favicons

What is favicons?

The favicons npm package is a tool for generating favicons and other related icons for web applications. It simplifies the process of creating various sizes and types of icons required for different devices and platforms.

What are favicons's main functionalities?

Generate Favicons

This feature allows you to generate favicons from a source image. The configuration object can be customized to specify different settings, and the callback function handles the generated icons, files, and HTML elements.

const favicons = require('favicons');
const source = 'path/to/logo.png';
const configuration = { /* configuration options */ };
const callback = (error, response) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log(error.message);
    return;
  }
  console.log(response.images); // Array of { name: string, contents: <buffer> }
  console.log(response.files); // Array of { name: string, contents: <string> }
  console.log(response.html); // Array of strings (html elements)
};
favicons(source, configuration, callback);

Custom Configuration

This feature allows you to customize the configuration for generating favicons. You can specify various options such as the application name, description, background color, theme color, and more. The icons object allows you to enable or disable the creation of specific types of icons.

const favicons = require('favicons');
const source = 'path/to/logo.png';
const configuration = {
  path: '/assets/icons', // Path for overriding default icons path
  appName: 'My App', // Your application's name
  appShortName: 'App', // Your application's short name
  appDescription: 'This is my application', // Your application's description
  developerName: 'Developer', // Your (or your developer's) name
  developerURL: 'http://example.com', // Your (or your developer's) URL
  background: '#020307', // Background color for flattened icons
  theme_color: '#020307', // Theme color for browser chrome
  display: 'standalone', // Android display: 'browser' or 'standalone'
  orientation: 'portrait', // Android orientation: 'portrait' or 'landscape'
  start_url: '/?homescreen=1', // Start URL when launching the application from a device
  version: '1.0', // Your application's version string
  logging: false, // Print logs to console?
  pixel_art: false, // Keeps pixels 'sharp' when scaling up, for pixel art
  loadManifestWithCredentials: false, // Browsers only
  icons: {
    android: true, // Create Android homescreen icon. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }`
    appleIcon: true, // Create Apple touch icons. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }`
    appleStartup: true, // Create Apple startup images. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }`
    coast: { offset: 25 }, // Create Opera Coast icon with offset 25%. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }`
    favicons: true, // Create regular favicons. `boolean`
    firefox: true, // Create Firefox OS icons. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }`
    windows: true, // Create Windows 8 tile icons. `boolean` or `{ background }`
    yandex: true // Create Yandex browser icon. `boolean` or `{ background }`
  }
};
const callback = (error, response) => {
  if (error) {
    console.log(error.message);
    return;
  }
  console.log(response.images); // Array of { name: string, contents: <buffer> }
  console.log(response.files); // Array of { name: string, contents: <string> }
  console.log(response.html); // Array of strings (html elements)
};
favicons(source, configuration, callback);

Other packages similar to favicons

gulp-favicons

The gulp-favicons npm package is a Gulp plugin for generating favicons. It provides similar functionalities to favicons but is designed to be used within a Gulp build process. This makes it a good choice for developers who are already using Gulp for their build tasks and want to integrate favicon generation into their workflow.

favicons-webpack-plugin

The favicons-webpack-plugin npm package is a Webpack plugin for generating favicons. It offers similar functionalities to favicons but is designed to be used within a Webpack build process. This makes it a good choice for developers who are using Webpack for their build tasks and want to integrate favicon generation into their workflow.

README

Favicons

A Node.js module for generating favicons and their associated files. Originally built for Google's Web Starter Kit and Catalyst. Installed through NPM with:

npm install favicons

Usage

To use Favicons, require the appropriate module and call it, optionally specifying configuration and callback objects. A sample is shown on the right. The full list of options can be found on GitHub.

Favicons generates its icons locally using pure Javascript with no external dependencies.

Please note: Favicons is tested on Node 14 and above.

import { favicons } from "favicons";

const source = "test/logo.png"; // Source image(s). `string`, `buffer` or array of `string`

const configuration = {
  path: "/", // Path for overriding default icons path. `string`
  appName: null, // Your application's name. `string`
  appShortName: null, // Your application's short_name. `string`. Optional. If not set, appName will be used
  appDescription: null, // Your application's description. `string`
  developerName: null, // Your (or your developer's) name. `string`
  developerURL: null, // Your (or your developer's) URL. `string`
  cacheBustingQueryParam: null, // Query parameter added to all URLs that acts as a cache busting system. `string | null`
  dir: "auto", // Primary text direction for name, short_name, and description
  lang: "en-US", // Primary language for name and short_name
  background: "#fff", // Background colour for flattened icons. `string`
  theme_color: "#fff", // Theme color user for example in Android's task switcher. `string`
  appleStatusBarStyle: "black-translucent", // Style for Apple status bar: "black-translucent", "default", "black". `string`
  display: "standalone", // Preferred display mode: "fullscreen", "standalone", "minimal-ui" or "browser". `string`
  orientation: "any", // Default orientation: "any", "natural", "portrait" or "landscape". `string`
  scope: "/", // set of URLs that the browser considers within your app
  start_url: "/?homescreen=1", // Start URL when launching the application from a device. `string`
  preferRelatedApplications: false, // Should the browser prompt the user to install the native companion app. `boolean`
  relatedApplications: undefined, // Information about the native companion apps. This will only be used if `preferRelatedApplications` is `true`. `Array<{ id: string, url: string, platform: string }>`
  version: "1.0", // Your application's version string. `string`
  pixel_art: false, // Keeps pixels "sharp" when scaling up, for pixel art.  Only supported in offline mode.
  loadManifestWithCredentials: false, // Browsers don't send cookies when fetching a manifest, enable this to fix that. `boolean`
  manifestMaskable: false, // Maskable source image(s) for manifest.json. "true" to use default source. More information at https://web.dev/maskable-icon/. `boolean`, `string`, `buffer` or array of `string`
  icons: {
    // Platform Options:
    // - offset - offset in percentage
    // - background:
    //   * false - use default
    //   * true - force use default, e.g. set background for Android icons
    //   * color - set background for the specified icons
    //
    android: true, // Create Android homescreen icon. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
    appleIcon: true, // Create Apple touch icons. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
    appleStartup: true, // Create Apple startup images. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
    favicons: true, // Create regular favicons. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
    windows: true, // Create Windows 8 tile icons. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
    yandex: true, // Create Yandex browser icon. `boolean` or `{ offset, background }` or an array of sources
  },
  shortcuts: [
    // Your applications's Shortcuts (see: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/Manifest/shortcuts)
    // Array of shortcut objects:
    {
      name: "View your Inbox", // The name of the shortcut. `string`
      short_name: "inbox", // optionally, falls back to name. `string`
      description: "View your inbox messages", // optionally, not used in any implemention yet. `string`
      url: "/inbox", // The URL this shortcut should lead to. `string`
      icon: "test/inbox_shortcut.png", // source image(s) for that shortcut. `string`, `buffer` or array of `string`
    },
    // more shortcuts objects
  ],
};

