Convert ICO to SVG Icon ↔ Scalable Vector Graphics Free Online Secure
Drop your ICO file in and take away an SVG. You choose what happens to the pictures: they become shapes, or they stay exactly as they came — and what each choice costs is written below, before you spend time on it.
Convert your file
Drop your ICO file here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
What makes a vector different
An SVG is not a picture; it is a set of instructions for drawing one — a circle of this radius here, a line from here to there, this shape filled with that colour. It became a web standard in 2001, and because it stores the drawing rather than the result, it can be printed on a billboard from the same file that renders a sixteen-pixel icon. A PNG or a JPEG stores the opposite: a finished grid of coloured dots, with no memory of what drew them. That asymmetry decides everything on this page. Going from a vector to a raster is simply drawing the instructions at a chosen size; going the other way is tracing — a program looking at a grid of dots and guessing what shapes might have produced it.
Where you meet them
Logos, icons, maps, diagrams and charts live as SVG, because they must be legible at every size and often need to be recoloured. Favicons and app icons are produced from them. The reverse direction is for the moment a vector must become a flat image: an email client that will not display SVG, a social preview, a document to be printed by someone whose software is older than yours, or an upload form that accepts only photographs.
Questions people ask
I traced a photograph and the result looks terrible. Why?
Because tracing was never meant for photographs. It works by finding regions of similar colour and drawing an outline around each one, which suits flat artwork — a logo, a stencil, a line drawing — and fails on a photograph, where every region shades gradually into the next. The tracer has to invent a boundary where none exists, and produces either a poster-like blotch of flat patches or a file with tens of thousands of tiny shapes. For photographs, keep the raster.
Why does my SVG look different in another program?
Usually fonts. An SVG that contains text refers to a font by name and expects the machine opening it to have that font; where it does not, something else is substituted and the layout shifts. The cure is to convert the text to outlines before exporting, which turns each letter into a shape and makes the file identical everywhere — at the cost of the text no longer being editable or selectable. Advanced effects such as filters and blend modes are the other common source of differences.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people convert ICO to SVG
An ICO file is an icon: a small picture, or rather a bundle of small pictures of different sizes, that appears in a browser tab, on a shortcut, in a window corner or in a list of files. Many old websites and programs have an icon and nothing else of their mark: the original drawing was lost, the designer is gone, and the favicon is the only copy of the logo that remains. An SVG is the opposite kind of file: a drawing described in shapes, which can be scaled to any size and recoloured at will. That is why people convert ICO to SVG: they have a small icon and they want a drawing they can use at a larger size, change or put into a modern design.
It is important to be honest about what such a conversion can and cannot do. Turning pixels back into shapes is not a recovery of the original drawing, which is gone. It is a guess, made by looking at where areas of flat colour end. Icons, however, are the one kind of picture that suits that guess particularly well, because they were drawn in flat colour to begin with. This page offers two choices, and tells you what each costs before you spend time on it: you can let the icon become shapes by tracing it, or you can keep the picture exactly as it came, wrapped in an SVG.
This page converts ICO to SVG in your browser. Your icon is not uploaded to a server, which matters for marks and designs that are not yet public. Below you will find how tracing works, which size of the icon is read, what is kept and what to expect from a picture so small.
How the conversion works
Two choices for what happens to the picture
You choose what happens to the picture: it becomes shapes, or it stays exactly as it came. The first is tracing. The icon is analysed, areas of one colour are found and their borders are written as shapes, filled with the colours you asked for. The second is wrapping: the picture is placed inside an SVG file unchanged, so the file is SVG on the outside and the same pixels on the inside.
Which size is read
An .ico holds several sizes in one file, and the browser hands over one of them, usually the largest. The others are not read. If your icon contains 16, 32, 48 and 256 pixel versions, the 256 pixel one is normally the picture that is traced. Even the largest is small, often 48 or 256 pixels, so there is little to trace.
Why icons trace well
Icons are usually made of flat areas of colour with clean borders, because they were designed to stay legible when small. That is the one kind of picture that traces almost perfectly, since it was drawn in flat colour to begin with. A photograph shrunk into an icon would be hopeless, but an icon is not that.
What is kept
Transparency
Transparency is kept. Icons nearly always have a see-through background, and it stays empty in the SVG, so the shape sits on any colour.
The crisp flat colour
The crisp flat colour that an icon is usually made of is kept as flat shapes. This is where the conversion shines: the result looks clean and can be recoloured shape by shape.
The proportions and the size
Tracing keeps the artwork's proportions and its own pixel size in the SVG's width and height. Being vector, the result scales to any size from there.
