ICON to ICML Converter
FileFlip converts ICON to ICML entirely inside your browser, using ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an ICON file to ICML?#
- Drop your ICON file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to ICML and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc on your own machine.
- Save the ICML file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting ICON to ICML lose quality?#
No. The ICON picture is placed into the ICML document at its full resolution, so every pixel reaches it intact. What you give up is that it becomes a picture inside a document rather than text.
Is it safe to convert ICON files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts ICON files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What ICON to ICML actually does to the file#
Converting ICON to ICML runs on ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc, downloads 79.9 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, places the picture into the document at full resolution, and drops extra images.
| Engine | ImageMagick, MuPDF and Pandoc |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 3 steps: ICON → PNG → HTML → ICML |
| Downloaded to your browser | 79.9 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Pixels preserved |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Extra images | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- ImageMagick is asked for a single image, so only the first frame, page, or icon size is read
- the picture is placed in the document as a picture; no text is recognised out of it
- the file passes through HTML on the way, so anything HTML cannot express does not survive
What is an ICON file?#
ICON is ImageMagick's alternate name for the ICO format, the container Windows uses for small multi-resolution images shown as application, file and shortcut icons, so a file written as ICON is the same Windows icon container as one written as ICO.
Use ICON, or the equivalent ICO, for Windows application icons, favicons and shortcut images, where the file needs to offer several sizes in one container.
Convert to PNG when a single-resolution image is needed for general use, since most software outside Windows icon contexts doesn't expect an ICO/ICON container.
What is an ICML file?#
An ICML file is a single XML document holding one InDesign story's text and its paragraph and character style names, with no page geometry, meant to be opened in Adobe InCopy or imported into an existing InDesign layout rather than viewed on its own.
Use ICML to move styled text into an InDesign layout from a source that can generate structured XML, keeping paragraph and character styles intact instead of retyping the copy.
Convert content out of ICML once it leaves the InDesign workflow, since almost nothing outside Adobe's own applications reads it.
ICON to ICML questions people ask#
What is the difference between ICON and ICO?
There isn't one. ICON is ImageMagick's alternate name for its ICO coder, so a file written as ICON is the same Windows icon container as one written as ICO.
Why does ImageMagick have both ICO and ICON as format names?
ImageMagick registers ICON alongside ICO purely as a naming convenience, since some tools and scripts refer to Windows icon files by either name. Both write the same icon container.
What can an ICON/ICO file store?
An ICO/ICON file can store several versions of the same image at different sizes and color depths in one container, which is how Windows shows the right icon size for a desktop shortcut, a taskbar button, or a file listing.
What application opens an ICML file?
Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy are effectively the only applications that open ICML files, since the format exists specifically to move a story's styled text between the two. There is no independent viewer for it outside Adobe's publishing tools.