Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates
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
2. iMac Icons from FreeIconsWeb.com
3. Pixel Press Icons (.dmg, Mac only)
4. Vista Icons (for private purposes only, 2000 icons, 256×256, .png).
5. Desktop Icons (for private purposes only, icon sets are available for PC and Mac).
7. Iconfactory Freeware Icon Sets
9. Toolbar Icons by Matt Ball
10. Crystal Clear
11. Office Icons
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 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.
14. Bittbox offers vector graphics for professional design: e.g. 35 Free Abstract Illustrator Brushes.
15. 25 Free Vector Drips, Drops, and Splatters. Besides: Free Vector Grunge Set. Both are available in Adobe Illustrator format or as .eps-files.
Icon Sets for Bloggers
16. Icon-Set for Bloggers by Sonia Anepeta.
17. Web 2.0 Icons by Utombox.
18. 77 Vectorbuttons by Go Squared. For Adobe Illustrator only. Besides: 165 Vector Icons and even more icons for private and commercial use.
19. Web 2.0 Date Icons For Your Blog. Layouts for Adobe Photoshop (.psd) ans as .png-files.
A mini-tutorial on how to use icons is also available. The result might look like this:
20. 9 Web 2.0 Badges. Available as .png or .psd.
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:
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.
Bittbox also gives away various Adobe Illustrator-templates for modern web design. Among them Buttons, Badges, RSS-Icons, Ecken and numerous 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.
- 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
- Iconfactory Freeware Icon Sets (literally hundreds of freeware icon sets)
- Wikipedia: Icons – a regularly updated list of references to various icon collections.
- FreeIconsWeb (dozens of free icon sets)
- Iconbuffet delivers free icon sets on a regular basis. Registration is required.
- IconFinder is an icon search engine. Currently offline.
- Free! Icons for your website or application (31 icon sets)
- 22 Free 16×16 Icon Sets
The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 147 Comments
- 1
- 2November 16th, 2009 3:29 am
yes It is
- 2
- 3May 24th, 2007 8:22 pm
Love it!
- 4May 24th, 2007 8:29 pm
This is always what we need when times get boring :P
- 5May 24th, 2007 8:45 pm
Absolute list !!
A great, great thank again for all the work you do for us !
- 6May 24th, 2007 8:51 pm
Awesome list, as usual!
- 7May 24th, 2007 8:54 pm
very usefull colloection especially for desktop and blog’s thx. –
- 8May 24th, 2007 9:03 pm
your feed is sexy musing in/ for my reader!!
again and again; good things thereby . Thanks ! - 9May 24th, 2007 9:06 pm
Nice! Thanks for the icons.
- 10May 24th, 2007 10:03 pm
Nice package. Keep up with the excelent work!
- 11May 24th, 2007 10:04 pm
Great round-up! Great mag!
- 12May 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.
- 13May 24th, 2007 10:24 pm
famfamfam.com is another great source
- 14May 24th, 2007 10:25 pm
WHOAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!! As always, YOU GUYS ROCKSSSSS
- 15May 24th, 2007 10:31 pm
What an amazing collection, guys! This huge list will sure be handy in the future.
Thanks, as usual!
- 16May 24th, 2007 10:36 pm
Thanks for these!
Can’t believe you left off one of the best ones… famfamfam!Probably the only one I’ve used, mainly cos they are that good :)
- 17May 24th, 2007 11:12 pm
Great, great, great! Thank you very much. This is what I needed right now! Cool.
- 18May 24th, 2007 11:18 pm
Thanks for including my set.
- 19May 24th, 2007 11:35 pm
Just one word: great!
- 20May 24th, 2007 11:46 pm
Just a little hint. You write: 13. Die 32 Aqua-Icons stammen aus dem Blog.. That’s german :)
But this is a great list. Thank you for this!
- 21May 25th, 2007 12:00 am
Your link to http://www.bartelme.at/material/shoppingcart/ results in a Forbidden message. You may want to update the link.
- 22May 25th, 2007 12:03 am
Excellent posting, as usual. You guys are great.
