Convert SVG to ICO Scalable Vector Graphics ↔ Icon Free Online Secure
An SVG is not a picture — it is instructions for drawing one. Here those instructions are followed once, at the size you pick, and the result is saved as ICO. The drawing is rendered in a sandbox where nothing in the file can run, and nothing is uploaded.
Convert your file
Drop an SVG 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 SVG to ICO
An ICO file is an icon. It is the small picture that appears in the tab of a browser next to the name of a page, in a list of bookmarks, on a shortcut and in the corner of a program window on Windows. If you run a website, you want one that carries your mark. If you build a program, you need one for its executable. And if you have a logo, it is very likely a vector drawing in the SVG format. That is why people convert SVG to ICO: they have the drawing of the mark, and they need the icon file that browsers and operating systems still ask for by name.
An SVG is not a picture. It is a set of instructions for drawing one: draw a circle here, a curve there, fill this shape with that colour. Because it is instructions and not pixels, an SVG can be shown at any size without going blurry. An icon, in contrast, is a handful of small pictures bundled in one file, each made for a particular size. This page follows the instructions of your SVG once for each size and packs the results into one ICO file.
This page converts SVG to ICO in your browser. The drawing is rendered in a sandbox where nothing in the file can run, and nothing is uploaded. Below you will find how it works, which sizes the file contains, why small icons are a special problem and what to do about it.
How the conversion works
Six sizes in one file
The ICO that comes out contains six sizes in one file: 16, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256 pixels. Each is redrawn from the SVG rather than scaled down from one another, so the 16-pixel version is the instructions followed at 16 pixels, and not a shrunken copy of the large one. All of them keep their transparency. An operating system or a browser then picks whichever size suits the place where the icon is shown.
A sandbox where nothing can run
An SVG file can, in principle, contain scripts and references to other things. To keep that from ever being a risk, the drawing is rendered in a sandbox where nothing in the file can run. Only the shapes are painted. This is safe even for files you downloaded from somewhere you do not fully trust.
Why redrawing is better than shrinking
When you shrink a large picture to a tiny one, the details blend into each other and lines turn grey. Redrawing from the vector instructions at the target size gives the sharpest result that each size can have, since the lines are placed on the pixel grid directly.
What is kept
The six sizes
You receive 16, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256 pixels, which covers the places where icons are normally shown: browser tabs, the taskbar, desktop shortcuts, file lists and large previews.
The transparency
Transparency is kept in all six sizes. Areas of the SVG that have no fill remain see-through in the ICO, so the icon takes on the colour of whatever is behind it.
The shape of the mark
The drawing is kept as it is, with its colours and its shapes. If the SVG is not square, it is fitted into the square of each icon without being stretched.
What you should know before you convert SVG to ICO
An icon is a different drawing
An icon is not a small picture, it is a different drawing. Anything with fine lines or small text turns to mush at 16 pixels, however carefully it is rendered. A logo that looks excellent on a poster may be unreadable as a favicon. If the result looks muddy, the answer is a simpler SVG rather than a better conversion.
Design for the smallest size
The best icons are made with the smallest size in mind: one bold shape, a limited number of colours, no hairlines and no lettering beyond a single letter. If you can, prepare a simplified version of your logo as a separate SVG for this purpose, and then convert SVG to ICO with that.
Fonts and images from elsewhere do not resolve
Fonts and images that the SVG pulls from elsewhere do not resolve in the sandbox. Text set in a web font loaded from a server falls back to a system font, and a picture linked from outside the file will be missing. For the best result, outline the text and embed the pictures.
How to convert SVG to ICO here
Add your drawing
Drop the SVG onto the page or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Convert
Press the button. The six sizes are drawn one after another, which takes a moment. Leave the page open until it is done.
Download and test
Download the ICO and try it where it will be used. On a website, put it in the root folder under the name favicon.ico, or link to it in the head of the page, and look at the tab of a browser. On Windows, you can assign it to a shortcut and see how it looks at various sizes.
A closer look at SVG and ICO
Vector and bundle
An SVG is a single drawing that can be rendered at any size. An ICO is a container with several pictures inside, each of a fixed size. Software that shows an icon chooses the picture that is closest to the size it needs, which avoids blurry scaling. To convert SVG to ICO is to render the drawing at the sizes that the container is expected to hold.
Where icons are used
Browsers use the smallest sizes for tabs and the larger ones for bookmarks and the new tab page. Windows uses them for the taskbar, the Start menu and Explorer. Mobile devices have their own sets of picture sizes for home screens, which are normally PNG files, not ICO. If you are preparing an app icon for a phone, SVG to PNG at the sizes the platform requires is the better route.
Favicons today
Modern browsers accept PNG and even SVG as favicons, but the ICO remains the format that works everywhere, including old browsers, some feed readers and tools that look for favicon.ico automatically. Having one is the safe choice.
Common situations in detail
The favicon of a website
Convert SVG to ICO, save the file as favicon.ico in the root of your site and link to it. The tab of every browser will carry your mark, which makes the page recognisable among many open tabs.
The icon of a Windows program
Programs on Windows carry an icon in their executable and in their shortcuts. Developers need a multi-size ICO for this. The six sizes you receive cover the usual requirements.
Shortcuts and folders
On Windows you can give a shortcut or a folder your own icon. An ICO made from your logo makes your desktop or your project folders easier to recognise.
Small business sites and blogs
A favicon is a small detail that makes a site feel finished. If your logo is an SVG, this conversion produces the file that site builders ask you to upload.
Practical advice before you convert SVG to ICO
Simplify the drawing
Remove fine lines, drop the lettering or keep a single letter, and use bold shapes. View the SVG at 16 pixels in your drawing program before you convert, to see what the smallest icon will look like.
