256 × 256 Image Converter

Where 256 × 256 is actually required

• Windows .ico files, which carry 256 as their largest entry
• Steam and game-launcher library thumbnails
• Docker and package registry logos
• Large avatars on desktop applications

Which format to save it as

PNG for the standalone file. If you are building a Windows .ico, that container holds 16, 32, 48 and 256 together — the favicon generator produces the set.

The thing that usually goes wrong

A 256-pixel icon that looks crisp on its own can still be illegible at 16 pixels. Design at the smallest size you need and scale up, not the other way round.

Crop first, then resize

The order matters more than people expect. Cropping decides what is in the frame and costs nothing in quality — it removes whole pixels rather than degrading the ones you keep. Resizing then scales what is left to the target. Do it the other way round and you resize detail you were about to throw away, which wastes quality on pixels that do not survive.

This is especially true for a square target like many of the sizes here. A landscape photo squeezed into a square loses the sides whatever you do — the only question is whether you choose what goes, or a platform does. Use the image cropper first if the framing matters.

Enlarging does not add detail

Scaling down is safe: the extra pixels genuinely are not needed. Scaling up is interpolation — the new pixels are averaged from their neighbours, which produces a smooth guess rather than recovered detail. It looks acceptable up to about 150% and soft beyond that. When you need a bigger version, go back to the original camera file, the RAW export or the vector source, all of which rasterise cleanly at any size.

Other sizes

• 64 × 64 — small icons and game sprites
• 128 × 128 — application icons and chat emoji
• 1000 × 1000 — the amazon listing minimum for zoom
• 1080 × 1080 — the square social post
• 1200 × 630 — the link preview card
• 3000 × 3000 — maximum podcast and marketplace artwork

Need a size that is not listed? The image resizer takes any width and height, and the aspect ratio calculator works out the second dimension when you only know the first.