Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates

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Visual design elements can considerably improve the readability of the page. Using them, you can make it easier for your users to scan the presented content and find the information they’re actually looking for. Icons can draw reader’s attention to the key aspects of the article and visualize the topic of the post. Buttons can be used to motivate users to some particular actions; and templates are supposed to help designers to create user-friendly interface elements right away. And whatever aim you’d like to achieve, free visual design elements are always useful – simply because they can give your text content a better visual appearance.

We’ve selected fresh high quality icons, buttons, vector graphics, templates and layouts. You might know some of them, but hopefully not all of them.

Not all listed freebies can be used for commercial projects, however you can use all of them in your private projects of for you personal purposes. Please read the disclaimers carefully before using icons – they’re changing from time to time.

You can also scan through the icons-related articles we’ve published before:

General Icon Sets

1. Notes Icons

Notes Icons

2. iMac Icons from FreeIconsWeb.com

Umicons

3. Pixel Press Icons (.dmg, Mac only)

Press Icons

4. Vista Icons (for private purposes only, 2000 icons, 256×256, .png).

Screenshot

5. Desktop Icons (for private purposes only, icon sets are available for PC and Mac).

Screenshot

Screenshot

6. Browsing Dock Icons

Icons Pack

7. Iconfactory Freeware Icon Sets

Floatsneak Icons

Quickpix Icons

8. WebSiteIcons.net

Adobe Acrobat Icons

Folders Icons

9. Toolbar Icons by Matt Ball

Screenshot

10. Crystal Clear

Crystal Clear

11. Office Icons

Office Icons

12. Shopping Cart Icon

Screenshot

13. Deziner Folio (32 Aqua-icons, transparent, 128×128, .png). Can be used for both commercial and private projects. You can also request .psd-files via e-mail.

Icon

Icon Sets for Design Artists

14. Vector Graphics templates, available for free download. Punk Collection, Urban Collection, Resources Collection I und Resources Collection II. Formats are .ai and .eps.

Icon

14. Bittbox offers vector graphics for professional design: e.g. 35 Free Abstract Illustrator Brushes.

Icon

15. 25 Free Vector Drips, Drops, and Splatters. Besides: Free Vector Grunge Set. Both are available in Adobe Illustrator format or as .eps-files.

Screenshot

Icon Sets for Bloggers

16. Icon-Set for Bloggers by Sonia Anepeta.

Screenshot

17. Web 2.0 Icons by Utombox.

Web 2.0 Icons

18. 77 Vectorbuttons by Go Squared. For Adobe Illustrator only. Besides: 165 Vector Icons and even more icons for private and commercial use.

Icon

Icon

Icon

19. Web 2.0 Date Icons For Your Blog. Layouts for Adobe Photoshop (.psd) ans as .png-files.

Icon

A mini-tutorial on how to use icons is also available. The result might look like this:

Icon

20. 9 Web 2.0 Badges. Available as .png or .psd.
Icon

If you are looking for even more elegant templates, you might be willing to take a look at Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) package. You’ll need Adobe Illustrator
or Inkscape (Open-Source) to edit the images. What you’ll get out of it, might look like this:
Screenshot

21. Bitbox offers free glossy design layouts, which can be used in Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape. Among them: Vector Badges, Glass Buttons and Bars, Web Page Elements, Header Designs and RSS-Icons.

Screenshot

Bittbox also gives away various Adobe Illustrator-templates for modern web design. Among them Buttons, Badges, RSS-Icons, Ecken and numerous Icons.

Screenshot

22. Microformats Icon

Microformats

23. Microformats Icons

Notes Icons

Not Enough? Even More Icons!

  • Giøn is an icon set designed by Silvestre Herrea (Argentina). The icon set (1.3 Mb) includes icons in 16*16px, 22*22px and 24*24px, in .png and as open source. The collection isn’t complete yet.
  • Mouserunner Icon Set (12 icons). Rounded icons in various sizes in .png and .ico-formats.
    Screenshot
  • Free Tiny Small Mini Icons Bullets: the icons are indeed as tiny as they can possibly be. For different purposes, and free for commercial use.
  • Tango Icon Gallery: hundreds of icons in different sizes.

