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How to add a browser tab icon (favicon) for a website?

I've been working on a website and I'd like to add a small icon to the browser tab.

How can I do this in HTML and where in the code would I need to place it (e.g. header)? I have a .png logo file that I'd like to convert to an icon.

Related: HTML set image on browser tab.

Solution

  • There are actually two ways to add a favicon to a website.

    <link rel="icon">

    Simply add the following code to the <head> element:

    <link rel="icon" href="http://example.com/favicon.png">

    PNG favicons are supported by most browsers, except IE <= 10. For backwards compatibility, you can use ICO favicons.

    Note that you don't have to precede icon in rel attribute with shortcut anymore. From MDN Link types:

    The shortcut link type is often seen before icon, but this link type is non-conforming, ignored and web authors must not use it anymore.

    favicon.ico in the root directory

    From another SO answer (by @mercator):

    All modern browsers (tested with Chrome 4, Firefox 3.5, IE8, Opera 10 and Safari 4) will always request a favicon.ico unless you've specified a shortcut icon via <link>.

    So all you have to do is to make the /favicon.ico request to your website return your favicon. This option unfortunately doesn't allow you to use a PNG icon.

    See also favicon.png vs favicon.ico - why should I use PNG instead of ICO?