| Format introduction | The ICO file format is an image file format for computer icons in Microsoft Windows. ICO files contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately. In Windows, all executables that display an icon to the user, on the desktop, in the Start Menu, or in Windows Explorer, must carry the icon in ICO format. | Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is a DSC-conforming PostScript document with additional restrictions which is intended to be usable as a graphics file format. In other words, EPS files are more-or-less self-contained, reasonably predictable PostScript documents that describe an image or drawing and can be placed within another PostScript document. |
| Technical details | An ICO file is made up of an ICONDIR ("Icon directory") structure, containing an ICONDIRENTRY structure for each image in the file, followed by a contiguous block of all image bitmap data (which may be in either Windows BMP format, excluding the BITMAPFILEHEADER structure, or in PNG format, stored in its entirety). | At minimum, an EPS file contains a BoundingBox DSC comment, describing the rectangle containing the image described by the EPS file. Applications can use this information to lay out the page, even if they are unable to directly render the PostScript inside. |
| File extension | .ico | .eps, .epsf, .epsi |
| MIME | image/x-icon, image/vnd.microsoft.icon | application/postscript, application/eps, application/x-eps, image/eps, image/x-eps |
| Developed by | Microsoft | Adobe Systems |
| Type of format | Graphics file format for computer icons | printing file format |
| Associated programs | Axialis IconWorkshop, IcoFX, IconBuilder, Microangelo Toolset, Greenfish Icon Editor Pro, GIMP, ImageMagick, IrfanView, ResEdit. | Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop |
| Wiki | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICO_(file_format) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encapsulated_PostScript |