Формат иконок для папок windows 10 — Ваш верный помощник с OS Windows

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After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates from Windows Update, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10. Your PC will still work, but we recommend moving to Windows 11.

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Your desktop is the first thing you encounter when you sign in to Windows, and having it organized to your liking can significantly enhance your productivity and overall experience. This article describes how to customize the default desktop icons, add new shortcuts, adjust their size to suit your preferences, and show or hide all icons as needed.

Customize the default desktop icons

By default, Windows includes the Recycle Bin icon on the desktop. Essential icons that you can customize include:

This PC: Provides access to the computer’s drives and connected devices
Recycle Bin: Where deleted files are temporarily stored
Network: Allows you to view and connect to network resources
User’s Files: A shortcut to your personal folders

Additional shortcuts can be added to suit individual preferences and enhance productivity.

To customize the default desktop icons:

In the Settings app on your Windows device, select Personalization > Themes or use the following shortcut:

Themes
Select Desktop icon settings
Select the icons you would like to have on your desktop, then select OK

Note: The option Allow themes to change desktop icons allows or prevents themes from changing the icons used for common desktop shortcuts such as This PC, User’s Files, Network, and Recycle Bin. By default, themes are allowed to change these icons. However, if you have customized these icons to your preference, you might not want them to be altered whenever you change your theme.

Screenshot of the desktop icon settings in Windows.

Add shortcuts to your desktop

By placing frequently used applications, files, and folders directly on your desktop, you can access them quickly without navigating through multiple menus or folders. This can save time and reduce the effort needed to perform routine tasks.

To add shortcuts to your desktop, you can use one of these options:

Right-click on an empty area of the desktop
Select New > Shortcut
Follow the prompts to create a shortcut to a specific file, folder, or web page

Screenshot of right-click data-lazy-src=

New.» width=»756″>

Select Start and select All to display a list of all installed applications
Scroll through the list to find the app for which you want to create a shortcut
Drag and drop the app you want to create a shortcut for to the desktop

Navigate to the file or folder you want to add
Right-click on the file or folder and select Show more options > Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)

Open your web browser and navigate to the web page you want to add
Click and drag the padlock icon (next to the URL) to your desktop

Resize the desktop icons

Resizing desktop icons can be useful for improving accessibility and organization. For example, if you have a high-resolution monitor, the default icon size might appear too small, making it difficult to identify and click on the icons. By increasing the icon size, you can make them more visible and easier to interact with. Conversely, if you have many icons on your desktop and want to fit more on the screen without scrolling, reducing the icon size can help you manage your workspace more efficiently.

Right-click on an empty area of the desktop
Select View and then choose between Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons to adjust their size.

Tip: You can also use the scroll wheel on your mouse to resize desktop icons. On the desktop, press and hold Ctrl while you scroll the wheel to make icons larger or smaller.

Screenshot of the contextual menu on the desktop that appears when you right-click.

Show or hide all desktop icons

Hiding desktop icons can be useful in various scenarios. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation or sharing your screen during a meeting, hiding desktop icons can help create a cleaner and more professional appearance. It can also be beneficial if you want to focus on a specific task without the distraction of numerous icons cluttering your desktop.

Right-click on an empty area of the desktop
Select View, and then uncheck Show desktop icons. This will temporarily hide all icons, and you can easily show them again by rechecking the same option.

Tip: If you hide your desktop icons and need to access the desktop, you can do so through File Explorer. Simply open File Explorer , and select Desktop in the navigation pane.

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See all the guidelines and recommendations of the most suitable icon formats for each OS in one place.

It might seem overwhelming to consider all the requirements that mobile, desktop, and wearable device operation systems have for the icon formats and sizes. We gathered all popular OS guides in one article to ensure your interface meets the official guidelines. Pin this tab and use it as a reminder.

List of OS platforms

Mobile
- iOS
- iPadOS
- Android
- HarmonyOS
Desktop
- MacOS
- Windows
- Linux
Wearable gadgets
- Watch OS
- Wear OS
- HarmonyOS for watch
- visionOS
TV
- tvOS
- Android TV
- Tizen OS

Mobile

iOS
iPadOS
Android
HarmonyOS

iOS

See the full guidelines on the Apple official website.

Interface icons

Basically, there are no strict regulations about the size of the interface icon in iOS. You just need to adjust it to your app interface hierarchy and keep it consistent throughout the entire app. Here is a list of common sizes:

256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x

You can find all the basics about interface icons for iOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

SF symbols by Icons8
iOS icons by Icons8

@2x (pixels)	@3x (pixels) iPhone only	Usage
120×120	180×180	Home Screen
80×80	120×120	Spotlight
58×58	87×87	Settings
76×76	114×114	Notifications

App icon

Note: don’t put any additional border or overlay on your Settings icon. iOS automatically adds a 1-pixel stroke to all icons to look good on Settings’ white background.

iPadOS

iPadOS has similar requirements to iOS. See general Apple guidelines here.

Interface icons

Interface icon sizes used in iPadOS are also similar to iOS ones. To make sure, keep this list in mind:

256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
16px x 16px @1x, 32×32 px @2x

Before creating your own icons, check this 10K+ icons catalog from Icons8 made by Apple guidelines.

App icon

Like iOS, here is the general tip: don’t add any border or overlay to the Settings icon cause the system will automatically add a stroke 1-pixel thickness around it. Use a standardized one from the SF Symbols list, or design yours with these sizes in mind:

@2x (pixels)	Usage
167×167	Home Screen on iPad Pro
152×152	Home Screen on iPad, iPad mini
80×80	Spotlight on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini
58×58	Settings on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini
76×76	Notifications on iPad Pro, iPad, iPad mini

Android

Android is a mobile OS made by Google. The UI design is based on the Material Design System. Here, you can check the full guidelines for the latest version, Material 3. The following works with both smartphones and tablets operating on Android.

Interface icons

Google uses dp to measure the size of icons. 1dp is basically equal to 1px on the 160dpi screen. If, for example, your interface is viewed on a 320dpi screen, 1px will be equal here to 2dp, and so on.

