What a Cursor Hotspot Is (and Why It Matters)
The hotspot is the single active point of a cursor — the tip of an arrow, the center of a crosshair, or the link finger. When you click, the click happens at the hotspot, not at the image center.
A cursor with the wrong hotspot feels broken: links open when you are not over them, and text cursors blink away from the caret. This tool lets you set the hotspot by clicking the canvas, and shows the exact pixel coordinate so you can verify it.
- Use the Top-left preset for arrow cursors.
- Use Center for crosshairs and busy spinners.
- Use Arrow tip when the artwork points diagonally.
Why the PNG Must Be Transparent
Cursors float over content, so the area around the artwork has to be transparent. A filled rectangular background would paint an ugly box over your page or desktop.
Export your artwork as PNG with an alpha channel. JPEG has no transparency and will not work. If your source has a solid background, remove it first, then upload the result here.
.cur for Windows, CSS cursor for the Web
These are two separate delivery paths, and this tool produces both from the same artwork.
A .cur file is what Windows loads in Mouse Properties to replace a system pointer. A CSS cursor is what a website applies with the cursor property plus a fallback keyword. They are not interchangeable: a .cur does not drop into a stylesheet, and a CSS cursor does not install into Windows.
Always keep the CSS fallback
A CSS cursor declaration without a fallback keyword is invalid and the browser ignores the whole rule. This tool always appends a fallback such as auto or pointer.
The Browser 128 px Cursor Limit
Browsers ignore CSS cursors larger than 128 × 128 px, and most recommend 32 × 32 px for crisp results. Keep your web cursor at or below 128 px.
Windows .cur files can carry several sizes inside one file, and the system picks the best fit for the current DPI. This tool embeds 32, 48 and 64 px by default, and you can add 16, 96 or 128 px per .cur in the export settings.
Static Cursors Only (No .ani Yet)
This tool creates static Windows cursors (.cur). Animated Windows cursors use the .ani format and are not included yet.
If you need a spinning wait cursor, use the static Busy pointer for now; a true multi-frame .ani exporter would be a separate tool.
Your Images Never Leave the Browser
All encoding — from PNG to .cur and to CSS — runs locally in your browser. The image data is not uploaded to a server.
The page itself loads the application code from the website, but the cursor artwork is processed on your device.
Choosing Between 32, 48 and 64 Pixels
A 32 px cursor is the web default and looks sharp on standard displays. On high-DPI screens or when your artwork has fine detail, a 48 or 64 px cursor stays easier to see.
If your custom cursor looks too small, export a larger size — that is the honest way to make a custom cursor bigger. Windows also lets you scale the system pointer in Settings → Accessibility → Mouse pointer, but that is a system setting, not something this tool changes.
Pointer States: From Windows Pointers to CSS Keywords
Windows lists about fifteen pointer states in Mouse Properties, and most of them map almost one-to-one to a CSS cursor keyword. Assigning a state to an image lets this tool name the .cur file and write the matching CSS rule at the same time.
For example, Link Select becomes a rule on links and buttons with the pointer fallback, and Text Select becomes a rule on inputs and textareas with the text fallback. The README in the ZIP spells out which .cur replaces which Windows pointer.