try {
  const response = await favicons(source, configuration);

  console.log(response.images); // Array of { name: string, contents: <buffer> }
  console.log(response.files); // Array of { name: string, contents: <string> }
  console.log(response.html); // Array of strings (html elements)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(error.message); // Error description e.g. "An unknown error has occurred"
}

The default sources are as follow (groupped by platform):

{
  "android": [
    "android-chrome-144x144.png",
    "android-chrome-192x192.png",
    "android-chrome-256x256.png",
    "android-chrome-36x36.png",
    "android-chrome-384x384.png",
    "android-chrome-48x48.png",
    "android-chrome-512x512.png",
    "android-chrome-72x72.png",
    "android-chrome-96x96.png"
  ],
  "appleIcon": [
    "apple-touch-icon-1024x1024.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-114x114.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-120x120.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-144x144.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-152x152.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-167x167.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-180x180.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-57x57.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-60x60.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-72x72.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-76x76.png",
    "apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png",
    "apple-touch-icon.png"
  ],
  "appleStartup": [
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1125x2436.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1136x640.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1242x2208.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1242x2688.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1334x750.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1536x2048.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1620x2160.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1668x2224.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1668x2388.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1792x828.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2048x1536.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2048x2732.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2160x1620.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2208x1242.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2224x1668.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2388x1668.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2436x1125.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2688x1242.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2732x2048.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-640x1136.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-750x1334.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-828x1792.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1179x2556.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2556x1179.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1290x2796.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2796x1290.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1488x2266.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2266x1488.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-1640x2360.png",
    "apple-touch-startup-image-2360x1640.png"
  ],
  "favicons": [
    "favicon-16x16.png",
    "favicon-32x32.png",
    "favicon-48x48.png",
    "favicon.ico"
  ],
  "windows": [
    "mstile-144x144.png",
    "mstile-150x150.png",
    "mstile-310x150.png",
    "mstile-310x310.png",
    "mstile-70x70.png"
  ],
  "yandex": [
    "yandex-browser-50x50.png"
  ]
}

You can programmatically access Favicons configuration (icon filenames, HTML, manifest files, etc) with:

import { config } from "favicons";

Below you will find a simple working example to generate an output. Amend the src, dest, htmlBasename and configuration constants to suit your own needs.

import favicons from "favicons";
import fs from "fs/promises";
import path from "path";

const src = "./icon.svg"; // Icon source file path.
const dest = "./favicons"; // Output directory path.
const htmlBasename = "index.html"; // HTML file basename.

// Configuration (see above in the README file).
const configuration = {
  path: "/favicons",
  appName: "My Great App",
  appShortName: "Great App",
  appDescription: "A great application to test itgalaxy/favicons.",
  // Extra options...
};

// Below is the processing.
const response = await favicons(src, configuration);
await fs.mkdir(dest, { recursive: true });
await Promise.all(
  response.images.map(
    async (image) =>
      await fs.writeFile(path.join(dest, image.name), image.contents),
  ),
);
await Promise.all(
  response.files.map(
    async (file) =>
      await fs.writeFile(path.join(dest, file.name), file.contents),
  ),
);
await fs.writeFile(path.join(dest, htmlBasename), response.html.join("\n"));

Questions

Why are you missing certain favicons?

Because pure Javascript modules aren't available at the moment. For example, the El Capitan SVG favicon and the Windows tile silhouette ability both require SVG support. If modules for these task begin to appear, please jump on the appropriate issue and we'll get on it ASAP.

Thank you

• @haydenbleasel for this great project.
• @phbernard for all the work we did together to make Favicons and RFG awesome.
• @addyosmani, @gauntface, @paulirish, @mathiasbynens and @pbakaus for their input on multiple source images.
• @sindresorhus for his help on documentation and parameter improvements.
• Everyone who opens an issue or submits a pull request to this repo :)

Contribution

Feel free to push your code if you agree with publishing under the MIT license.

When testing, don't forget to update snapshots whenever you edit them: npm test -- -u.

License