- 23May 25th, 2007 12:11 am
Love it. I implemented some of them on my site. Thanks!
- 24May 25th, 2007 12:25 am
sorry mike: link is http://www.bartelme.at/journal/archive/shopping_cart_icon
- 25May 25th, 2007 12:26 am
Awesome list, thank you for doing this.
- 26May 25th, 2007 12:31 am
Great post – very diggworthy!
- 27May 25th, 2007 12:33 am
Is it like I can use these icons and maybe you can make some kinda tutorial on howto make these?
- 28May 25th, 2007 12:46 am
Unless I’m blind, anyone have an archive of all these?
- 29May 25th, 2007 12:47 am
Whoa…Wow..cool list
- 30May 25th, 2007 12:55 am
Fantastic!
- 31May 25th, 2007 1:05 am
Awesome! Thanks for putting this together!!
- 32May 25th, 2007 1:12 am
I nearly wept with joy when i read this post! :)
Excellent work once again guys. Posts like this are the reason why i keep coming back! :)
- 33May 25th, 2007 1:18 am
“Ultimate Web 2.0 Layer Styles” by Dezinerfolio ( a part of the 13th Freebie ) is missed out on this list…
- 34May 25th, 2007 1:26 am
Great list! Thanks a lot.
- 35May 25th, 2007 1:34 am
And finally i get linked on here =P
Thanks, and awesome list.
- 36May 25th, 2007 1:36 am
i would like to use them
but i am not sure they are free - 37May 25th, 2007 1:40 am
I really like this kind of web2.0 icons. thz: smashing :)
- 38May 25th, 2007 2:11 am
Very nice post, worth every bit of the effort.
But you one icon set you forgot to include was Silk Icons, I would say its probably one of the most widely used and well known icon sets available. - 39May 25th, 2007 2:33 am
Beautiful! Both the list and the listed works!
I have to take my chance and let you know that Itookia.com
also has a totally free XP icon set, both for commercial and personal use.
Here’s the link to the zip file: Free Set Zip
and to screenshot: Free Set Screenshot
40 simple glossy icons. Enjoy! - 40May 25th, 2007 4:07 am
Same with me, Daniel Travolto
- 41May 25th, 2007 5:22 am
Excelent Work…
5 stars…
now we want a full article but only with brushes…!!!
Keep GoinG..
- 42May 25th, 2007 6:09 am
Wow This Is So Cool
This Post Should Titled Web Grfx & Icons Reference - 43May 25th, 2007 6:39 am
This is a great share, thanks very much! Very rare to see so much style on one page.
- 44May 25th, 2007 7:31 am
very sweet! Thank you!
-Sidnei
- 45May 25th, 2007 7:43 am
incredible work, thanks so much.. saves me many hours of surfing.
- 46May 25th, 2007 9:45 am
Tq Bro for this nice article.btw this is a nice Compilation of lOgo :)
- 47May 25th, 2007 12:38 pm
You guys at Smashing Magazine ROCK! Kudos to you!
- 48May 25th, 2007 12:51 pm
It’s cool
- 49May 24th, 2007 10:16 pm
Nice list! I offer free round RSS icons on my site free round RSS icons on my site
- 50May 25th, 2007 3:40 pm
Amazing list … as usual! Thank you!
- 51May 25th, 2007 5:04 pm
cool + sweet icons. love it.
- 52May 25th, 2007 1:08 am
Some stunning shiny little icons up there, great stuff.
- 53May 25th, 2007 7:00 pm
Oh my God.. it’s simply fantastic!!! Thank you very much I’ll save it everywhere! lol
- 54May 25th, 2007 8:39 pm
Supah’ !!!
- 55
- 56May 25th, 2007 9:58 pm
well, thanks again for compiling wonderful (and free) things from the tubes. it really saves me time. :D
- 57May 25th, 2007 10:52 pm
really Smashing magazine.
- 58May 26th, 2007 3:55 am
Awesome List! You guys must be constantly scanning for the best stuff out there. Thanks for all your hard work!