What you should know before you convert ICO to SVG
There is little to trace
Even the largest size in an icon is small, often 48 or 256 pixels, so there is little to trace. Anything that was a single-pixel line in the original becomes a shape about as wide as it is uncertain. That is not a fault in the tracing: at sixteen pixels there was never enough there. If the result looks coarse, the answer is a bigger source, not a different setting.
Only one size is read
You cannot choose among the sizes inside the file. If the largest version is of poor quality, the trace will be too. If you have a separate PNG of the logo at a larger size, PNG to SVG will give a better result.
Tracing is a guess, not a recovery
Tracing finds where flat areas of colour end and writes those borders as shapes. For an icon that is close to right. But it proposes curves, and does not restore the ones the designer drew. If the original SVG or the source file exists, use it.
How to convert ICO to SVG here
Add your icon
Drop the ICO onto the page or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Choose tracing or keeping, and the colours
Decide whether the icon should become shapes or stay as it came. If you trace, set the number of colours; for an icon, a small number is usually right.
Convert and compare
Press the button and download the SVG. Open it in a browser and zoom in. A good trace stays smooth. Compare it with the icon, and if it is not right, adjust the colours and try again.
A closer look at ICO and SVG
A bundle and a drawing
An ICO is a container with several small pictures inside, each of a fixed size, so that the system can choose the one that suits the place where the icon is shown. An SVG is a single drawing that can be rendered at any size. To convert ICO to SVG is to take one of those small pictures and ask for the drawing behind it. The reverse, SVG to ICO, is exact; this direction is an estimate.
Why the result may look different from the icon
Small icons are often designed by hand, pixel by pixel, to look good at their size. Tracing turns those pixels into smooth shapes. The corners may round off a little and thin details may thicken. The SVG is a faithful portrait of the picture, but not a copy of the intent of the designer.
When to avoid tracing
If the icon is a photograph in miniature, such as an avatar, do not trace it. Keep the picture as it came. Tracing is for marks made of flat colour.
Common situations in detail
A lost logo that survives as a favicon
Old sites sometimes keep their only copy of the logo as a favicon. Convert ICO to SVG, clean up the shapes in a drawing program, and you have a base from which to rebuild the mark at a larger size.
Program icons
Icons extracted from old software may be the only artwork that remains. A traced SVG lets you reuse them in documentation, at a size where they can be seen.
Modernising a design
When a site or an app is redesigned, the old icon often needs to be redrawn at modern sizes. The traced SVG gives the designer a starting point that matches the existing mark.
Websites that ask for SVG
Some platforms accept only SVG for logos. If keeping the picture is enough for the platform, the icon can be wrapped. If it must be a true vector, trace it.
Practical advice before you convert ICO to SVG
Look for a larger source
Before you convert ICO to SVG, check whether a larger version of the mark exists: a PNG on the site, a brand kit, an old document. A larger source gives a much better trace.
Use few colours
Most icons use two to five colours. Asking for that number gives clean shapes that match the design.
Know what you will do afterwards
A traced icon is a starting point. Plan a few minutes in a drawing program to tidy the shapes, smooth the curves and name the layers.
Keep the ICO
The ICO is the source. If the trace is not good, you will want it to try again with other settings.
Getting the best trace when you convert ICO to SVG
Count the colours you expect
Before you convert ICO to SVG, look at the icon and count its colours. An icon with a green leaf on a white square asks for two or three. Asking for that number gives clean shapes that match the design.
Mind the edges
The border between two colours in a small icon is a soft line of in-between shades, because the picture was smoothed when it was drawn. Tracing has to decide where the edge lies within that soft line. It chooses the middle, which is nearly always right.
Think about the background
If the icon has a transparent background, it stays empty. If it has a coloured square behind the mark, the trace will include it as a shape, which you may wish to delete so that the mark can sit on other colours.
Questions people ask before converting
Will I get my original vector back?
No. Tracing is a guess and not a recovery. It proposes shapes that follow the borders of the colours in the picture.
Why is the result coarse?
Because an icon is small, often 48 or 256 pixels, and there is little to trace. The answer is a bigger source, not a different setting.
Which size inside the ICO is used?
The browser hands over one of them, usually the largest. The others are not read.
Will the transparency stay?
Yes. A see-through background stays empty.
Is my icon uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the icon never leaves your device.
Can I go back to an ICO?
Yes. SVG to ICO draws the shapes at six sizes and packs them into one file.
Choosing wisely when you convert ICO to SVG
Trace or keep?