References to Icon Collections

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

  1. 101

    Natasha

    January 22nd, 2008 9:32 am

    Awesome collection. Thank you!

    0
    • 102

      Narielis Giselle

      February 27th, 2010 2:32 pm

      This comment was deleted due to offtopic.

      0
  2. 103

    Nakış işleme

    February 13th, 2008 9:01 am

    Thanks

    0
  3. 104

    Ken Saunders

    February 18th, 2008 1:25 am

    Thanks for listing the icons from http://mouserunner.com/Spheres_Icons_Index.html. I’m flattered to be amongst such an awesome collection. That particular set is called ColorCons and there are actually 49 different icons in ColorCons and in 4 different colors.

    0
  4. 105

    Linga Reddy

    February 27th, 2008 11:43 pm

    Absolutly awsome very good collection

    0
  5. 106

    Linga Reddy

    February 27th, 2008 11:43 pm

    Absolutly awesome very good collection

    0
  6. 107

    hb

    March 7th, 2008 1:48 am

    Amazing sets… a really great collection!

    0
  7. 108

    John

    March 7th, 2008 5:52 am

    Thanks very much for this awesome compilation. :-)

    0
  8. 109

    Dhara M Ali

    April 8th, 2008 4:25 am

    amazing, this site is reduce our work…..!!!!!!!

    great work buddy,

    0
  9. 110

    rebelian

    April 8th, 2008 7:16 pm

    nice to see

    0
  10. 111

    Scott

    April 12th, 2008 3:37 pm

    Good stuff!

    0
  11. 112

    Mike

    April 15th, 2008 5:33 am

    I usually get all my icons from iconzworld.com but this thread has quite a bit of good ones too!

    0
  12. 113

    Marcello

    April 16th, 2008 11:32 pm

    Great work!

    0
  13. 114

    s4motny

    May 8th, 2008 12:10 pm

    very good links thanks a lot for them

    0
  14. 115

    shiv

    June 26th, 2008 1:59 am

    great resourcess. my search ends here. thanks

    0
  15. 116

    Rizwan

    August 21st, 2008 12:36 am

    Download web 2.0 style Media Player Vector Based Icons Free!. http://www.rizwanashraf.com/2008/08/07/web-20-style-media-player-icons-download-free/

    0
  16. 117

    YouLee

    August 27th, 2008 6:46 am

    Nice collection :) Thanks for sharing! Thought it would be useful to continue this collection with non-standard free icon set for bloggers in the form of bottles.

    0
  17. 118

    lighting

    September 26th, 2008 2:02 am

    There is also an excellection icon search engine at VeryIcon.com, it has the most powerful search function and the largest icon database that contents 20000+ icons.

    0
  18. 119

    Abe On Tech

    October 14th, 2008 3:52 am

    Great post. Thanks for sharing!

    I have been using a few of the buttons on my tech blog ;)

    0
  19. 120

    revathi

    October 14th, 2008 12:12 pm

    Thanks a lot

    0
  20. 121

    ThomasP

    October 21st, 2008 5:30 am

    Great list, thx. I have a few icons already in use. I’ll link this post on my blog, totally worth it!

    0
  21. 122

    tweakwindows

    November 5th, 2008 8:28 am

    I will use these icons to revamp my blog

    0
  22. 123

    robert

    November 14th, 2008 9:20 pm

    i think this article is quite keen.

    0
  23. 124

    carlos mora

    November 18th, 2008 10:10 am

    i love very much i thank you very very much

    0
  24. 125

    Sukanta Roy

    November 21st, 2008 10:38 pm

    very Nice icons i love it

    0
  25. 126

    Keturah

    December 20th, 2008 1:55 pm

    Oh boy dis is lovely

    0
  26. 127

    Rahul

    December 30th, 2008 5:23 am

    Amazing list … as usual! Thank you!

    0
  27. 128

    Jimba Design

    January 10th, 2009 7:09 am

    Nice job!….thank-x

    0
  28. 129

    Vazio

    February 5th, 2009 9:48 am

    UMI.CMS icons is not a free.

    This icons copyright Umisoft company

    0
  29. 130

    Sanbor

    February 21st, 2009 5:14 am

    Absolute awasome. Really nice and fine collection. Thanks a lot guys!

