Export PNG and Multi-Size ICO Files from a Folder of SVG Icons

The Editor has exported PNG and ICO for years, one icon at a time, with profiles and a dialog full of options. That is the right tool for an app icon you craft once. It is the wrong tool for the moment a designer hands you sixty SVGs and the build wants 16, 24 and 32 pixel PNGs plus an ICO for each. IconVectors 2.1+ adds Make PNG, ICO Bitmap Icons to the Icon Explorer's batch menu for exactly that moment.

This guide is for IconVectors 2.1+ (Windows now, macOS and Linux with 2.10). Like the other output batches, it never writes to the sources, so it is safe to run on the folder itself.

1. Select the icons in the Icon Explorer

F5 opens the Explorer; open the folder and select the icons, or Ctrl+A for all of them. A source that is open in the Editor with unsaved changes has to be saved or excluded first. Files hidden by the Filter box stay selected if you selected them before filtering, and the dialog tells you how many of those there are.

2. Choose PNG, ICO or both, and the sizes

Open Explorer -> Batch Processing -> Make PNG, ICO Bitmap Icons.... Enable PNG, ICO or both, then list the pixel sizes for each. PNG accepts sizes from 1 to 2048 and ICO from 1 to 256, up to 32 distinct sizes per format. Typical sets:

• Toolbar PNGs for a desktop app at 1x, 1.5x and 2x: 16, 24, 32 (and 20, 30, 40 for a 20 pixel base).
• A Windows application ICO: 16, 24, 32, 48, 256. Explorer and the taskbar pick the size they need from the one file.
• Favicons: an ICO with 16, 32, 48, plus PNGs at 180 and 192 for touch and PWA icons.

Every image gets a transparent background. Icons that use currentColor need a concrete color to render; the dialog's currentColor button sets it, black at first, and it stays independent of the application theme. Choose that color on purpose if your set is symbolic.

3. Set the output folder and names

Pick an absolute output folder. PNG files are named after the source with the size appended, folder_24x24.png, and the ICO is folder.ico. An optional suffix goes between the name and the size part, so a suffix of -light gives folder-light_24x24.png; the size part is always kept, because two PNGs of different sizes cannot share a name. Existing files are protected unless you enable Replace existing files, and two planned outputs with the same path have to be resolved before export.

4. Preview the list

Click Preview Changes. The Confirm Make Bitmap Icons dialog shows a rendered preview, the complete output list, the source counts and how many existing files would be replaced. Multiply in your head: 60 icons times 3 PNG sizes plus 60 ICOs is 240 files, and the list should say so. Back returns to the options if a size is missing.

Rendering is strict for safety. Embedded or linked images, scripts, foreignObject, external resources, custom DTD entities and external stylesheets are rejected per file with a diagnostic, not silently dropped. Local #fragment references, gradients and the standard SVG 1.1 DOCTYPE line are fine. If a file is refused, open it in the Editor, save a clean copy, and run again.

5. Export and spot-check the smallest size

Click Make Bitmap Icons. Missing output folders are created at this point, not before. A failure or a cancel rolls back the files this run created and reports any recovery file it had to leave. Nothing in the Editor changes: not the open document, not its export profiles.

Then look at the 16 pixel PNGs, because that is where icons fall apart. If a glyph turns to mush at 16, the fix is in the SVG, not the exporter: see Make Pixel-Perfect SVG Icons, adjust, and run the batch again with Replace existing files on.

Batch versus the Editor's export

The batch command is deliberately simpler than File -> Export. It has no export profiles, no recursive folder walk and no per-icon options; it takes a list of sizes and applies it to every selected file. For one icon with a bespoke 256 pixel rendering and hinted small sizes, keep using the Editor, as in Make a Complete Windows App Icon Set. For a folder of consistent glyphs, the batch is faster and easier to repeat, and an MCP client can run it too through explorer_batch_export_icons.

Download the IconVectors 2.10 trial for Windows and try it on a folder of toolbar icons; the SVGs stay exactly as they were.