Trace flat icons. Keep anything that looks like a photograph. If you are unsure, try tracing and look at the result next to the original.
Other starting points
If you have a PNG of the mark, PNG to SVG starts from more pixels. If you have a JPG, JPG to SVG works the same way, though compression noise needs attention.
Keep what you started with
Store the ICO beside the SVG. They are different things, and each has its use.
Getting a good result after the conversion
Open it in a drawing program
Look at the shapes and the colours. Delete stray specks, merge shapes that should be one and smooth curves that came out lumpy.
Check at several sizes
Zoom in and out. A good trace holds its shape at every size.
Rebuild if the mark matters
For a brand mark, use the trace as a guide and redraw it cleanly. An hour of work gives a file that you can use for years.
Making the most of a traced icon
Use it where scaling matters
The great advantage of the result is that it scales. Use it for the poster, the sign, the embroidered patch or the sticker, and enjoy not having to hunt for a larger file. When you need pixel pictures again, the SVG-to-PNG tool draws the shapes at any size you pick.
Recolour with ease
Because every area is a shape with a fill, changing a colour is a matter of selecting the shape and choosing another. This is often the reason people convert ICO to SVG in the first place: an icon in the wrong colour, or a version that must work on a dark background.
Rebuild the set of sizes
Once you have a clean SVG, you can produce icon files at every size you need, including a new favicon, with SVG to ICO. The new file will contain each size drawn afresh from the shapes, which is sharper than the scaled copies of the old one.
Be careful with other people's work
Tracing an icon does not give you rights to it. Use the conversion for marks that you own or have permission to use. For your own old logos, it is a convenient way to bring them up to date.
Keep the settings you liked
When you find a number of colours that works for a particular kind of icon, write it down. The next time you convert ICO to SVG for a similar mark, you will begin from a setting that you know gives clean shapes.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for artwork
Marks and designs may be confidential before they are published. Many online converters upload your file to a server, process it and send back the result, and for a while a copy lives on a machine you do not control. Here your own browser does the work, so the icon stays on your device.
What happens when you leave
When you close the page, the converted file disappears from the browser, so download it first. Nothing about your icon is kept.
If something goes wrong
The trace looks lumpy
The icon is small and has little detail. Look for a larger source, or tidy the shapes in a drawing program.
The wrong size seems to have been read
Only one size is handed over, usually the largest. If it is of poor quality, find a better source.
The page does not open my file
Check that it is a real ICO and not a PNG renamed. If it is a PNG, use PNG to SVG instead.
Related tools
The same family of tools covers the neighbouring jobs. For a PNG, use PNG to SVG, and for a JPG, JPG to SVG. To go back to pixels or to an icon, SVG to ICO, SVG to PNG and SVG to JPG draw the shapes at the size you pick. A vector page for print comes from SVG to PDF.
A worked example
Say you inherit a website whose only trace of the logo is a favicon: a green leaf on a transparent background. You need the leaf for a printed banner. You drop the ICO here, choose tracing with two colours and press the button. A moment later you download an SVG in which the leaf is a clean green shape. You open it in a drawing program, smooth two corners and scale it to the banner. The edges stay sharp. The ICO stays in your folder.
A short checklist
Before converting
Look for a larger source of the mark. Check that the icon is flat artwork. Keep the ICO.
While converting
Choose tracing or keeping, and set the colours. Stay on the page until the file is ready.
After converting
Open the SVG, zoom in, compare it with the icon and tidy it in a drawing program.
Common mistakes
Expecting detail that was never there
At sixteen pixels there was never enough to find. Do not convert ICO to SVG hoping for fine lines.
Tracing a photo avatar
A photograph in miniature becomes a poster of patches. Keep it as it came.
Using too many colours
More colours give noisy shapes. Use as few as the icon needs.
Your icon stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your icon is read by your own browser, traced there and handed back as an SVG. Nothing is uploaded, so no copy ends up on a server and nobody else can see it. For unpublished marks, that is the safe way to convert ICO to SVG.
Summary
To convert ICO to SVG here, drop the icon, choose what happens to it and press the button. You choose: the picture becomes shapes, or it stays exactly as it came, and what each choice costs is written on this page, before you spend time on it. Transparency is kept, and so is the crisp flat colour an icon is usually made of, which is the one kind of picture that traces almost perfectly, because it was drawn in flat colour to begin with. An .ico holds several sizes in one file and the browser hands over one of them, usually the largest; the others are not read. Even the largest is small, often 48 or 256 pixels, so there is little to trace. If the result looks coarse, the answer is a bigger source, not a different setting.