Convert ICO to GIF — Simple and Portable
An ICO holds a square mark at several sizes. GIF is the older, simpler target: 256 colours, single-colour transparency, and support in effectively every system ever built, including the ones too old for PNG.
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Modern format with excellent compression. Limited browser support.
Apple's format. Excellent quality at small sizes.
Lossless format. Large files, ideal for print/archival.
256 colors max. Best for simple graphics.
Uncompressed bitmap. Very large files.
Vector trace. Best for logos and simple graphics. Not a pixel-perfect conversion.
Same format? You might want to compress instead.
SSIM-optimized — finds the lowest file size at your chosen visual fidelity.
Need to crop first? Use the Crop tool. Want to adjust or filter? Try the Editor.
Resize tool → Live preview, percentage scaling, and dimension presets.
Tip: Use PNG or WebP for transparent output. Standalone tool →
Lossless format — files can be large
GIF is limited to 256 colors
Best for logos, icons, and line art. Photos produce stylized results.
BMP files are uncompressed and can be very large. Consider TIFF (LZW) or PNG for lossless with smaller file sizes.
Leave empty for all pages. Multi-page PDFs produce a ZIP.
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ICO vs GIF Comparison
| Feature | ICO | GIF |
|---|---|---|
| Full Name | Icon File Format | Graphics Interchange Format |
| Lossy Compression | ❌ | ✅ |
| Lossless Compression | ✅ | ❌ |
| Transparency | ✅ | ✅ |
| Animation | ❌ | ✅ |
| Browser Support | All browsers (favicon) | All browsers, all devices |
| Color Depth | 16.7M (24/32-bit) | 256 (8-bit) |
| Typical Use | Website favicons, Windows application icons | Animations, simple graphics, memes |
| Year Introduced | 1985 | 1987 |
Why Convert ICO to GIF?
GIF's transparency is a single colour rather than an alpha channel, so anti-aliased icon edges turn hard. Choose it only when something downstream genuinely cannot take PNG.
How to Convert ICO to GIF
Upload your .ico file by dragging it in or clicking to browse.
The largest entry is extracted and quantised to a 256-colour palette with single-colour transparency.
Download the GIF. Check the edges — anti-aliasing does not survive this conversion cleanly.
Quality Note
The palette drops to 256 colours and transparency becomes all-or-nothing per pixel. A flat two-colour mark survives this untouched; anything with a soft edge or a gradient will show it.