How to make a text favicon
- Type one to three characters into the text field — usually the first letter of your site name or a two-letter monogram.
- Pick a font, weight, background color, and text color. Adjust the corner radius if you want a rounded square instead of a hard square.
- Watch the live preview render at multiple sizes. The tool draws each canvas at the actual pixel dimensions browsers will display.
- Press Download ZIP to get the full favicon set:
favicon.ico, all PNG sizes, Apple Touch, Android Chrome, Windows tile, manifest, and the HTML snippet.
When a text favicon makes sense
Text favicons are great for personal sites, blogs, internal dashboards, or anywhere a full logo would be unreadable at 16×16. Pick a strong colour pair (high contrast, avoid light-on-light), use a heavy weight (700+), and keep the text to one or two characters for maximum legibility in browser tabs.
Common pairings
- White Helvetica Bold on a deep brand colour (Stripe, Linear, GitHub style).
- Brand colour text on a white rounded square (clean, Apple-ish).
- Two-letter monogram in Georgia for editorial sites.
FAQ
Why does the text look soft at 16×16? Because the canvas anti-aliases sub-pixels. Try a heavier weight or shorter text — single letters always look sharper.
Will the font work on every device? The favicon is rendered to PNG/ICO before download, so the browser viewing your site does not need the font installed.
What if I want a custom font? Install the font on your machine first; the picker uses fonts available to your operating system.
Can I add an emoji instead? Use the Favicon from Emoji tool — it handles the colour glyph rendering.