Creating a favicon with Gimp

  1. open a favorite image that you'd like to turn into a favicon to appear in your browser's location bar
  2. click Image→Mode→RGB
  3. using the erase tool, erase any areas of the graphic that you'd like to be transparent
  4. using Image→Scale, resize the image to 32×32, the proper size for a favicon
  5. first save the file as a GIF
    • Gimp will popup a dialog that says “GIF can only handle grayscale or indexed images”
  6. select * Convert to Indexed using default settings
  7. click Export
  8. save a copy as .ico. It will give you a number of choices for bits/pixel:
    • 1 bpp, 1 bit alpha, 2-slot palette
    • 4 bpp, 1 bit alpha, 16-slot palette
    • 8 bpp, 1 bit alpha, 256-slot palette
    • 32 bpp, 8 bit alpha, no palette
    • Choose 4bpp. However, I have seen with some images that 8bpp needs to be used.
  9. upload to your website and enjoy!