VIFF to ICO Converter
Processing entirely on your device — large files may take a moment.
Khoros Visualization Image and Windows Icon exist for different jobs: VIFF is the image format of the Khoros software system, a research toolkit from the early days of scientific visualization. Still found in legacy academic image-processing datasets. Websites still expect a favicon.ico in the site root and Windows apps need ICO resources — converting from PNG takes seconds.
Because the whole conversion happens on your device, it is instant, unlimited and genuinely private — no accounts, no watermarks, no files on anyone's server. Multiple files are converted in one go.
How VIFF compares to ICO
| VIFF | ICO | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | None (uncompressed) | BMP members, PNG for large sizes |
| Transparency | Supported | Supported (1-bit or alpha) |
| Animation | Not supported | No (that is .cur/.ani) |
| Metadata | Attribute lists | None |
| Best for | Legacy scientific datasets | Favicons and Windows app icons |
How to convert VIFF to ICO
- 1
Select your files
Drag & drop your VIFF files onto the area above, or click to browse. You can add multiple files at once for batch conversion.
- 2
Convert instantly
Click "Convert to ICO". The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly — no upload, no queue, no waiting.
- 3
Download results
Download each converted ICO file individually, or grab everything at once as a ZIP archive.
About the VIFF format
VIFF is the image format of the Khoros software system, a visual-programming environment built for scientific image processing in the late 1980s and 1990s. Its files carry raster data plus optional attribute lists, and it survives today mostly in older academic datasets and image-processing course material.
Modern software rarely opens VIFF without help. Converting VIFF to PNG puts legacy research imagery into a format every viewer, notebook and browser understands — useful when reviving old datasets or coursework.
+Strengths
- ✓Holds multi-band scientific raster data
- ✓Attribute lists travel with the image
- ✓Simple, fully documented binary layout
!Limitations
- −Tied to discontinued Khoros tooling
- −No browser or OS support
About the ICO format
ICO is the Windows icon container, and one of the oldest formats still in daily use. A single ICO file bundles several renderings of the same icon — 16×16, 32×32, 48×48 up to 256×256 — so Windows can pick the right sharpness for shortcuts, Explorer views and taskbars. Each member is stored as classic BMP data or, for large sizes, PNG compression.
On the web, favicon.ico at the site root remains the one icon request every browser makes automatically, which keeps the format alive despite cleaner alternatives like PNG and SVG icons. Keep ICOs small: every visitor downloads one.
+Strengths
- ✓Multiple sizes bundled in one file
- ✓Every browser falls back to /favicon.ico automatically
- ✓Deep Windows integration for app icons
!Limitations
- −Practical size ceiling around 256×256
- −Windows-centric; little use outside icons
- −Quality is frozen at export time
Why convert VIFF to ICO?
Converting makes sense where the strengths of ICO meet what VIFF cannot give you. Multiple sizes bundled in one file Meanwhile Tied to discontinued Khoros tooling One pass through the converter above puts your file on the right side of that trade-off.
Frequently asked questions
Is this VIFF to ICO converter really free?
Yes — completely free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily conversion limits. The site is supported by advertising.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device — that is what makes it instant and private.
Does it work on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android?
Yes. Anything with a modern browser works: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. No software installation is required.
Will I lose quality converting VIFF to ICO?
No — ICO is a lossless format, so every pixel of the converted image matches your original VIFF file. You can also adjust the quality/size balance before converting when the target format supports compression.
What happens to EXIF data and other metadata?
Conversions here re-encode the image, and re-encoding generally does not carry the original metadata over. If the EXIF data of your VIFF files matters (camera model, GPS, timestamps), keep the original file as the master and treat the converted copy as the shareable version.
Will transparent areas survive the conversion to ICO?
Transparency is kept whenever ICO actually supports an alpha channel. If the target format has none (like JPG), transparent areas are flattened onto a white background — that is a property of the format, not of this tool.