Stock Icons: An Overview

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Whether you develop a software application, write an Ajaxified web-app or design a Web 2.0-stylish site, you can’t get away from tiny, small, nice and extremely helpful icons, which make the text more readable and present the information more vividly. Some icon sets can be downloaded for free. But the most beautiful ones have their price – in the end, there is a lot of time, work and creativity involved. The so called Stock Icon Sets are usually the collections of specific icons, which stand for particular themes such as Shopping, Traveling, Medicine etc.

In this context “royalty-free” means that the acquired icons can be used for personal and commerical projects without any further costs. However, different companies have different license terms, so before using the icons they’re offering you better make sure the license agreement is OK. In order to attract the attention of web-developers, some icon designers present free samples of icon sets for free download. Let’s take a look what is actually offered. Links checked: May/19 2008.

Awicons

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Axialis

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D-Icons

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DevComponents

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Fast Icon

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glyFX

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Glyph Lab

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Guiicons

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Horizon Icon Collection

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Icon Base

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IconBuffet

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Iconbulk

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Icon Department

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IconExperience

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Iconfish

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iconflash

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Iconica Custom Icons

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Iconkits

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IconPacks

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IconPharm

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Iconshock

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Icon Vector

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Med Designs

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MicroICO

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orangeicons

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StockIcons

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TastyStock

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Uiicons

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VirtualLNK

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vistamax icons

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wackypixel

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Wati Works

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Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books.

  1. 1

    David

    October 21st, 2006 12:06 am

    not so easy to choose a name for a stock-icon-website… or have you ever seen such a number of variations of the word “icon” ;-)

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  2. 2

    bugy

    May 22nd, 2007 1:07 am

    I love iconkits’ and wackypixel’s simplicity. On the other hand, VirtualLNK has a great design, too, but way too expensive.
    The other one I bumped on today on your site has some great works for way less money: Itookia.com

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  3. 3

    Professional Icons by VirtualLNK

    August 15th, 2007 6:00 am

    Well I would have to say you get what you pay for. If you want the best quality then you will pay a little more for it.

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  4. 4

    Syed Balkhi

    August 21st, 2007 9:18 pm

    yeah even though they are expensive they are quality so i guess it is worth it.

    Do they use Adobe Illustrator to make these or what ??? Always wondered

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  5. 5

    Jeff

    August 31st, 2007 3:53 am

    virtual lnk ones are soooooooooo gorgeous, i used them on a website before using them elsewhere but i used photoshops saturation thingy to get htem all looking the same as my colour scheme

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  6. 6

    dave

    November 18th, 2007 5:54 am

    Another site with really nice vector stock icons
    http://www.deliciousicons.com

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  7. 7

    Marco

    September 22nd, 2008 2:11 am

    take a look at these stock icons too Icojoy. Big choice!

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  8. 8

    oblifirlvor

    March 31st, 2009 3:25 pm

    Мухахахаха, да вы у нас философ аффтар?

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  9. 9

    Free Vector Download

    April 19th, 2009 6:52 pm

    Nice icons list..

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  10. 10

    David

    June 12th, 2009 11:58 pm

    Best stock icons from Seanau!!!
    http://www.seanau.com

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  11. 11

    iconfish

    July 20th, 2009 6:43 pm

    Iconfish has just updated their icon sets

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  12. 12

    icondrawer.com

    October 21st, 2009 11:15 am

    Icondrawer Classic 512 icon set. 120 high quality icons with max size 512×512 px for latest versions of Mac OS X and Windows Vista systems. Icons are perfect for software toolbar, web site, GUI design or presentations.

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  13. 13

    iconhive

    December 18th, 2009 3:44 pm

    another stock with great icons and low prices
    http://www.iconhive.com/
    ;)

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  14. 14

    Lars

    April 18th, 2010 4:02 am

    Great collection of links!

    I found this site the other day:
    http://www.vectoricons.com/

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  15. 15

    Ranjit

    September 23rd, 2010 10:31 pm

    Check free icons -> http://www.iconfinder.com/

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  16. 16

    Jacob Kirkland

    July 5th, 2011 4:47 am

    Hello, I think your http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2006/10/20/stock-icons-an-overview blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog site in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, wonderful blog!

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  17. 17

    Erika Kirkland

    July 5th, 2011 6:58 am

    Hello, I think your http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2006/10/20/stock-icons-an-overview site might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog site in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, terrific blog! http://www.blinklist.com/users/KhloeG58

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