Icon size	Purpose
24dp	Pixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dp	Additional small-scale visuals
40dp and 48dp	For display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

Material icons by Icons8
Material icons catalog on Google Fonts
Material icons Figma plugin from Google
Design principles for icons in Material design

App icons

Quick format check to follow in your Android app icon design:

Final artwork size: 512px x 512px
Format: 32-bit PNG
Color space: sRGB
Max file size: 1024KB

Google Play automatically applies a 20% squared corner radius to your app icon. Ensure that all important parts of your design fit 384px x 384px, and nothing will be cut. A shadow mask will also be applied automatically, so upload your artwork without it.

Other than that, Google doesn’t allow you to use additional text or graphic elements on your app icon that:

indicate your app ranking
promote deals or incentivize installs
indicate participation in a Play program
can mislead users.

For more information, check Google Play icon design specifications.

HarmonyOS

HarmonyOS is the operating system developed by Huawei. The main idea is based on full adaptivity. This means that using the same system capabilities, you can apply it to all kinds of devices, including mobile phones, tablets, PCs, smart TVs, wearables, smart speakers, head units, earphones, and AR/VR glasses. This makes a bit of a difference in the interface design. All elements are measured not in pixels but in vp (virtual pixels) to ensure that all interface elements have a consistent visual volume on devices with different densities. But keep in mind that you need specific icon maker software to produce elements of this type.

Interface icons

The final size of the system icon in HarmonyOS is 24vp with 1vp of space reserved around the drawing area. The drawing area depends on the shape of your graphics, which is:

Shape	Sizing
Square	20vp x 20vp
Circle	⌀ 22vp
Horizontal rectangle	22vp x 18vp
Vertical rectangle	18vp x 22vp

See the full guide for the interface icons on the official HarmonyOS portal.

App icon

HarmonyOS app icons adopt the neumorphism design approach, so using a semi-transparent blur effect and layered design techniques is preferable. The system automatically applies an adaptive mask to unify icons.

The final artwork should be uploaded in *.png. Here is the sizing:

Icon size	Usage scenario
512px x 512px	App main page preview in AppGallery
216px x 216px	App preview in the list in AppGallery
40vp x 40vp (120px x 120px, @3x)	Settings screen
16vp x 16vp (48px x 48px, @3x)	Notification

Check out the comprehensive app icon official guide here.

Desktop

MacOS
Windows
Linux

MacOS

Here is Apple’s guide for designing macOS apps.

Interface icons

Standard sizes for all system icons in the Apple ecosystem are the following:

256px x 256px @1x, 512×512 px @2x
128×128 px @1x, 256×256 px @2x
32×32 px @1x, 64×64 px @2x
16×16 px @1x, 32×32 px @2x

You can find all the basics about interface icons for macOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

SF symbols by Icons8
iOS icons by Icons8

App icon

Use the drop shadow in the icon-design template. The app-icon template includes the system-defined drop shadow that helps your app icon coordinate with other macOS icons.

Create a 1024px x 1024px version of your macOS app icon for the App Store. In addition, you also need to supply the icon in the following sizes.

@1x (pixels)	@2x (pixels)
512×512	1024×1024
256×256	512×512
128×128	256×256
32×32	64×64
16×16	32×32

This is what our MacOS app, Pichon, looks like.

Learn more about the design guide for macOS app icons here.

Document icons

If your macOS app can use a custom document type, you can create a document icon to represent it. It looks like a piece of paper with its top-right corner folded down. This helps people distinguish documents from apps and other content, even when icon sizes are small.

You can supply a combination of background fill, center image, and text to create a custom document icon.

Sizes for the background fill image:

512px x 512px @1x, 1024px x 1024px @2x
256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x

Center images (pictogram) sizes:

256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
16px x 16px @1x, 32px x 32px @2x

Define a margin that measures about 10% of the image canvas and keep most of the image within it. Although parts of the image can extend into this margin for optical alignment, it’s best when the image occupies about 80% of the image canvas. For example, most of the center image in a 256px x 256px canvas would fit in an area that measures 205px x 205px.

You can use minimalistic icons from the Icons8 pack designed by Apple’s guidelines for your center image. The complete guide for macOS custom document icon design is here.

Windows

The complete info about icons used in Windows OS apps is on the official Microsoft page.

Interface icons

Windows 11 introduces a new system icon font, Segoe Fluent Icons. All glyphs in Segoe Fluent Icons are drawn in a monoline style. That means they’re created through a single stroke of 1epx.

For easier usage, the size of the icon complements the font size around it. For example, if you use 16pt font, put a 16epx *.svg icon next to it.

You can check these colored Windows 11 icons that fit with Microsoft guidelines.

App icon

When Windows displays your app’s icon, it will first look for an exact size match. If there is no match, it will look for the next size above and scale down. Including more icon sizes with your app means Windows will more often have a pixel-perfect match and reduce the amount of scaling applied to scaled icons.

Windows 11 scale factor	100%	125%	150%	200%	250%	300%	400%
Context menu, title bar, system tray	16px	20px	24px	32px	40px	48px	64px
Taskbar, search results, Start all apps list	24px	30px	36px	48px	60px	72px	96px
Start pins	32px	40px	48px	64px	80px	96px	256px

Here is the complete list of icons and variations for Windows OS.

Linux

Being an open-source OS made by developers, Linux doesn’t have its own human interface. Several significant contributors provide Linux users with an interface. In this article, we will cover the most popular.

GNOME

The largest human interface contributor to Linux. You can find GNOME Human Interface Guidelines here.

Interface icons

GNOME UI icons use the “symbolic” style. This is simple and monochrome and is designed to work well in smaller sizes. As an example of such minimalistic icons, you can use this pack by Icons8, which is designed for small interfaces and is not overloaded by too many details.

This is a list of all preferable sizes of symbolics:

16px x 16px
32px x 32px
64px x 64px
128px x 128px

The GNOME team strongly recommends using these sizes only and *.svg format to prevent fuzzy rendering.

