What happens when you convert ICO to PDF
- The ICO is placed on a PDF page the same size as the image, stored losslessly.
How to convert ICO to PDF online
- Press "Choose ICO files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. You can add files of any size your device can hold in memory.
- Adjust the settings if you need to. The output is lossless, so there is no quality setting to worry about.
- Press "Convert to PDF". Images convert in a second or two each.
- Save each PDF with its download button. Close the tab and every trace of the files is gone from memory.
Why convert ICO to PDF?
ICO files usually come from website favicons and Windows program icons. People convert them to PDF because a PDF looks the same on every device and is what forms, portals and printers ask for.
In short, ICO is good at what it was made for, and PDF is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. ICO shown by browsers as a favicon; opening one directly depends on the viewer, while PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer.
How to convert ICO to PDF on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
On Windows
Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your ICO files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each PDF is saved to your Downloads folder.
On a Mac
Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the ICO files from Finder onto the drop zone and the PDF files land in Downloads. Preview can do single images too: open the file, choose File, then Export, and pick PDF.
On iPhone and iPad
Open the page in Safari and tap Choose ICO files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted PDF appears in Files, in the Downloads folder.
On Android
Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose ICO files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The PDF is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.
Best settings for ICO to PDF
Each image becomes one page sized to the image at 96 pixels per inch, so a 1200 pixel wide image makes a page 12.5 inches wide. PDF viewers and printers scale pages to fit, so the page size rarely matters on screen.
The ICO is stored with lossless compression inside the PDF, so it is exactly as sharp as the original. Transparent areas are placed on a white page.
ICO vs PDF: the differences
| ICO | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Windows icon | Portable Document Format |
| Type | image | document |
| Created by | Microsoft | Adobe |
| First released | 1985 | 1993 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Vector or raster | Raster | Vector |
| Colour | up to 32-bit colour with alpha, at most 256 by 256 pixels | any colour, pages can mix text, vectors and images |
| In a browser | shown by browsers as a favicon; opening one directly depends on the viewer | opens in every browser's built-in viewer |
| Common uses | website favicons and Windows program icons | documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files |
| MIME type | image/x-icon | application/pdf |
About ICO and PDF files
What is an ICO file?
An ICO file is a small container that can hold several sizes of the same icon, and since Windows Vista each size may be stored as an embedded PNG. The largest size an ICO can hold is 256 by 256 pixels.
What is a PDF file?
A PDF fixes the layout of every page so it looks the same on any device. Converting a PDF to an image renders each page to pixels; converting an image to PDF wraps it as a page.
ICO to PDF not working? Common problems
- Colours look slightly different. Browsers convert images to the standard sRGB colour space when they decode them, so wide-gamut and CMYK images can shift a little.
- A phone photo comes out upright even though it looked sideways elsewhere. That is correct: the rotation stored in the photo is applied during conversion, so the PDF is always the right way up.
- Transparent areas turned white. PDF cannot store transparency; convert to PNG or WebP instead if you need it.
Convert ICO to PDF from the command line
If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts ICO to PDF in one line:
magick input.ico output.pdfTo convert every ICO in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format pdf *.ico. The converter on this page does the same job without installing anything.
ICO to PDF converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting ICO to PDF?
No. PDF is written losslessly, so the result matches the ICO exactly.
Why is the PDF a different size from the ICO?
It depends on the settings. At the defaults, the PDF usually comes out close in size to the ICO; lower the quality for a smaller file.
Are my ICO files uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs inside this browser tab using your browser's own image decoder, so your files stay on your device. You can disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and it still works.
Can I convert several ICO files to PDF at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many files as you like; they are converted one after another and each gets its own download button.
How do I open a PDF file?
PDF opens in every browser's built-in viewer. PDF is common for documents, forms, invoices and print-ready files.
Is this ICO to PDF converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many files you convert. The site is paid for by advertising, and because conversions run on your device there is no server cost per file.
Can I convert ICO to PDF on my phone?
Yes. The converter works in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. Converted files are saved to the Downloads folder.