Make a Favicon in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X

Looking for ways to enhance your blog or website? Add a favicon, one of those tiny icons you see beside the url in the address bar and tabs in browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer. You can make your own in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X with a freeware plugin that will allow you to save your favicon in the correct format.

Before you start, you will need to download the plugin from Telegraphics at http://www.telegraphics.com.au. Click on Free software and then scroll down to ICO (Windows Icon) Format. Choose your operating system and save the zip file to your hard drive. Unzip the file and move the plugin to your Paint Shop Pro plugins folder. You will then be able to save the image you make in the .ico format necessary for a favicon.

Open Paint Shop Pro, and then open a new image that is 16 pixels by 16 pixels with a raster background and a Color depth of up to 256 colors. Trying to resize an already existing image down this small probably isn't a good idea due to the loss of quality, even using a screenshot.

Zoom in on your image to a size where you can easily see what you're doing, then draw something that conveys a connection to your site. It can be as simple as your initials, a styled line using your site's colors, or more detailed if you're good at pixelling. Do not try to make it too complex due to the very small size. Zoom out to the actual size of the image to check the appearance and make changes if necessary.

Once you're satisfied with your image, click on File, and then click on Save As. Click on the drop down next to Save as type, find ICO (Windows Icon) in the list, and click on it. You can use the common name of favicon, or choose another name. Your favicon is now ready to be used.

To add your favicon to your blog or website, you will first need to add some html code inside the < head > section of each page where you want the favicon to be displayed. Remember to remove the spaces at the beginning and the end to make it work correctly.

< link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" >

Save the changes you made to your pages, and then upload the modified files and your favicon to your server. Test your pages by opening them. If you don't see your favicon, try refreshing the page. Once it appears, you've successfully added your favicon.

It isn't hard or particularly time-consuming to add a little extra personalization to your blog or website with a favicon. These steps, and the plugin, are compatible with Paint Shop Pro 9 and X, as well as earlier versions. Enhance your site today!