See the main UI icons guide on the GNOME website.

App icons

GNOME’s app icon’s standard size is 128px × 128px. But the icon itself shouldn’t fill this space entirely. Follow the guides in the app icon template, and ensure your icon has a similar visual weight to other app icons.

App icons are defined at 128px × 128px but are typically viewed at 64px × 64px and can be scaled down to 32px × 32px. Therefore, avoid adding too much detail, as this will be lost at small sizes.

The official guideline is here.

KDE

Unlike any other guidelines in this article, the KDE design system divides icons into colorful and monochromatic types. Each has a separate design guide.

Interface icons

The size of the icon depends on the purpose:

Icons type	Size in pixels	Purpose
Monochromatic	16×16	Menu items Tabs Buttons
	22×22	ToolButtons
Colorful	32×32	Category Preferences Places icons
	64×64	MIME-type Devices Status icons

Application icons

Application icons always use the colorful icon style. Their baseline size is 48 pixels.
Learn more about app icon design guidelines on the KDE website.

Elementary OS

Probably, the Linux contributor with the richest design environment.

Interface icons

Design each icon for the size it’s meant to be viewed at. So the Elementary team recommends you design icons in each size individually. Here is Dustin Curtis’ article, Pixel-fitting, that can help you with that.

The main system sizes for icons in Elementary OS are:

16px x 16px
24px x 24px
32px x 32px
48px x 48px
64px x 64px
128px x 128px

This sizing is also applied to the app icons. Note: only the colored icon can be used as the application pic. For more information, check the complete guide here.

Wearable gadgets

Watch OS
Wear OS
HarmonyOS for watch
visionOS

Watch OS

Apple doesn’t have any additional considerations for the watchOS since it uses iOS icon guidelines.

Interface icons

Here is a list of standard sizes:

256px x 256px @1x, 512px x 512px @2x
128px x 128px @1x, 256px x 256px @2x
32px x 32px @1x, 64px x 64px @2x
16px x 16px @1x, 32ps x 32px @2x

You can find all the basics about interface icons for iOS at the SF Symbols page.
Couldn’t find the icon you need in the main catalog from Apple? Here are custom-made:

SF symbols by Icons8
iOS icons by Icons8
Simple small icons made perfect for tiny interfaces.

App icons

A watchOS app icon is circular and displays no accompanying text. Sizes in pixels:

38mm	40mm	41mm	42mm	44mm	45mm	49mm	Usage
80×80	88×88	92×92	80×80	100×100	102×102	108×108	Home Screen
48×48	55×55	58×58	55×55	58×58	66×66	66×66	Notification Center
172×172	196×196	196×196	196×196	216×216	234×234	258×258	Short look

If you have a companion iPhone app, you must also supply your watchOS app icon in the following sizes.

@2x (pixels)	@3x (pixels)
58×58	87×87

You can find the official guidelines here.

Wear OS

Wear OS follows Material Design principles for iconography.

Interface icons

Interface icons for Wear OS are the same size as the main Android UI icons.

Icon size	Purpose
24dp	Pixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dp	Additional small-scale visuals
40d and 48dp	For display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

Material icons by Icons8
Material icons catalog on Google Fonts
Material icons Figma plugin from Google
Design principles for icons in Material design

App icons

Since applications for Wear OS are available at the main Google Play app store, the sizing and format for the app icons here are the same as for Android.

Final artwork size: 512px x 512px
Format: 32-bit PNG
Color space: sRGB
Max file size: 1024KB

For more, check Google Play icon design specifications.

HarmonyOS for watch

Since the most important feature of this OS is about full adaptivity of the interface, HarmonyOS for watch icons guidelines is no different from HarmonyOS for other devices.

Interface icons

The final size of the system icon in HarmonyOS is 24vp with 1vp of space reserved around the drawing area. The drawing area depends on the shape of your graphics, which is:

Shape	Sizing
Square	20vp x 20vp
Circle	⌀ 22vp
Horizontal rectangle	22vp x 18vp
Vertical rectangle	18vp x 22vp
Basic line width	1.5vp

See the full guide for the interface icons on the official HarmonyOS portal.

App icon

This icon type is consistent with that on the mobile phone home screen. Use round backdrops.

Backdrop (slice) size: 76vp (transparent blank area around the backdrop)
Icon size: 60vp.

The final artwork should be uploaded in *.png. Here is the sizing:

Icon size	Usage scenario
512px x 512px	Message notification on the locked screen
104px x 104px	Launcher icon
92px x 92px	Message notification details
56px x 56px	Message notification level-2 list
40px x 40px	Message notification level-1 list

Check out the comprehensive app icon official guide here.

visionOS

Apple Vision Pro is all about new, multi-dimensional experiences, so its apps should also fit this new concept of “Spatial user interface.” Check Apple’s introduction video to learn the basics about this concept.

Interface icons

For the UI icons in visionOS use the standard list of sizing requirements that is general for all OS’s in the Apple ecosystem:

@2x (pixels)	Usage
120×120	Home Screen
80×80	Spotlight
58×58	Settings
76×76	Notifications

More about it here.

App icons

A visionOS app icon is circular. It includes up to three layers:

background layer
one or two layers on top

Altogether, it produces the 3D effect. All layers should be provided separately as flat, squared images. Apple recommends designing mostly center-oriented layers for the best volume effect. More about this on Apple’s website.

Create an app icon that measures 1024px x 1024px for display in the Home View.

TV

tvOS
Android TV
Tizen OS

tvOS

Here are the main guidelines from Apple about designing for tvOS.

Interface icons

TvOS uses the list of sizing requirements that are standard for most OS’s in the Apple ecosystem:

@2x (pixels)	Usage
120×120	Home Screen
80×80	Spotlight
58×58	Settings
76×76	Notifications

More about it here.

App icons

App icons use the PNG format and support the following color spaces:

sRGB (color)
Gray Gamma 2.2 (grayscale)

In addition, app icons in tvOS support Display P3 (wide-gamut color).

