30. May 2007

Creating a simple web 2.0 favicon – Tutorial

Inspired with the favicon design of web 2.0 sites like Tech Crunch, Lifehacker, Technorati, etc? Well follow this simple tutorial for creating web 2.0 fav icon using Photoshop. All you need is just Adobe Photoshop software installed.

Ok let’s get started!

Open a new project in Photoshop either by navigating to File > New or just press Ctrl + N.

Now make sure the width and height its 400px so that you can get a square shaped fav icon with the background color as white.

Now select the desired background color you want to use for your fav icon by clicking set foreground color as show in the figure. Choose a nice web 2.0 color from the Color library.

After selecting the BG color to be used, in the tool box of the Photoshop select Gradient tool or just press (G).

Now below the menu bar you will get a gradient color option, which looks similar to the screenshot posted below, click it and select foreground to transparent palette.

After selecting, drag your mouse from the outermost top of the project to its extreme end via +y to –y axis and leave down to get a color background. While dragging if you seem to have white color over the bottom then press ctrl + z to re-drag and this time drag it out of the bottom extreme to make the white color disappear,

After getting desired web2.0 background for the fav icon, select the horizontal text tool from the tool box and type the first name of your website or added two different layers of text if you need two initials in your fav icon.

After typing your desired initial, select a color for the text which matches the background perfectly or your website theme. (Basically both the background and foreground should match the website theme color). But if you add two initials in the fav icon make sure you give two different colors then.

Now the next part is the optional part of adding 3-d effect. If you satisfy with the current design you can skip this step otherwise add a bevel or emboss effect to the text by right clicking the text and selecting the blending option.

That’s it now the next process is exporting the created project as jpeg image by navigating to File > Save as > and selecting jpeg as format and click save.

The exported jpeg can be easily converted to .ico favicon by visiting this website.

Please forgive me if you have expected more about the design coz I have already mentioned the title as how to design a “SIMPLE” web 2.0 icon which made my tutorial concise after all this is my first tutorial. I have uploaded the .PSD files and made available for download which you can modify according to your wish.

Last but not least, I am expecting your comments and suggestions…

Download: Sample 1 | Sample 2 | Sample 3 (PSD Format).

[update]: Sample 2,3 are live at Technical Blog & BlogTalkz please don’t inherit the same design.

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19 Comments

1. Srinivasan Paul Joseph on 30. May 2007 at 12:09 pm

I would never suggest Photoshop for creating icons. It’s good that you can design it very well using Photoshop. But there are cool softwares like Icon Cool Studio which lets you do a loads of stuff directly into an Icon (so, you don’t need to save as JPEG and then convert it to an icon). It allows you to modify any icons also.

One greatest thing about Icon Editors is that they allows you to work on Transparent Icons which is NOT possible using Photoshop. I like transparent icons very much and I use Icon Cool Studio the max for creating them.

Just a suggestion my friend…

2. Sankar Anand on 30. May 2007 at 12:11 pm

well transparent icons are cool but when added as Fav-icons they wont be that visible in browser nicely. For other icons transparent thing is cool.. Thanks for your suggestion

3. Thilak on 31. May 2007 at 10:41 am

I agree with Srinivasan, but there is a freely available photoshop plugin which lets you save your creations as .ico

4. Shankar Ganesh on 31. May 2007 at 1:30 pm

This tutorial is cool. I’m gonna try it out. Thanks, Sankar.

5. Speed Linking #2 on 31. May 2007 at 3:50 pm

[...] Sankar gives a quick tutorial on making a cool web 2.0 favicon. [...]

6. Sankar Anand on 31. May 2007 at 4:33 pm

@Thilak & Srinivasan

Cheer Up guys, The real catch of this post is not about creating a .ico type of file but about the design contained in it.. I have posted about creating a custom design which anyway requires an alternative software as you guys suggested to export it as icon or add special effects… i have not posted about how to export in .ico but tutorial on designing the fav icon thats it..

7. TechZilo on 31. May 2007 at 5:57 pm

Thanks for the tip…..

I was looking for a way to create 3D effects to buttons, and got it now!

Btw, you might want to check the spelling of links in footer.

8. Spawners : See what others are writing on 01. June 2007 at 8:03 am

[...] shares how to create a web 2.0 favicon for your [...]

9. Shankar Ganesh | Tech Blog » Blog Archive » Weekend Links on 03. June 2007 at 12:40 pm

[...] How to create a Web 2.0-isque favicon – Photoshop Tutorial by Sankar Anand [...]

10. Blogging Tips for Newbie blogger at Tech | Freak , One stop for all your latest technology news and updates on 09. June 2007 at 9:38 pm

[...] Having a Faviicon Faviicon is the small icon which appears at your address bar before “http://”. This gives a unique identity to your website. If you have a little idea of photoshop you can design your own faviicon very easily with this tutorial by shankar. [...]