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ICO to PNG converter

Convert ICO to PNG in your browser. No upload and no account: the file never leaves your device, so the only size limit is your device’s memory.

I want PNG
90%
Icon sizes
How to make the SVG

Tracing suits logos, icons and flat artwork and scales cleanly. Photos are better kept as pixels inside the SVG.

16
50%
Dither Scatters black dots to suggest gray, instead of a hard cut-off.
Advanced 5
Keep the animation For animated GIF, WebP and APNG sources. Turn off to save just the first frame.
Rotate
Mirror horizontally
Mirror vertically

For an exact width and height, use the Resize Image tool instead.

Bytes of your files sent anywhere: 0 B

Related conversions

Need it the other way round? Convert PNG to ICO

Other ways to convert ICO

Convert other formats to PNG

Read more about the ICO format and the PNG format, or see every image tool and all image conversions.

Should you convert ICO to PNG?

You need to edit or reuse a favicon or Windows icon in a tool that can’t open ICO files.

A safe conversion when PNG is what you need: both ICO and PNG keep every pixel, so the picture itself doesn’t change.

PNG is also the more widely supported of the two: it opens everywhere, while ICO is opens almost everywhere.

ICO is a small container that holds the same icon at several sizes; PNG is a lossless image format with full transparency. Use PNG for screenshots, interface graphics, logos and anything with transparency or lettering, and as the working copy of an image you are still editing.

ICO and PNG compared
Property ICO PNG
Compression Lossless Lossless
Transparency Yes Yes
Animation No No
Support Opens almost everywhere Opens everywhere
Best for Website favicons and Windows shortcuts Screenshots, logos, diagrams and anything with text or a transparent background
Introduced 1985 1996

How to convert ICO to PNG

  1. 01

    Add your ICO

    Drop your ICO image onto the box, or click to choose it. It is read from your disk and stays there.

  2. 02

    Check the settings

    The output is already set to PNG. Change the quality if you want to; the defaults suit most files.

  3. 03

    Save the PNG

    Press convert and save the PNG. Several files come back together as a ZIP.

What changes when ICO becomes PNG

Nothing is discarded

ICO and PNG both keep every pixel, so the picture survives the move intact. You can convert back and forth as often as you like without it degrading.

Transparency is kept

ICO and PNG both support transparency, so transparent backgrounds and soft edges come through unchanged.

Expect a larger file

PNG generally takes more room than ICO. If the file has to fit an upload limit, check the size once it’s converted. ICO: A full favicon with every size is usually under 100 KB. PNG: A 12-megapixel photo is often 12–20 MB; a screenshot is usually 100 KB–1 MB.

This page is put together from our notes on each format, choosing only what is true of ICO and PNG, so every pairing states the same facts the same way. How these pages are made.

Why it doesn’t upload

Changing a picture’s format is work your browser already knows how to do. Sending your photos to a server first only adds waiting and risk, so nothing is sent.

How to check for yourself

Worth knowing

  • About the ICO. Renaming a PNG to favicon.ico works in some browsers and silently fails in others. A real ICO holds several sizes so each place picks the right one.
  • About the PNG. Photographs saved as PNG balloon in size. A holiday photo that is 3 MB as JPG can be 15 MB as PNG, because lossless compression can do very little with the fine grain of a real photograph.
  • DDS, PSD, EXR, XWD and JPEG 2000 are read by the FFmpeg engine, a one-time 31 MB download.

Questions

Will converting ICO to PNG lose quality?

No. ICO and PNG are both lossless, so every pixel is kept.

Will the PNG be smaller than the ICO?

Expect a larger file. PNG generally takes more room than ICO. If the file has to fit an upload limit, check the size once it’s converted. ICO: A full favicon with every size is usually under 100 KB. PNG: A 12-megapixel photo is often 12–20 MB; a screenshot is usually 100 KB–1 MB.

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