Stock Icons: An Overview
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
Axialis
D-Icons
DevComponents
Fast Icon
glyFX
Glyph Lab
Guiicons
Horizon Icon Collection
Icon Base
IconBuffet
Iconbulk
Icon Department
IconExperience
Iconfish
iconflash
Iconica Custom Icons
Iconkits
IconPacks
IconPharm
Iconshock
Icon Vector
Med Designs
MicroICO
orangeicons
StockIcons
TastyStock
Uiicons
VirtualLNK
vistamax icons
wackypixel
Wati Works
David
October 21st, 2006 12:06 amnot 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” ;-)
bugy
May 22nd, 2007 1:07 amI 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
Professional Icons by VirtualLNK
August 15th, 2007 6:00 amWell 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.
Syed Balkhi
August 21st, 2007 9:18 pmyeah 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
Jeff
August 31st, 2007 3:53 amvirtual 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
dave
November 18th, 2007 5:54 amAnother site with really nice vector stock icons
http://www.deliciousicons.com
Marco
September 22nd, 2008 2:11 amtake a look at these stock icons too Icojoy. Big choice!
oblifirlvor
March 31st, 2009 3:25 pmМухахахаха, да вы у нас философ аффтар?
Free Vector Download
April 19th, 2009 6:52 pmNice icons list..
David
June 12th, 2009 11:58 pmBest stock icons from Seanau!!!
http://www.seanau.com
iconfish
July 20th, 2009 6:43 pmIconfish has just updated their icon sets
icondrawer.com
October 21st, 2009 11:15 amIcondrawer 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.
iconhive
December 18th, 2009 3:44 pmanother stock with great icons and low prices
http://www.iconhive.com/
;)
Lars
April 18th, 2010 4:02 amGreat collection of links!
I found this site the other day:
http://www.vectoricons.com/
Ranjit
September 23rd, 2010 10:31 pmCheck free icons -> http://www.iconfinder.com/
Jacob Kirkland
July 5th, 2011 4:47 amHello, 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!
Erika Kirkland
July 5th, 2011 6:58 amHello, 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