Make the drawing square
Icons are square. If your logo is wide, place it on a square canvas with some margin, so that it is not cut off and is not tiny within the square.
Check contrast
Browser tabs can be light or dark. A mark with strong contrast against both backgrounds is easier to see. A thin white outline on a dark mark, or a solid coloured shape, usually works.
Keep the SVG
The SVG is the master. If you decide to change the icon later, you will need it to convert SVG to ICO again.
Questions people ask before converting
Why does my icon look blurry at 16 pixels?
Because 16 pixels is very few. Fine lines and small text cannot be represented there. Simplify the drawing instead of looking for a better conversion.
Which sizes does the file contain?
16, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256 pixels, each redrawn from the SVG, all with transparency.
Will the transparency stay?
Yes. A see-through background in the SVG is see-through in all six sizes of the ICO.
Can I use the file as a favicon?
Yes. Name it favicon.ico, place it in the root of your site, or link to it from the head of your pages.
Is my file uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the file never leaves your device.
Can I make an SVG from an icon?
Yes, to a degree. ICO to SVG traces an icon into shapes, though the small size limits what can be recovered.
Choosing wisely when you convert SVG to ICO
ICO or PNG?
For a favicon that works everywhere, choose ICO. For app icons on phones and for pictures on web pages, PNG is the usual format. SVG to PNG gives you that.
Think about the whole set
If you are preparing a brand, you may need a logo as PNG, a favicon as ICO and a printable version as PDF. SVG to PDF keeps the drawing as a drawing for print.
Test on a real tab
Look at the icon in an actual browser tab, in both a light and a dark theme. That is the place where most people will meet it.
Getting a good result after the conversion
Clear the browser cache
Browsers keep favicons for a long time. If you replace an icon and still see the old one, clear the cache or open the site in a private window.
Check all sizes
If you have a tool that opens ICO files, look at each size. A mark that is fine at 256 pixels may be unreadable at 16, and that tells you whether to simplify.
Name it correctly
Browsers look for favicon.ico in the root of a site by default. Keep that name unless you link to the file explicitly.
Designing a mark that survives the smallest size
Start from the 16-pixel grid
The most reliable way to get a good result when you convert SVG to ICO is to design with the smallest size in mind. Imagine a grid of sixteen by sixteen squares and ask what you can place on it. A circle, a letter, a simple glyph: yes. A signature, a crest with a motto: no. The larger sizes will look fine whatever you draw, so the small one is the constraint to design for.
Use strong shapes and few colours
Two or three colours with clear contrast read better than a gradient of many. Solid shapes that fill most of the square are easier to recognise than thin outlines, since each pixel carries more of the mark.
Leave a little breathing room
A mark that touches the edge of the square can look cramped, and some systems add their own rounding or border. A margin of a pixel or two at the smallest size keeps the shape intact.
Look at it next to other icons
Open a few tabs of well-known sites and compare. You will see that the icons that work best are very simple. Borrow that discipline before you convert SVG to ICO, and your result will stand up in a crowd of tabs.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for drawings
Logos and brand marks 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 drawing 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 drawing is kept.
If something goes wrong
The icon comes out blank
The SVG may lack a size or a view box. Open it in a text editor and check that it has width and height or a view box, or fix it in your drawing program.
The icon is cut off
Some SVGs have elements that extend beyond their declared area. Adjust the view box in the original so that everything fits inside.
The page freezes
Everything runs on your device. Try again on a computer, or with a simpler drawing.
Related tools
The same family of tools covers the neighbouring jobs. For pictures at the sizes of your choice, use SVG to PNG or SVG to JPG. For a document that stays sharp at any zoom, SVG to PDF keeps the drawing as a drawing. To trace pictures back into shapes, ICO to SVG, PNG to SVG and JPG to SVG do the job.
A worked example
Say you have started a small blog, and your logo is an SVG: a green leaf with the name of the blog beneath it. You drop the SVG here and press the button. The ICO arrives, and in the browser tab the leaf is recognisable, but the name below it is unreadable. You open your drawing program, make a version with only the leaf, convert SVG to ICO again and upload the new file as favicon.ico. The tab now shows a clear green leaf, and the full logo stays on the page.
A short checklist
Before converting
Simplify the drawing. Make it square. Outline the text and embed the pictures.
While converting
Stay on the page until the file is ready.
After converting
Test the ICO in a browser tab and in a shortcut, in light and dark themes, and keep the SVG.
Common mistakes
Using the full logo
Lettering and fine detail vanish at 16 pixels. Use a simplified mark.
Expecting a better conversion to fix a busy drawing
The fault is in the size, not in the tool. Simplify the SVG.
Forgetting the cache
An old favicon can stick around in the browser. Clear the cache before deciding the new one has failed.
Your drawing stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your drawing is read by your own browser, painted there and handed back as an ICO. Nothing is uploaded, so no copy ends up on a server and nobody else can see it. For unpublished brand marks, that is the safe way to convert SVG to ICO.
Summary
To convert SVG to ICO here, drop the drawing and press the button. An SVG is not a picture but instructions for drawing one, and here those instructions are followed once for each size and the results are saved as ICO. The drawing is rendered in a sandbox where nothing in the file can run, and nothing is uploaded. The file contains six sizes: 16, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256 pixels, each redrawn from the SVG rather than scaled down from one another, and all with transparency. An icon is not a small picture, it is a different drawing: anything with fine lines or small text turns to mush at 16 pixels however carefully it is rendered. If the result looks muddy, the answer is a simpler SVG rather than a better conversion. Fonts and images pulled from elsewhere do not resolve.