- 59May 26th, 2007 5:12 am
This is my first viewing of this page,and i think it’s awesome! I’ve added it to my favorite’s;Thank’s guy’s!Keep up the hard work.
sincrerly yours,
steve klein - 60May 26th, 2007 4:53 pm
Awesome……..keep smashing…..
- 61May 26th, 2007 5:40 pm
Nice :((
most of web designers search for this!
THAAANKS! - 62May 26th, 2007 6:42 pm
Thank you very much !!!!!!!!!!!
- 63May 26th, 2007 10:14 pm
Great icons!!! Thanks!!!
- 64May 27th, 2007 7:49 pm
great site, great free stuff, for sure one site to come and see again and again..!
- 65May 28th, 2007 12:13 pm
EXCELLENT LIST! Definitely should throw famfamfam.com some sweet love, dude can chop up some serious icony goodness.
Good looking out on this post though, very impressive round-up.
- 66May 28th, 2007 12:28 pm
woooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
- 67May 28th, 2007 5:12 pm
Brilliant information collection!
- 68May 28th, 2007 9:25 pm
very cool list !!
- 69May 29th, 2007 8:56 pm
Amazing reference, I’m impress.
thanks a lot
- 70May 30th, 2007 8:19 am
AWESOME! excelent article, thank you very much, I really like it
- 71May 30th, 2007 2:12 pm
This is a sensational collection ! Thanks !
- 72June 2nd, 2007 5:30 am
great work man
- 73June 2nd, 2007 2:33 pm
love it :)
- 74June 3rd, 2007 10:52 pm
Thank you very much for this collection!
- 75June 4th, 2007 7:46 am
Super! Thanks.
- 76June 5th, 2007 1:14 am
Ohh..Awesome..Smashing is the best. ;)
- 77June 5th, 2007 2:01 am
Thank you so much for this collection. This is great!!!
- 78June 6th, 2007 1:05 pm
Thanks for the wonderful works here!..Smashing ROCKS!!
- 79June 7th, 2007 11:42 am
Wow!
Cool, Thank you very much. - 80June 11th, 2007 9:22 pm
Terrific Collection :D
- 81June 12th, 2007 3:07 pm
great.
- 82June 14th, 2007 11:00 pm
Hey,
thank you very much, im a designer and always looking to save time and give my clients (or my own sites) the best look, thoose links are really helping me out.
thanks again,
Adrian - 83June 19th, 2007 2:03 am
Wow! Your freebie icons are absolutely beautiful. So awesome that I can’t believe they’re really free and I can really use them. Thank you!
- 84July 20th, 2007 3:50 am
The best icon colection of the world.
- 85July 25th, 2007 4:38 pm
Bravo !!!
The rest of the icon site specially the paid ones should shut themselves off now ! - 86July 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!
- 87August 10th, 2007 9:02 pm
Wow I really Like it! Very Great Work..
Thanks for the Team - 88August 17th, 2007 4:41 pm
everything is made simple. No more hardwork
- 89September 3rd, 2007 5:07 pm
This is Really amazing site tks smashy
- 90September 9th, 2007 9:35 am
Wow, what a great collection! Thanks for sharing. :)
- 91September 9th, 2007 10:16 am
Very great icons indeed.. Very helpful.. Good stuff you got here… Thanks
- 92October 3rd, 2007 4:44 am
Wow.
No word to say! Simply wonderful…… - 93October 15th, 2007 6:58 pm
You rock! You rock! You rock! Thanks.
- 94November 10th, 2007 7:21 pm
Hey guys, I wish I’ve seen this list much earlier, I’ve spend a great deal of time searching for free icons for one of my projects, and now after all my work is done I see this list…:( But never mind, you never know when you’re going to need some icons, so thanks for the list guys!!!
Oh, and I must say you guys left out a website that helped me the most when working on my project, here’s the link: http://www.dryicons.com This is a completely free icons website. Their icons are licensed with CC and they are completely free. As a matter of fact, I think all icon set there are free…
Thanks again for the list, and cheers! - 95November 29th, 2007 7:11 pm
You’ve done a GREAT job !!! It’s simply amazing ! Thank’s a lot !
