I have reached a point where I really see no reason to not use a favicon on any website that is used for marketing, educational, or pretty much any other purposes. The favicon is now a very easy thing to implement, and because of that it is something that can add a decent graphical impact with minimal effort. Why not add one? I still run into many sites that are very good websites that don’t have favicons. I don’t hold anything against them. I just figure why not?
I would think that there are definitely cases where you don’t need one, but for any site that is there to provide something worthwhile to it’s users or to market anything, there should be a favicon. It will add that little extra bit of branding or visual recognition outside of the main browser display area. It makes your FireFox tab, hidden among others on the users screen, stand out a little more. It makes your bookmark easy to spot.
How to you make one? I like to use Photoshop to do so, but there are some other converters as well.
Here’s a good Photoshop plugin:
And here’s a good online favicon creator:
There are also tons more favicon creators/makers/editors/converters that can be found out there. All it takes is a quick internet search and you’ll find more options than you need. Probably.
The favicon will be a 16 by 16 pixel graphic. That’s not a lot of graphical real estate to work with, but it’s surprising how clear a thoughtfully designed favicon can look. Once you’ve got your favicon created, simply make sure it is named “favicon.ico” and place it in the root directory of your website.
