Creating a favicon for your web site - favicon.ico

A favicon is a special image with the extension .ico. Favicons are stored on web site servers with favicon.ico file name.
To create a favicon, I use two programs. The first is an image editing program in which I create the favicon image and the second is an icon editing program that I use to save the favicon I have created in the .ico image format. Programs such as Microangelo let you create an image and save it with the .ico extension, so you don't need two different programs... however, Microangelo comes at a price.
Using the image editing software, I draw the favicon and save it as a Bitmap (.bmp) or a .gif file. With the icon editing program, I open the file that I had created with the image editing program and save it as a .ico file. Obviously, we need a browser [List of browsers] to view our hard work. All popular browsers let you view favicons - Internet Explorer 5.5+, Opera 7, Netscape 7, Mozilla Firefox, Safari...

Which image editing software can you use to draw a favicon?

You can use your favorite image editing software such as PaintShop Pro, PhotoShop, Fireworks, PhotoPaint etc. to create a 16x16 pixel image. If you don't know how to work with these programs or don't have them, you can employ the standard paint programs that come with Windows or Macintosh computers or the free GIMP for Linux and Windows. The image that you create in the program should be 16x16 pixels in dimensions and contain only 16 colors. You should save this image as.gif or a .bmp.

How to convert the .bmp or .gif image to a favicon - favicon editor?

Renaming the image you have created using the image editing program to favicon.ico will simply not work. You need a special Icon Editing Program to change the format of that image. There are several programs available in the market. I have used all of the following and find them pretty good.

Microangelo - Favicon.ico editor
The most famous of all icon editors comes at slightly less than USD 80.00.
http://www.microangelo.us/

IconForge - Favicon.ico creator
For creating, extracting, and modifying icons, cursors, animated icons or cursors and other images. Shareware $37.95
http://www.tucows.com/preview/58302.html

IrfanView - Favicon.ico editor
...one of the most popular viewers worldwide! Free!
http://www.irfanview.com/

Favicon from Pics - creating favicon.ico directly from pictures
An online program. You upload an image and it creates a favicon. You then download the favicon and upload it on your server. This service is free. However, the author does appreciate a link back
http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/