    0
  30. 131

    Mirco

    February 26th, 2009 1:24 am

    Rellay nice work! Simpel and Clear

    0
  31. 132

    icon search engine

    April 6th, 2009 6:00 pm

    The best icon search engine I ever used is IconSeeker.com, it contents 10000+ high quality free icons.

    0
  32. 133

    johnweblink

    April 9th, 2009 4:50 am

    Thanks for this collection…. especially icons

    0
  33. 134

    Toystore

    May 4th, 2009 4:40 pm

    Thank

    0
  34. 135

    Chao

    May 27th, 2009 3:12 pm

    Wow, thanks for all the resource! Also you might want to check out these:

    http://www.logobee.com/press53.htm
    http://www.logobee.com/press51.htm

    There are nice templates of shiny orbs and squares, you may find them useful.

    0
  35. 136

    Kent

    June 2nd, 2009 8:05 am

    Thank you so much

    0
  36. 137

    shoaib

    July 13th, 2009 7:50 am

    how many childrens of profit muhammad (p b u h)

    0
  37. 138

    FFF

    August 4th, 2009 8:10 am

    Buena coleccion de iconos, Gracias!!!!

    0
  38. 139

    Anand

    August 30th, 2009 10:24 pm

    hay…..it’s really good man
    thank you…….. thank you very much (especially icons)

    Anand

    0
  39. 140

    Martin

    October 6th, 2009 11:49 pm

    Muy buenos

    0
    • 141

      martin

      January 8th, 2011 5:59 am

      hay…… friend

      0
  40. 142

    Neo

    October 16th, 2009 2:45 pm

    Great Job.. Just what i was looking for my site. Take a look at Best of this web

    0
  41. 143

    farhan

    October 20th, 2009 1:49 am

    i like your site there is every icon avail now i don’t need to serach on google thank u very much

    0
  42. 144

    koye

    October 29th, 2009 5:30 am

    Thank…..I Like ……

    0
  43. 145

    Vinod

    November 1st, 2009 2:04 am

    Gr8 work……

    0
  44. 146

    Lala

    November 15th, 2009 3:55 am

    Excellent resources Thank you for taking the time to post all of these.
    It’s very useful for my blog

    0
  45. 147

    avatarlover

    February 14th, 2010 7:26 am

    wow.

    that is so coollllllllll…..

    i love it..

    thanks! :)

    0
  46. 148

    Aravind

    February 23rd, 2010 11:32 pm

    nice collections…..thanks…..

    0
  47. 149

    Ritwika Ghosh Bhattacharya

    June 1st, 2010 10:15 pm

    thanks for sharing these freebies

    0
  48. 150

    Artist

    September 8th, 2010 7:17 am

    Good collection for developments. Thanks
    Alos I use this Icons packs

    0
  49. 151

    A.J.

    September 20th, 2010 8:49 pm

    Too cool……..

    0
  50. 152

    Valikonen

    December 16th, 2010 5:49 am

    Very cool collection, thanks. If you want to see menus, web site trends, galleries etc, visit 1artmedia.com , you have online demo and free download. Bye!

    0
  51. 153

    parisa

    March 11th, 2011 9:25 am

    these are very artistic and very nice

    0
  52. 154

    Ranjit

    April 28th, 2011 5:40 am

    Very useful for me.. Thanks to SM…

    0

  1. 1

    Alexandre PEreira

    May 26th, 2007 10:14 pm

    Great icons!!! Thanks!!!

    +1
  2. 2

    Edu

    May 26th, 2007 6:42 pm

    Thank you very much !!!!!!!!!!!

    +1
  3. 3

    Daniel

    May 24th, 2007 11:35 pm

    Just one word: great!

    +1
  4. 4

    BillyG

    May 24th, 2007 10:07 pm

    That BittBox picture spoiled the whole page.

    The many categories cracked me up, icons are icons IMO, but nice listing as usual.

    +1
  5. 5

    Agarrados

    May 24th, 2007 10:03 pm

    Nice package. Keep up with the excelent work!

    +1
  6. 6

    Klaus Kjeldsen

    July 28th, 2007 2:27 am

    Recently I began making my own list of royalty free icon sets, but afterward I found this list. Great Icons!

    +1

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