A favicon is the small icon browsers show in tabs, bookmarks and history. Other platforms ask for their own sizes: iOS uses a 180 pixel apple-touch-icon for home screen shortcuts, and Android web apps use 192 and 512 pixel icons listed in the manifest. Making each size by hand in an editor is tedious.
The generator takes a square image, crops the centre if the source is not square, and draws each size with high-quality smoothing. The HTML link tags below the results cover the most common needs, so you can paste them into the head of your page.
Keep the design simple. At 16 pixels, fine lines and small text disappear, so a bold single shape or an initial reads best. Check the icon on both light and dark browser tabs before you publish it.