmed it's in the HEAD section within home.htm):
home.htm: <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="favicon.png">

Note that I do have favicon.png in the bitmap gallery, but it wasn't uploaded to my web server when I published the site. Maybe it's because I'm not actually using the image on any pages? So, I ftp'd the file into both the home directory and the home_htm_files directories and refreshing the page in my browser still doesn't show the favicon.

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks all.

**schuc** · 16 February 2011, 08:35 PM

In case the file info is revealing for anyone, I'll attach it here.

**Soquili** · 16 February 2011, 11:05 PM

A favicon should be in the .ico file format rather than .png or .gif.

**schuc** · 17 February 2011, 01:28 AM

Thanks for your reply.

.PNG should be valid and rather a norm these days, right? Why does it need to be .ico? Thanks

**zaphodeist** · 17 February 2011, 03:49 AM

PNG is not supported by all browsers for the 'favicon'. The .ico format for a browser bookmark icon (favorite icon) is cross-browser compatible and is supported by Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera

Modern web browsers do not require any HTML to retrieve a favicon that conforms to the de facto file name and type (favicon.ico) located in the web site's root. If no favicon link is detected upon HTML page load completion and no previous site visits are recorded in the browser's history, a favicon.ico is requested automatically

**Big Frank** · 17 February 2011, 07:25 AM

Well quoted

**zaphodeist** · 17 February 2011, 10:24 AM

At ten to five in the a.m. ... yes

**schuc** · 17 February 2011, 04:24 PM

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate it.

I did try an .ico and that worked. I'm not sure what the issue is with the .png or the link directive I had set for it. I made the .png in photoshop but didn't use any plugins for it. I would still like to be able to use the .png format so I know how. The .ico I made was with IcoFx(16x16-True Color).

**Soquili** · 17 February 2011, 04:55 PM

A png file does not work as a favicon. Favicon is a shortened form of favorite icon. An Icon is a .ico file.

A png does not an ico make.

**schuc** · 17 February 2011, 10:05 PM

Thanks for your reply.

According to Wikipedia, the format can be ico/png/gif (and even more) as long as your browser supports it. I already tried an animated gif on my site and that worked fine.

So, it seems that it does not have to be an .ico format.