The sizing is the following:

@1x (pixels)	@2x (pixels)	Usage
400×240	800×480	Home Screen

Android TV

Like for Android for smartphones, for Android TV, Google uses Material 3 as the main guidelines.

Interface icons

System icons are measured in dp. 1dp is basically equal to 1px on the 160dpi screen. If, for example, your interface is viewed on a 320dpi screen, 1px will be equal here to 2dp, and so on.

Icon size	Purpose
24dp	Pixel-perfect standard (Baseline) icon size
20dp	Additional small-scale visuals
40d and 48dp	For display or headline type and larger screen sizes

Here are some handy sources to check:

Material icons by Icons8
Material icons catalog on Google Fonts
Material icons Figma plugin from Google
Design principles for icons in Material design

App icons

There are two formats to consider: banners and launcher icons for Android TV.

Banner

The Banner logo is a 16×9 aspect ratio logo used in Android TV OS to show your app launcher. You can also provide xhdpi resources with the size of 320px x 180px when using API level 25 or lower.

Density	Min Size	Pixel Ratio
mdpi	160px x 90px	1
hdpi	240px x 135px	1.5
xhdpi	320px x 180px	2
xxhdpi	480px x 270px	3
xxxhdpi	640px x 360px	4

Launcher icon

The Launcher icon is a 1×1 aspect ratio resource used in multiple places, such as Settings and Media session integrations (Now playing card) on Android TV. The launcher icon can also be used in the Your Apps row on Google TV.

Density	Min Size	Pixel Ratio
mdpi	80×80 px	1
hdpi	120×120 px	1.5
xhdpi	160×160 px	2
xxhdpi	240×240 px	3
xxxhdpi	320×320 px	4

A full guide on creating app icons for Android TV is here.

Tizen OS

Most of the Samsung Smaty TVs use Tizen OS. This open-source operational system allows you to customize your app for it freely.

Interface icons

There are no strict rules about interface icon sizing in Tizen Os for smart TVs. Here is the list of the most common sizes used depending on the screen type:

Resolution	Icon asset size (pixels)
HD	118 x 118
WQHD	236×236
WVGA	81×81

Check full guides on the main developer’s website.

App icons

The main icon should have the following properties:

File format: PNG file with a transparent background
Size for a WVGA-screen device: 82px x 82px
Size for the Tizen Store: 512px x 512px

NOTE: Always surround each icon with 2 pixels of transparent free space.

An application icon for Samsung Smart TV for 2016 model groups and later has two images. To correctly display your application icon on 2016 Samsung Smart TVs and later, you must comply with the conditions:

Required File	Image Size (px)	Image Format
Logo Image	1920×1080	32-bit PNG (RGBA)
Background Image	1920×1080	24-bit PNG (RGB)

Summary

When designing the app, always check the requirements of each OS since they sometimes can be tricky.

For an easier way, you can always choose icons from the main OS’s catalog:

SF Symbols 5 by Apple
Material symbols on Google fonts
WinUI Gallery sources by Microsoft

You also can use these custom-made icons:

SF Symbols Regular
SF Symbols Regular filled
Material Filled
Material Outline
Material Two-tone
Windows 11 Color
Windows 11 Outline
Windows 11 Filled
Windows Metro
Simple Small
Tiny Color
Tiny Glyph
Color Glass

About the author
Natalie Novice. Content marketing manager with a designer’s eye and a storyteller’s heart. Transforms dense UX concepts into binge-worthy blog posts, secretly rewrites all team communications for clarity, and maintains a “wall of shame” documenting terrible designs spotted in the wild.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ICO

Filename extension	.ico
Internet media type	`image/x-icon`^[1] (but see below)
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)	com.microsoft.ico
Developed by	Microsoft
Type of format	Graphics file format for computer icons
Container for	BMP and PNG
Extended to	CUR

CUR

Filename extension	.cur
Internet media type	image/vnd.microsoft.icon
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)	com.microsoft.cur
Developed by	Microsoft
Type of format	Graphics file format for mouse cursors
Container for	BMP
Extended from	ICO

The ICO file format is an image file format for computer icons in Microsoft Windows. ICO files contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately. In Windows, all executables that display an icon to the user, on the desktop, in the Start Menu, or in file Explorer, must carry the icon in ICO format.

The CUR file format is an almost identical image file format for non-animated cursors in Microsoft Windows. The only differences between these two file formats are the bytes used to identify them and the addition of a hotspot in the CUR format header; the hotspot is defined as the pixel offset (in x,y coordinates) from the top-left corner of the cursor image to where the user is actually pointing the mouse.^{[citation needed]}

The ANI file format is used for animated Windows cursors.

Icons introduced in Windows 1.0 were 32×32 pixels in size and were monochrome.^[2] Support for 16 colors was introduced in Windows 3.0.^{[citation needed]}

Win32 introduced support for storing icon images of up to 16.7 million colors (TrueColor) and up to 256×256 pixels in dimensions.^[3] Windows 95 also introduced a new Device Independent Bitmap (DIB) engine.^[4] However, 256 color was the default icon color depth in Windows 95. It was possible to enable 65535 color (Highcolor) icons by either modifying the Shell Icon BPP value in the registry^[3]^[5] or by purchasing Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. The Shell Icon Size value allows using larger icons in place of 32×32 icons and the Shell Small Icon Size value allows using custom sizes in place of 16×16 icons.^[3] Thus, a single icon file could store images of any size from 1×1 pixel up to 256×256 pixels (including non-square sizes) with 2 (rarely used), 16, 256, 65535, or 16.7 million colors; but the shell could not display very large sized icons. The notification area of the Windows taskbar was limited to 16 color icons by default until Windows Me when it was updated to support high color icons.

