ICO (file format)

ICO

Filename extension	.ico
Internet media type	image/vnd.microsoft.icon
Uniform Type Identifier	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
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 Windows 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 where the user is actually pointing the mouse.

History

Icons introduced in Windows 1.0 were 32×32 pixels in size and were monochrome.^[1] Support for 256 colors was introduced in Windows 3.0.^[2]

Win32 introduced support for storing icon images of up to 16.7 million colors (Truecolor) and up to 256x256 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, even prior to Windows XP, a single icon file could store images of any size from 1×1 pixel up to 256×256 pixels (including non-square sizes) with 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 adds support for 32-bit color (16.7 million colors plus alpha channel transparency) icon images, thus allowing semitransparent areas like shadows, anti-aliasing, and glass-like shapes 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 sized icons throughout the shell to be upsized.^[3] Microsoft only recommended icon sizes up to 48×48 pixels for Windows XP.^[6] Windows XP can read 256×256 pixel icon images and larger and it can resize them to use if no closer image size is available.^[3]

Windows Vista adds support for displaying 256×256 pixel icon images as a separate view in Windows Explorer, and supports (but does not require) the compressed PNG format. Microsoft recommends that all 256×256 icons in the .ICO files should be stored in PNG format to reduce the overall size of the file.^[7] 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]

MIME type

The official IANA-registered MIME type for .ICO files is image/vnd.microsoft.icon, registered in 2003. Erroneous labels “image/ico”, “image/icon”, “text/ico” and “application/ico”, along with the unofficial name “image/x-icon” were in use at the time of official registration and assignment of the MIME type.^[8]

When using the .ICO format for (X)HTML img elements, Internet Explorer versions 6 - 9b2 cannot display files served with the correct MIME type. A workaround is to use the non-standard “image/x-icon” MIME type.^[9]

Icon resource structure

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^[6] 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"). 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 and which are fully opaque. 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.

32-bit images (including 32-bit BITMAPINFOHEADER-format BMP images^{[Notes 1]}) 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.

Outline

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

Header

ICONDIR structure
Offset#	Size (in bytes)	Purpose
0	2	Reserved. Should 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

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

Image entry

ICONDIRENTRY structure
Offset#	Size (in bytes)	Purpose
0	1	Specifies image width in pixels. Can be any number between 0 to 255. Value 0 means image width is 256 pixels.
1	1	Specifies image height in pixels. Can be any number between 0 to 255. Value 0 means image height is 256 pixels.
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.[Notes 2]
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.
6	2	In .ICO format: Specifies bits per pixel. [Notes 4] In .CUR format: Specifies the vertical coordinates of the hotspot in number of pixels from the top.
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

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.

Recall that if an image is stored in BMP format, it must exclude the opening BITMAPFILEHEADER structure, whereas if it is stored in PNG format, it must be stored in its entirety.

PNG format

The ability to read PNG images from ICO and CUR 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.

Icon library

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 .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.^[10]

See also

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

Notes

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ Although Microsoft's technical documentation states that this value must be zero, the icon encoder built into .NET (System.Drawing.Icon.Save) sets this value to 255. It appears that the operating system ignores this value altogether.
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ 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.

References

1. ^ Fekete, Gyorgy (March 11, 2009). "Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009". Webdesigner Depot. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/operating-system-interface-design-between-1981-2009/. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
2. ^ "256-Color Support in Windows". Microsoft Support. Microsoft Corporation. July 07, 2005. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/64190. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Hornick, John (September 29, 1995). "Icons". Windows User Interface Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997538.aspx. Retrieved June 05, 2011. 
4. ^ "Windows 95 Architecture Components". Microsoft TechNet. Microsoft Corporation. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc751120.aspx. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
5. ^ "Shell Icon BPP". Windows 2000 Registry Reference (Microsoft TechNet). Microsoft Corporation. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938238.aspx. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Creating Windows XP Icons". Windows XP Technical Articles (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. July 2001. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997636.aspx. Retrieved June 05, 2011. 
7. ^ ^{a b c} "Icons". Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines (MSDN). Microsoft Corporation. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511280.aspx. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
8. ^ Butcher, Simon (September 3, 2003). "vnd.microsoft.icon" (Plain text). MIME Media Types. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/image/vnd.microsoft.icon. Retrieved October 24, 2009. "This media type is currently being labelled with a potpourri of names, including “text/ico”, “image/ico”, “image/icon”, “application/ico”, and so on. While “image/x-icon” is also used, this registration intends to finally clarify the media type for this file format." 
9. ^ Irish, Paul (December 15, 2010). "Reply to: IE has trouble viewing favicon.ico". GitHub. https://github.com/paulirish/html5-boilerplate/issues/219. Retrieved June 06, 2011. 
10. ^ Chen, Raymond (May 2008). "Windows Confidential - 16-Bit Icons Are So Passé". TechNet Magazine. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2008.05.windowsconfidential.aspx. Retrieved July 01, 2011. 

External links

• Enable High Color Icons in Windows 95 and later
• Icon development guidelines for Windows Vista icons
• Enhance Java GUIs with Windows Icons
• Microsoft Windows Cursor and Icon: Iconolog.org