- 96November 30th, 2007 5:08 am
really brilliant stuff. I think the one thing missing here is clear distincion- division the icons for two groups: free for commercial and personal use. Researching and downloading would be faster and easier. Fantastic research youve done indeed. Thank you.
- 97December 19th, 2007 1:26 pm
awesome
- 98January 9th, 2008 1:44 am
very nice!!! keep it up!
- 99January 9th, 2008 6:17 am
Thank you for this great list…awesome…
- 100January 12th, 2008 11:18 pm
I’m a little late to the party, but this is an incredible list of amazing resources–as always. You guys have quickly become one of my favorite blogs.
- 101January 17th, 2008 12:01 pm
THAK YOU i love you :-* :-*
- 102January 22nd, 2008 9:32 am
Awesome collection. Thank you!
- 103February 13th, 2008 9:01 am
Thanks
- 104February 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.
- 105February 27th, 2008 11:43 pm
Absolutly awsome very good collection
- 106February 27th, 2008 11:43 pm
Absolutly awesome very good collection
- 107March 7th, 2008 1:48 am
Amazing sets… a really great collection!
- 108March 7th, 2008 5:52 am
Thanks very much for this awesome compilation. :-)
- 109April 8th, 2008 4:25 am
amazing, this site is reduce our work…..!!!!!!!
great work buddy,
- 110April 8th, 2008 7:16 pm
nice to see
- 111April 12th, 2008 3:37 pm
Good stuff!
- 112April 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!
- 113April 16th, 2008 11:32 pm
Great work!
- 114May 8th, 2008 12:10 pm
very good links thanks a lot for them
- 115June 26th, 2008 1:59 am
great resourcess. my search ends here. thanks
- 116August 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/
- 117August 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.
- 118September 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.
- 119October 14th, 2008 3:52 am
Great post. Thanks for sharing!
I have been using a few of the buttons on my tech blog ;)
- 120October 14th, 2008 12:12 pm
Thanks a lot
- 121October 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!
- 122November 5th, 2008 8:28 am
I will use these icons to revamp my blog
- 123November 14th, 2008 9:20 pm
i think this article is quite keen.
- 124November 18th, 2008 10:10 am
i love very much i thank you very very much
- 125November 21st, 2008 10:38 pm
very Nice icons i love it
- 126December 20th, 2008 1:55 pm
Oh boy dis is lovely
- 127December 30th, 2008 5:23 am
Amazing list … as usual! Thank you!
- 128January 10th, 2009 7:09 am
Nice job!….thank-x
- 129February 5th, 2009 9:48 am
UMI.CMS icons is not a free.
This icons copyright Umisoft company
- 130February 21st, 2009 5:14 am
Absolute awasome. Really nice and fine collection. Thanks a lot guys!
- 131February 26th, 2009 1:24 am
Rellay nice work! Simpel and Clear
- 132April 6th, 2009 6:00 pm
The best icon search engine I ever used is IconSeeker.com, it contents 10000+ high quality free icons.
- 133April 9th, 2009 4:50 am
Thanks for this collection…. especially icons
- 134May 4th, 2009 4:40 pm
Thank
- 135May 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.htmThere are nice templates of shiny orbs and squares, you may find them useful.
- 136May 28th, 2009 7:13 am
SHUT UP!!!!!!! WILL U!!!!!
- 137June 2nd, 2009 8:05 am
Thank you so much
- 138July 13th, 2009 7:50 am
how many childrens of profit muhammad (p b u h)
- 139
- 140August 4th, 2009 8:10 am
Buena coleccion de iconos, Gracias!!!!
- 141August 30th, 2009 10:24 pm
hay…..it’s really good man
thank you…….. thank you very much (especially icons)Anand
- 142October 6th, 2009 11:49 pm
Muy buenos
- 143October 16th, 2009 2:45 pm
Great Job.. Just what i was looking for my site. Take a look at Best of this web
- 144October 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
- 145October 29th, 2009 5:30 am
Thank…..I Like ……
- 146November 1st, 2009 2:04 am
Gr8 work……
- 147November 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
- 00
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