Windows XP added support for 32-bit color (16.7 million colors plus 8-bit alpha channel transparency) icon images, thus allowing semitransparent areas like shadows, anti-aliasing, and glass-like effects to be drawn in an icon. Windows XP, by default, employs 48×48 pixel icons in Windows Explorer. Windows XP can be forced to use icons as large as 256×256 by modifying the Shell icon size value but this would cause all 32×32 icons throughout the shell to be upscaled.^[3] Microsoft only recommended icon sizes up to 48×48 pixels for Windows XP.^[6] Windows XP can downscale larger icons if no closer image size is available.^[3]

Windows Vista added full support for 256×256-pixel 32-bit color icons,^{[Notes 1]} as well as support for the compressed PNG format. Although compression is not required, Microsoft recommends that all 32-bit color 256×256 icons in ICO files should be stored in PNG format to reduce the overall size of the file. The Windows Vista Explorer supports smoothly scaling icons to non-standard sizes which are rendered on the fly even if an image is not present for that size in the icon file. The Windows Vista shell adds a slider for «zooming» the icon sizes in and out. With users using higher resolutions and high DPI modes, larger icon formats (such as 256×256) are recommended.^[7]^[8]

While the IANA-registered MIME type for ICO files is image/vnd.microsoft.icon,^[9] it was submitted to IANA in 2003 by a third party and is not recognised by Microsoft software, which uses image/x-icon or image/ico instead.^[10]^[11] Erroneous types image/ico, image/icon, text/ico and application/ico have also been seen in use.^[9]

Icon file structure

[edit]

An ICO or CUR file is made up of an ICONDIR («Icon directory») structure, containing an ICONDIRENTRY structure for each image in the file, followed by a contiguous block of all image bitmap data (which may be in either Windows BMP format, excluding the BITMAPFILEHEADER structure, or in PNG format, stored in its entirety).^[3]

Images with less than 32 bits of color depth follow a particular format: the image is encoded as a single image consisting of a color mask (the «XOR mask») together with an opacity mask (the «AND mask»).^[6]^[3] The XOR mask must precede the AND mask inside the bitmap data; if the image is stored in bottom-up order (which it most likely is), the XOR mask would be drawn below the AND mask. The AND mask is 1 bit per pixel, regardless of the color depth specified by the BMP header, and specifies which pixels are fully transparent(1) and which are fully opaque(0). The XOR mask conforms to the bit depth specified in the BMP header and specifies the numerical color or palette value for each pixel. Together, the AND mask and XOR mask make for a non-transparent image representing an image with 1-bit transparency; they also allow for inversion of the background. The height for the image in the ICONDIRENTRY structure of the ICO/CUR file takes on that of the intended image dimensions (after the masks are composited), whereas the height in the BMP header takes on that of the two mask images combined (before they are composited). Therefore, the masks must each be of the same dimensions, and the height specified in the BMP header must be exactly twice the height specified in the ICONDIRENTRY structure.^[12]

32-bit images (including 32-bit BITMAPINFOHEADER-format BMP images^{[Notes 2]}) are specifically a 24-bit image with the addition of an 8-bit channel for alpha compositing. Thus, in 32-bit images, the AND mask is not required, but recommended for consideration. Windows XP and higher will use a 32-bit image in less than True color mode by constructing an AND mask based on the alpha channel (if one does not reside with the image already) if no 24-bit version of the image is supplied in the ICO/CUR file. However, earlier versions of Windows interpret all pixels with 100% opacity unless an AND mask is supplied with the image. Supplying a custom AND mask will also allow for tweaking and hinting by the icon author. Even if the AND mask is not supplied, if the image is in Windows BMP format, the BMP header must still specify a doubled height.

It’s important to note that in the AND mask, as for the pixel array of the bitmap, padding bytes must be appended to the end of each row in order to bring up its length to a multiple of four bytes since it’s basically a (monochrome) bitmap.^[3] The AND mask of an 8×8 pixels bitmap would have 1 byte of data and 3 bytes of padding(8*8*1bpp = 64 bits/8 = 8 bytes of total rows, so each row is 1 byte and 3 bytes of padding are needed), a 16×16 bitmap’s AND mask would have 2 bytes of data and 2 bytes of padding, a 32×32 bitmap’s AND mask would have 4 bytes of data and no padding. Note that the quantity of padding bytes needed depend on the dimensions of the bitmap and not its color depth since the AND mask is 1 bit per pixel regardless.

All values in ICO/CUR files are represented in little-endian byte order.

ICONDIR structure

Offset#	Size	Purpose
0	2	Reserved. Must always be 0.
2	2	Specifies image type: 1 for icon (.ICO) image, 2 for cursor (.CUR) image. Other values are invalid.
4	2	Specifies number of images in the file.

Structure of image directory

[edit]

Image entry

Image #1	Entry for the first image
Image #2	Entry for the second image
…
Image #n	Entry for the last image

ICONDIRENTRY structure

Offset#	Size	Purpose
0	1	Specifies image width in pixels. Can be any number between 0 and 255. Value 0 means image width is 256 pixels.^{[Notes 1]}
1	1	Specifies image height in pixels. Can be any number between 0 and 255. Value 0 means image height is 256 pixels.^{[Notes 1]}
2	1	Specifies number of colors in the color palette. Should be 0 if the image does not use a color palette.
3	1	Reserved. Should be 0.
4	2	In ICO format: Specifies color planes. Should be 0 or 1.^{[Notes 3]} In CUR format: Specifies the horizontal coordinates of the hotspot in number of pixels from the left.^{[Notes 4]}
6	2	In ICO format: Specifies bits per pixel. ^{[Notes 5]} In CUR format: Specifies the vertical coordinates of the hotspot in number of pixels from the top.^{[Notes 4]}
8	4	Specifies the size of the image’s data in bytes
12	4	Specifies the offset of BMP or PNG data from the beginning of the ICO/CUR file

Referenced image data

[edit]

All image data referenced by entries in the image directory proceed directly after the image directory. It is customary practice to store them in the same order as defined in the image directory.

If an image is stored in BMP format, it must exclude the opening BITMAPFILEHEADER structure.

