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Nowadays, icons really look good due to vector graphics. However, I somehow have the impression that something must have gone wrong, since the Google Chrome shortcut icons of Google Maps/Search and Craft look a bit odd, like the rendering did not work properly at the circled border (especially compared to the other icons).

Is there maybe an easy way to fix this?

enter image description here

The original shortcut icon looks quite good (and has no odd looking border):

enter image description here

I am using the light mode:

enter image description here

And Google Chrome shortcuts, created from the browser menu:

enter image description here

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    Are you using Native Resolution for the display? In Advanced System Settings, Advanced tab, click on Performance Options, uncheck Shadows under Windows, and uncheck Drop Shadows for icon labels. Try other settings as well, including Adjust for Best Performance. Also try Small Taskbar icons.
    – anon
    Commented Mar 10, 2020 at 12:32
  • Yes, I use the native display resolution - I tried your advcanced system settings: however they didn't change the icon look in the taskbar. Also, I want to keep the window shadow. Small taskbar icons didn't solve the problem either. I think this is just a Windows problem in general that they would need to fix.
    – Simon Ferndriger
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 12:19
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    If the above has not worked, try a new / updated Video Driver to see if video renders better that way.
    – anon
    Commented Mar 11, 2020 at 12:24
  • I'll try that. Wow, I miss the old days when you just could download a driver without any extras. Now it means downloading 576 MB for the driver including some features I don't want 🙈
    – Simon Ferndriger
    Commented Mar 12, 2020 at 15:01
  • Updating graphic drivers didn't change anything - I am now sure that this is just a problem of Windows
    – Simon Ferndriger
    Commented Mar 12, 2020 at 15:17

3 Answers 3

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This appears to be caused by a bug in Taskbar even if the icon file is prepared correctly.

The fix is easy. You just have to not include (when creating ICO file) or remove (using ICO editor, I recommend paint.net with a free IcoCur plugin (it works with paint.net 5, and there's a .NET 7 port, as this combination works 100%) icon size 256×256. You can leave all other typical icon sizes (192×192, 180×180, 128×128, 96×96, 64×64, 48×48, 40×40, 32×32, 24×24, 22×22, 16×16, 14×14, 10×10, 8×8).

Taskbar uses 32×32 icon size at 200% scaling and 16×16 at 100%. So make sure those sizes look right!

P.S. This has only been tested with Light color theme in Windows 10, version 21H2.

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Nowadays, icons really look good due to vector graphics.

Not on Windows! Windows does not support vector icons. They’re all bitmaps. If the bitmap doesn’t have the correct resolution (or in multi-resolution formats like .ico, if the desired resolution isn’t available), what you get will be an auto-scaled image.

What you are seeing here are artifacts that appear when using a non-optimal image scaling algorithm. High-contrast borders and alpha channel transparency is especially susceptible to these kinds of artifacts. Chrome creates these images from a rather large (512x512 with Google Maps) source image automatically. This results in less-than-optimal results.

Google Maps icon in IcoFX

The problem with this specific icon is that the transparent background is actually black. When scaling down the image, this black background seeps into the semi-transparent area at the circle’s border, creating the gray “shine”.

There is nothing you can do to fix this except perhaps creating your own icons manually.

In this particular case, you could use an image editor of your choice to shrink the circle (on the source image) by 1 or 2 pixels so the black background is further away. Then use an icon editor (I use the IcoFX 1.6.4, the last freeware version) to create a proper icon from the edited image.

You can see Chrome downloading the image in Developer Tools.

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  • Thanks! Ah, that explains why it looks good on darker background but not on bright ones. (How) can I easily change the "transparent" background color from black to white to solve this issue for this specific icon? Or if that is complicated, can I at least easily make a square white background?
    – Simon Ferndriger
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 13:22
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    Easily? Not possible. Creating icons is tedious work, unfortunately. I added some general instructions on how you could proceed with this icon to the answer.
    – Daniel B
    Commented May 27, 2020 at 13:47
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Inspired by Daniel B, I did an easy workaround which is not perfect, but good enough for now. I converted the .ico into a .png file using online converter, and then back to .ico. The end result is a rectangular icon with solid background (since the transparency got lost during conversion).

enter image description here

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