The choice involving ICO vs. AVIF is difficult because ICO is an old, established, and widely supported file format in the digital world, while AVIF is a new and among the next-generation file formats, offering smaller and high-quality images.
Given the structural differences and similarities between the two file formats, it is imperative to highlight and discuss AVIF and ICO's file size, structure, image quality, compression, storage, web performance, animation, transparency, and browser support.
The article comprehensively compares AVIF vs. ICO technical features to help designers and developers understand and decide the image type ideal for each use case.
When is AVIF better than ICO?
AVIF images use the AV1 video codec to create smaller and highly web-responsive files, while ICO images use lossless compression, resulting in larger and less web-responsive image files. Thus, AVIF is ideal for making many specialized apps, such as graphics, texts, live photos, and gradients in movie posters.
The benefits of the AVIF format include superior compression efficiency, which results in smaller, high-quality, open-source, and royalty-free images, minimal website loading times, and increased user experience.
When is ICO better than AVIF?
ICO images can be scaled up or down without losing resolution and quality levels, while AVIF images are non-scalable and become grainy when scaled downward or downward. This makes ICO ideal for producing professional and high-pitched icons for desktop computer shortcuts, including apps, files, and folders.
The benefits of the ICO file extension include a more comprehensive program and browser compatibility and support, visually striking images at varying screen sizes and resolution levels, and adaptability because it comprises multiple files of different size limits and color depths.
ICO versus AVIF Table Comparison
| Element | AVIF | ICO |
| Transparency | Supports transparency | Supports transparency |
| File Size | Smaller files than ICO | Larger than AVIF. |
| Image Quality | Excellent, high-quality compared to ICO. | High-quality images, but slightly lower than AVIF. |
| Performance | Smaller and loads faster than ICO files. | Larger and loads slower than AVIF files. |
| Structure | Nested boxes including File Type Box (ftyp) container, metadata, and actual image data. | An Icon directory (ICONDIR) joins the image mask, XOR bitmap, a block, and the AND bitmap. |
| Animation | Supports animations. | Supports animations. |
| Storage | Necessitates less storage space than ICO. | Larger icons necessitate more storage space than AVIF. |
| Compression | Supports lossy and lossless compression | Supports PNGOUT and TinyPNG lossless compression. |
| Browser Support | Wider web browser support than ICO. | Limited browser support compared to AVIF. |
Differences and similarities between AVIF and ICO images
From an AVIF versus ICO analysis, the formats are similar in animations and transparency support. They differ in file size, image quality, performance, structure, browser support, storage needs, and compression techniques.
Transparency
AVIF and ICO file formats support transparency. AVIF encodes transparent regions inside an image using its alpha channel. The transparent backgrounds in AVIF images support and store transparent data alongside lossy and lossless data. Its alpha channel is ideal for graphics, icons, and elements demanding transparency.
In contrast, ICO supports transparency by allowing developers to add semi-transparent areas such as glass-like effects, anti-aliasing, and shadows to an image. Like AVIF, ICO supports icons with different transparency levels, color depths, and dimensions. The file format supports 8 bits of transparency.
File Size
AVIF files are significantly smaller than ICO files. AVIF uses advanced and efficient AV1 video codec compression, substantially minimizing its file sizes. AVIF can compress its images to attain a +50% compression ratio, impossible with ICO lossless compression.
AVIF's Baseline profile codes images with pixels not exceeding 4352x 8192 pixels in height and width. Autonomously encrypted tiles can exceed the AVIF file size limit. However, ICO files have multiple icons, each supporting and storing images of varying sizes and types, starting from 1x1 pixels to 256x256 pixels.
Thus, multiple ICO files can be huge compared to AVIF files. Its support for scalability also results in files with larger dimensions than AVIF.
Image Quality
AVIF images are of higher quality than ICO images. While ICO images can be scaled up and down without losing quality and resolution levels, they are less detailed than non-scalable AVIF images. AVIF’s AV1 video codec compression technique results in excellent image quality retention.
In addition, ICO supports a maximum bit depth of 24 bits of colors and 8 bits of transparency, while AVIF file format supports 8-bit, 10-bit, and 12-bit color depths per channel. AVIF supports higher bit depths and a broader range of colors than ICO.
Performance
ICO stores multiple files, which makes it larger than AVIF. Hence, AVIF images load faster online, incur the least bandwidth costs, consume fewer bytes, and improve online user experience than ICOs.
Structure
AVIF is a raster graphic, while ICO is vector-based. Each format has distinct features, making it difficult to compare. AVIF’s structure is classified as nested boxes storing metadata and data. It has a File Type Box (ftyp) responsible for classifying the file and the version used at the top-lying container or box.
In contrast, An ICO file starts with an Icon directory (ICONDIR), which contains the ICONDIRENTRY structure for every image in the ICO file. A contiguous block with image bitmap data closely follows each image file. The file format has the AND bitmap – the XOR bitmap and an image mask.
Animation
AVIF and ICO file extensions support animations or lively content. AVIF files have multilayer image storage sequences that integrally support animation and lively images. The image format is compatible with HIEF, which enables image sequences and elements.
The HEIF file's structure allows AVIF to compress images, manipulate, store, and display them animatedly. Similarly, an ICO file supports animation through icon features that enable enhanced customization of websites or computer apps that support multiple color depths and resolutions.
Storage
ICO images are larger than AVIF images. AVIF’s efficient lossy and lossless use of the AV1 video codec significantly compresses images, resulting in smaller files that require less storage space than ICO files.
Yet, files in both formats can be stored indefinitely with proper handling and suitable storage conditions using the best storage mediums, including Hard Drives, Floppy Drives, Content Delivery Networks, Cloud, and File Systems.
Compression
AVIF supports both high-quality lossless and low-fidelity lossy compression techniques. ICO images, on the other hand, often use PNG format, which can be optimized with tools like TinyPNG or PNGOUT for lossless compression. AVIF’s compression methods, whether lossless or lossy, utilize the AV1 codec algorithm within a HEIF (High-Efficiency Image File) container format.
Lossy AVIF compression reduces image quality and size by discarding some image data, whereas its lossless compression retains all image data, resulting in smaller file sizes without quality loss. Overall, AVIF’s compression is more efficient than for ICO files.
Browser Support
The AVIF format is preferred to ICO when creating icons because it contains multiple color depths and varying image sizes. Web browser support and platform compatibility for AVIF are still growing. However, most new and older devices and browsers cannot display AVIF images correctly.
AVIF has gained prominence and traction, making it partially supported by web browsers such as Firefox, Opera, Safari, Edge, and Chrome. Besides, Discord, Brave, and Internet Explorer need additional extensions to support AVIFs fully.
On the other hand, ICO enjoys support across different browsers, such as Opera, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Old browsers like Internet Explorer, which does not favor scaling icons, do not support it. Safari also supports only a preview of an ICO’s file format.
Converting AVIF to ICO or ICO to AVIF
Convert AVIF to ICO using the most effective tool, convertjack. ICO is flexible, containing multiple images with varying color depths and sizes. It allows users to store icons in one file, making it easier to design icons for display on various screen resolutions and devices.
On the other hand, convertjack is regarded as a resourceful ICO to AVIF converter. AVIF is preferred to ICO because it produces high-quality and smaller images, which increase web responsiveness and ensure a high user experience. AVIF files are widely supported and compatible with most programs and web browsers.