The height of the BMP image must be twice the height declared in the image directory. This is because the actual image data will contain two parts: the actual image immediately followed by a 1 bit mask of the same size as the image used to determine which pixels will be drawn.

The mask has to align to a DWORD (32 bits) and should be packed with 0s. A 0 pixel means ‘the corresponding pixel in the image will be drawn’ and a 1 means ‘ignore this pixel’. The pixel colour is either explicit for 24 and 32 bit versions (which do not have colour tables), indexed for the other depths (1,2,4,8,16) in table of a four byte (BGRA) colours that follows the BITMAPINFOHEADER.

For 1 bit, typically the two colours are #00000000 and #00FFFFFF and the A channel is ignored.

The pixel data for 1,2,4,8 and 16 bits is packed by byte and DWORD aligned.

24 bit images are stored as B G R triples but are not DWORD aligned.

32 bit images are stored as B G R A quads.

Originally, ICOs and CURs were intended to be used on monochrome displays and used the formula Output = (Existing AND Mask) XOR Image but on colour screens, the cursor is composed using A channel blending and the mask is used to determine which pixels are included or excluded.

If an image is stored in PNG format, then there is no BITMAPINFOHEADER and the contents of the PNG image in full are used instead.

The ability to read PNG images from ICO format images was introduced in Windows Vista.^[7] A PNG image can be stored in the image in the same way as done for a standard Windows BMP format image, with the exception that the PNG image must be stored in its entirety, with its file header in 32bpp ARGB format.^[7]

Note: CUR files cannot use PNG image data and must use BMP image data as per ICOs.^[7]

Icon and cursor resources

[edit]

Icons and cursors in Portable Executable (EXE or DLL) files are organised in resources of type RT_GROUP_ICON, RT_GROUP_CURSOR, RT_ICON and RT_CURSOR.^[13]

RT_GROUP_ICON and RT_GROUP_CURSOR resources contain NEWHEADER structure and one or more RESDIR structures which have almost the same format as corresponding ICONDIR and ICONDIRENTRY structures in ICO/CUR files. Main difference is in RESDIR that the last member of the structure contains two-byte resource identifier of the RT_ICON/RT_CURSOR instead of image offset in the file.

NEWHEADER/RESDIR structures also referred as GRPICONDIR/GRPICONDIRENTRY in many sources.^[14]

NEWHEADER structure

Offset#	Size	Purpose
0	2	Reserved. Must always be 0.
2	2	Specifies resource type: 1 for icon resource, 2 for cursor resource. Other values are invalid.
4	2	Specifies the number of RESDIR structures that immediately follow the NEWHEADER structure.

RESDIR structure

Offset#	Size	Purpose
0	For icon: 1	* Specifies image width in pixels. Can be any number between 0 and 255. Value 0 means image width is 256 pixels.^{[Notes 1]}
For cursor: 2
2	For icon: 1	* Specifies image height in pixels. Can be any number between 0 and 255. Value 0 means image width is 256 pixels.^{[Notes 1]}
For cursor: 2
2	1	* For icon resource: Specifies number of colors in the color palette. Should be 0 if the image does not use a color palette.
3	1	* For icon resource: Reserved. Should be 0.
4	2	Specifies color planes. Should be 0 or 1.^{[Notes 3]}
6	2	Specifies bits per pixel.^{[Notes 5]}
8	4	Specifies the size of the resource, in bytes.
12	2	Unique ordinal identifier of the RT_ICON or RT_CURSOR resource.

RT_ICON and RT_CURSOR resources have the same image data format as in ICO files and can store PNG images as well. Additionally, first four bytes of RT_CURSOR resource data contain the cursor hotspot data, as two WORD (16 bit) values (in contrast to CUR files, in which hotspot data is contained in the ICONDIRENTRY structure).^[15]

An icon library is a way to package Windows icons. It is typically a 16-bit New Executable or a 32-bit Portable Executable binary file having an .ICL extension with icon resources being the packaged icons. Windows Vista and later versions do not support viewing icons from 16-bit (New Executable) files.^[16]

Apple Icon Image format
BMP file format
Computer icon
Favicon
List of icon software

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Since Windows 95 size of an image in the ICONDIRENTRY structure might be set to zero, which means 256 pixels. Since Windows Vista, the size of an image is determined from the BITMAPINFOHEADER structure or PNG image data which technically allows storing icons with larger than 256 pixels, but such larger sizes are not recommended by Microsoft.
^ The classic BITMAPINFOHEADER bitmap format supports storing images with 32 bits per pixel. When saved as a standalone .BMP file, «the high byte in each [pixel] is not used». However, when this same data is stored inside a ICO or CUR file, Windows XP (the first Windows version to support ICO/CUR files with more than 1 bit of transparency) and above interpret this byte as an alpha value.
^ ^a ^b Setting the color planes to 0 or 1 is treated equivalently by the operating system, but if the color planes are set higher than 1, this value should be multiplied by the bits per pixel to determine the final color depth of the image. It is unknown if the various Windows operating system versions are resilient to different color plane values.
^ ^a ^b
«Windows XP icon and cursor support». Microsoft. November 18, 2005. Archived from the original on 2011-06-30. Retrieved 2023-07-03. The cursor is loaded properly at whatever color depth the cursor was authored. However, the system cannot distinguish between multiple candidates in the same cursor file or resource that differ only by their color depths. Icons, however, fully support multiple icon candidates with varying color depths.
^ ^a ^b The bits per pixel might be set to zero, but can be inferred from the other data; specifically, if the bitmap is not PNG compressed, then the bits per pixel can be calculated based on the length of the bitmap data relative to the size of the image. If the bitmap is PNG compressed, the bits per pixel are stored within the PNG data. It is unknown if the various Windows operating system versions contain logic to infer the bit depth for all possibilities if this value is set to zero.

