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Convert JPG to ICO

Make a Windows or website icon from any JPG photo, without sending it anywhere.

Drop JPG files hereor click to choose files. Batches welcome.

    Working…

    Done

    Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.

    JPG is a photo format and has no transparency, so an icon made from a JPG keeps its background: a logo on white becomes a white tile. That is fine for a photo of a person or a pet used as a profile or folder icon. For a logo that should float on any background, start from a PNG with a transparent background if you have one, or use PNG to ICO.

    Icons are square and tiny, so what matters most is the crop. A wide holiday photo shrunk to 32 pixels shows mostly sky. Crop the subject to a square first with Crop image, then drop the result here. The converter scales it to every standard size from 16 to 256 pixels and packs them into a single .ico, entirely inside this tab.

    Faces and pets work well because they read at any size; landscapes and group shots rarely do. At 16 pixels an icon is a handful of dots, so pick a picture with one clear subject and strong contrast against its background. Heavy JPG compression artefacts also get more visible once the photo is scaled down, so start from the best-quality copy you have.

    How it works

    1. Drop your JPG files onto the page, or tap to pick them. Square images give the cleanest icons.
    2. Nothing to set: every ICO gets the standard sizes from 16 to 256 pixels, up to the size of your image.
    3. Download each .ico file, or all of them as one zip.

    In your browser, not on a server

    Your browser decodes the picture, then Stayput draws it on a transparent square canvas once for every icon size, halving the resolution step by step so the small sizes stay crisp. Each size is saved as a PNG and a small encoder in the page writes the ICO header and size directory around them. The whole file is assembled in memory in your tab.

    Compared with upload-based tools: Icon converters that upload your image often hand back a single 32 pixel frame or a blurry resize, and keep a copy of your logo on their server. Here every size is drawn locally from your original, and nothing leaves the device.

    Verify it yourself. Load this page, turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode, and run the tool. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.

    Questions

    Why does my icon have a white or coloured box around it?

    JPG cannot store transparency, so the background of the photo is part of the image. To get a transparent icon you need a source image with a transparent background, such as a PNG exported from your logo file.

    My photo is not square. What happens?

    It is scaled to fit inside a square and centred, and the empty strips on either side are left transparent. For a full-bleed icon, crop the photo to a square before converting.

    Which sizes end up in the file?

    Every standard size from 16 up to 256 pixels that is not bigger than your photo: 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256. Windows and browsers pick the one closest to what they need, so one file covers title bars, taskbars, desktops and tabs.

    Can I use the ICO as a website favicon?

    Yes: put it at the root of your site as favicon.ico and browsers pick it up. For the Apple and Android home screen icons as well, use Stayput’s favicon generator, which makes the whole set from one image.

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