Favicon

A favicon is the tiny icon displayed in a browser tab, bookmarks bar, or browser history list beside a website name. It is typically 16x16 or 32x32 pixels in size, though modern browsers support higher resolutions for retina displays. The favicon is almost never the full logo — at such a small size, most logos become illegible or indistinct. Instead, the favicon is typically derived from the most distinctive element of the logo: the brand mark, a single initial, or a simplified monogram. Designing a favicon requires accepting the severe constraints of the format and finding the minimum visual information needed to represent the brand recognisably. This exercise often reveals how effectively a logo has been designed — brands with clear, distinctive marks have an easy path to a strong favicon, while brands with complex, text-heavy logos must think carefully about what to abstract. The favicon is often the user's most frequent visual encounter with a brand during web browsing, making it a surprisingly important brand touchpoint.