^ «MIME Sniffing Standard». WHATWG. January 17, 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved 2014-04-18.
^ Fekete, Gyorgy (March 11, 2009). «Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009». Webdesigner Depot. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Hornick, John (September 29, 1995). «Icons». Windows User Interface Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 5, 2011.
^ «Windows 95 Architecture Components». Microsoft TechNet. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
^ «Shell Icon BPP». Windows 2000 Registry Reference (Microsoft TechNet). Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
^ ^a ^b «Creating Windows XP Icons». Windows XP Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. July 2001. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Chen, Raymond (October 22, 2010). «The evolution of the ICO file format, part 4: PNG images». The Old New Thing — Microsoft Developer Blogs. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
^ «Icons (Design basics) — Win32 apps». learn.microsoft.com. 9 February 2021. Icons have a maximum size of 256×256 pixels, making them suitable for high-dpi (dots per inch) displays. These high-resolution icons allow for high visual quality in list views with large icons… Only a 32-bit copy of the 256×256 pixel image should be included, and only the 256×256 pixel image should be compressed to keep the file size down.
^ ^a ^b Butcher, Simon (3 Sep 2003). «image/vnd.microsoft.icon». Retrieved 3 Jan 2014.
^ Lawrence, Eric (11 Feb 2011). «IE9 RC Minor Changes List». IEInternals. MSDN Blogs. Retrieved 20 Aug 2016. We use «image/x-icon» because that’s the MIME type we’ve always used. Someone at some point (AFAIK, not related to Microsoft) proposed registration of the MIME type as «vnd.microsoft.icon», but Windows doesn’t actually use that, it uses image/x-icon. See the second comment.
^ Windows Imaging Component — ICO Format Overview
^ Chen, Raymond (2010-10-19). «The evolution of the ICO file format, part 2: Now in color!». The Old New Thing. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
^ «Resource File Formats — Win32 apps». learn.microsoft.com. 2020-08-19. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
^ Chen, Raymond (July 20, 2012). «The format of icon resources». The Old New Thing — Microsoft Developer Blogs. Retrieved 2023-05-20.
^ «LOCALHEADER structure — Win32 apps». learn.microsoft.com. 2020-12-11. Retrieved 2023-05-22.
^ Chen, Raymond (May 2008). «Windows Confidential — 16-Bit Icons Are So Passé». TechNet Magazine. Retrieved November 27, 2022.

Icon design guidelines for Windows Vista icons
Icon design guidelines for Windows 10 app icons
Icons (1995 Microsoft Technical Article)
The evolution of the ICO file format (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The format of icon resources
The format of icon resources, revisited
A Look Inside Windows Icons, Part 1 — PC Mag Jan 26, 1993 Vol.12 No. 2
A Look Inside Windows Icons, Part 2 — PC Mag Feb 9, 1993 Vol.12 No. 3
Enable High Color Icons in Windows 95 and later
Enhance Java GUIs with Windows Icons

Источник

Для каждой операционной системы существуют свои стандартные размеры иконок. Кликните на названии операционной системы, чтобы прокрутить страницу вниз к интересующему разделу.

Windows	16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 256×256
Mac OS X	16×16, 32×32, 64×64, 128×128, 256×256, 512×512, 1024×1024
Linux	16×16, 24×24, 48×48, and 96×96
iOS 6	29×29, 50×50, 57×57, 58×58, 72×72, 100×100, 114×114, 144×144, 1024×1024
iOS 7	29×29, 40×40, 58×58, 60×60, 76×76, 80×80, 120×120, 152×152, 1024×1024
Android	36×36, 48×48, 72×72, 96×96, 512×512
Windows Phone	62×62, 99×99, 173×173, 200×200

Размеры иконок для Windows Vista, Windows 7 и Windows 8

Иконки приложений и иконки Панели управления

Иконки должны быть в формате .ico.
Полный набор должен включать следующие размеры:

16×16
32×32
48×48
256×256

Иконки для Windows 8 (Metro Design)

Иконка приложения 30х30, 50×50, 150×150
Иконки панели инструментов 26х26

Панель инструментов

Необходимые размеры: 16×16, 24×24, 32×32.
Помните, иконки должны быть плоскими даже в максимальном размере 32×32.

Диалоговые окна и помощники

Необходимые размеры: 32×32 и 48×48

Размеры иконок для Mac OS X

Иконка приложения

Если вы хотите быть уверены, что ваша иконка будет смотреться одинаково хорошо на экранах любого разрешения, необходимо создать ее в следующих размерах:

1024×1024
512×512
256×256
128×128
64×64
32×32
16×16

Панели инструментов

оздавайте иконки в стандартном и высоком разрешении (для мониторов с «Ретина» дисплеем). Необходимо подготовить два размера иконок:

32×32
32×32@2x (64×64)

Сохраняйте иконки в формате PNG.

Боковое меню

Создавайте иконки в трех размерах:

16×16
18×18
32×32 пиксела (если используете PDF)

Если вы сохраните иконки для бокового меню в формате PDF, что рекомендуется компаниемй Apple, OS X автоматически изменит размер вашей иконки для мониторов высокого разрешения. Если же вы сохраняете иконки в формате PNG, необходимо подготовить следующие размеры:

16×16
16×16@2x
18×18
18×18@2x
32×32
32×32@2x

Иконки для Linux

Размеры иконок согласно Руководству GNOME.

