PNG to ICO

[Chris M]

Playing with .ico files for the first time. I created a simple 128px square, added an 'A' in Xara and exported as png.
I then converted to ico using Format Factory, for no other reason than I had it installed on the machine I was using. The output settings were set to 128px to match the png.
The result is below. I then used an online converter...same result. Why the extra 'padding', and is there something fundamental that I'm missing?

The image is just a screenshot of the two files in File Explorer.

[handrawn]

the ico is not anti-aliased is it, you can see the pixel steps

no expert in ico format, but do you have colour depth options when you convert?

[Chris M]

There was no finessing at all. A simple square with text is all I am aiming for. I don't even think attributes such as antialiasing are even available to icons.

The only options I have when converting is size.

[Chris M]

Looks like I should have committed to customising an actual icon before asking. They look fine when applied to an actual icon, both on the desktop and the taskbar. It looks like it's just the thumbnails that appear to have that 'padding' for some reason.

[handrawn]

fair enough I guess; thumbnails in general are often unrepresentative of quality...

[rsrsrs]

arent they svg these days?

[Chris M]

arent they svg these days?

Icons? Not that I know of (which isn't a lot). When you change a Windows icon, the system looks for .ico files.

The screenshots are potato quality because I took a screenshot, about 250x120px and dragged it up to 1280x750. But, yes, png is better quality than ico.

[Chris M]

Everything is working and looking good despite the strange thimbnails.

I made the icons in Xara at 256x256px and exported as png.
Converted to .ico using Format Factory.
All of them stay sharp, even at the Extra Large view setting.

Some of the thumbnails are tiny, while others display correctly. I've refreshed the folder view, restarted the computer to no avail. However, they all display correctly when used as customised shortcuts, so all's well that ends well.

[haakoo]

Hi Chris,
You could use xnviewmp for this conversion.
Also if you don't want blurry .ico files, export as gif from Xara first.
I always used the sizes, for website design,16x16,24x24,32x32,........

[Chris M]

Thanks haakoo. The quality of the ico files are sharp and clear. Quality was never the issue, it was the odd manner the thumbnails displayed that prompted me to post.

I'm making the icons for the Windows 10/11 environment, so 256px covers all the available display sizes. I'm playing/testing at the moment, but next week I shall have a set for a computer that acts as a display/media player at a retirement village.