В Linux используются трехмерные иконки.

iOS 6

iPhone и iPod Touch

Описание	Стандартное разрешение	Высокое разрешение (Ретина дисплей)
Иконка приложения	57×57	114×114
Настройки	29×29	58×58
Поиск	29×29	58×58
Иконка приложения для интернет магазина Apple	512×512	1024×1024

iPad

Описание	Стандартное разрешение	Высокое разрешение (Ретина дисплей)
Иконка приложения	72×72	144×144
Настройки	29×29	58×58
Поиск	100×100	50×50
Иконка приложения для интернет магазина Apple	512×512	1024×1024

iOS 7

iPhone и iPod Touch

Описание	Размер иконки
Иконка приложения	120×120
Настройки	58×58
Поиск	80×80
Иконка приложения для интернет магазина Apple	1024×1024

iPad

Описание	Стандартное разрешение	Высокое разрешение (Ретина дисплей)
Иконка приложения	76×76	152×152
Настройки	29×29	58×58
Spotlight Icon	80×80	40×40
App icon for the App Stores	1024×1024	1024×1024

Android

Иконка приложения

Интернет магазин Google	512×512
Очень высокое разрешение (xhdpi)	96×96
Высококе разрешение (hdpi)	72×72
Среднее разрешение (mdpi)	48×48
Низкое разрешение (ldpi)	36×36

Панель действий

Самое высокое разрешение (xhdpi)	96×96
Очень высокое разрешение (xhdpi)	64×64
Высокое разрешение (hdpi)	48×48
Среднее разрешение (mdpi)	36×36

Windows Phone

Минуточку внимания: советуем брать плоские иконки в нашем новом проекте Icons8. Их 35000 и ежедневно появляются новые.

Иконка приложения

Необходимые икнки в пакете XAP	Размер иконки
Иконка приложения	62×62
Плитка под иконкой приложения	173×173

Иконки для интернет магазина Windows

Icon	Size
Иконка приложения для мобильного интернет магазина Windows (маленькая)	99×99
Иконка приложения для мобильного интернет магазина Windows (маленькая)	173×173
Иконка приложения для настольного интернет магазина Windows	200×200

Источник

A Quick & Easy guide to Microsoft Windows Icon Size

There is sometimes a little confusion over the different sizes required to create a Windows 7 Application Icon file. This is in some way brought about by the flexibility of the ICO format and its ability to ‘contain’ many image sizes and colour depths but is also not helped by Microsoft’s own quite poor documentation on Windows Icon Size, see here.

Standard Windows Icon Sizes shown in Axialis Icon Workshop

If you want to create an Windows 7 Compliant ‘Application Icon’, to be used as a short-cut, a file type, or embedded in an executable file, it must contain the minimum following icon sizes:

Standard Windows Icon Size for ICO format

256 x 256 pixels – 32bit (24bit colour, 8bit transparency)
48 x 48 pixels – 32bit (24bit colour, 8bit transparency)
32 x 32 pixels – 32bit (24bit colour, 8bit transparency)
16 x 16 pixels – 32bit (24bit colour, 8bit transparency)

To allow for backwards compatibility with Windows operating systems of software with a limited colour palette, you can also include the above icon sizes in 8bit (256 colours, 1bit colour transparency) and if you really wish to cover all eventualities in your icon design, 4bit (16 colours, 1bit transparency). This last colour depth is very rarely of use and as a rule I don’t tend to include it unless requested specifically by the client as it just uses up unnecessary space. In fact, more often than not, 32bit ICO files are fine for most projects but I recommend you test in the final application before making this decision.

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Additional Common Windows Icon Sizes

There are other additional Icon sizes supported by Windows Icons but they are rarely used. However, I will list them here for completion.

Extra Icon Sizes

128 x 128 pixels
96 x 96 pixels
180 x 180 pixels
72 x 72 pixels
64 x 64 pixels
24 x 24 pixels

The size most commonly used size on this list is ’24 x 24′ as it is a standard size for menus within Windows 7 and 3rd-party software. When creating ICO files specifically for menus, rather than app icons, 16 x 16, 24 x 24 & 32 x 32 are the three most common sizes used.

Testing your Windows 7 Icon

The easiest way to test the compatibility of your Windows 7 ICO files is in a standard ‘Window’.

Save your ICO files into a folder and then use the ‘View’ drop down to select the view or size of icon you wish to see.

Standard Windows Icon Sizes shown in Axialis Icon Workshop

Windows 7 automatically scales the icons as you move between the sizes you have created. You can test this by moving the slider up and down.

The actual sizes displayed at each of the headings are as follows:

Extra Large Icons – 256 x 256 pixels
Large Icons – 96 x 96 pixels (Automatically rendered by Windows from 256 version)
Medium Icons – 48 x 48 pixels
Small Icons – 16 x 16 pixels
List – 16 x 16 pixels
Details – 16 x 16 pixels
Tiles – 48 x 48 pixels
Content – 32 x 32 pixels

Windows Icon Size Oddities

ICO files can also be used as overlays within Windows 7, a prime example is the small curved arrow used as a short-cut symbol on ‘Shortcut’ icons. Windows overlays a transparent ICO file with a small offset graphic within the bottom left corner, on top of the standard Application ICO file. Annotations is another case applying to the bottom right hand side but I have never come across a request from a client to create icons of this description in the 15 or so years I have been an icon designer, so it is not something I would lose any sleep over.

I hope you found this overview useful.

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Windows icon designers

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Resize the desktop icons

​​​​​​​Show or hide all desktop icons

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List of OS platforms

Mobile

iOS

Interface icons

App icon

iPadOS

Interface icons

App icon

Android

Interface icons

App icons

HarmonyOS

Interface icons

App icon

Desktop

MacOS

Interface icons

App icon

Document icons

Windows

Interface icons

App icon

Linux

GNOME

KDE

Elementary OS

Wearable gadgets

Watch OS

Interface icons

App icons

Wear OS

Interface icons

App icons

HarmonyOS for watch

Interface icons

App icon

visionOS

Interface icons

App icons

TV

tvOS

Interface icons

App icons

Android TV

Interface icons

App icons

Tizen OS

Interface icons

App icons

Summary

Icon file structure

Structure of image directory

Referenced image data

Icon and cursor resources

Размеры иконок для Windows Vista, Windows 7 и Windows 8

Иконки приложений и иконки Панели управления

Иконки для Windows 8 (Metro Design)

Панель инструментов

Диалоговые окна и помощники

Размеры иконок для Mac OS X

Иконка приложения

Панели инструментов

Боковое меню

Иконки для Linux

Размеры иконок согласно Руководству GNOME.

iOS 6

iPhone и iPod Touch

iPad

iOS 7

iPhone и iPod Touch

iPad

Android

Иконка приложения

Панель действий

Show or hide all desktop icons