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20+ Free And Fresh Icon Sets
User-friendly icon sets are always nice to look at and useful to have ready to hand. Since effective designers guide their users’ attention using visuals, icons can (and probably should) be used in almost every project you are or will be working on. Whether for an illustration, sketch, site or weblog – used moderately, icons can point users’ attention to the key-aspects of an article or specific site sections and communicate the message of the site in a more effective way.
This is why web designers need them. And this is why we look for them. Regularly.
Let’s take a look at over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries. Some of the sets can be used for free only for private projects, however most of them can also be used in commercial projects. In both cases – before using icon sets please read the license agreement carefully; it can change from time to time.
- You can find over 25 further free icon sets in our previous article Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates.
[By the way, did you know there is a brand new Smashing Wordpress Book? Push WordPress past its limits!]
20+ Free And Fresh Icon Sets
iPhoneSketch (FastIcon): 4 free icons of iPhone, designed in scribbled style, for Linux, Mac OS and Windows. The FastIcon-agreement permits you to use the icons in printed materials, commercial projects, software application, websites, blogs, designs, themes or GUI. However, the author requires an operable link to the source.
iPhone icons (FastIcon): Browser, calendar, calculator, chat, clock, graphics, iPod, e-Mail, map, notes, phone, photo, sms, tools, wallpapers, weather.
Smiley Development Kit: available in .psd (Adobe Photoshop) format.
Flag Button Development Kit: it’s basically a Photoshop file with placeholders. To create a new button, just duplicate a layer group and paste the new flag into the respective layer. It’s as simple as that.
YellowIcon Crystal Set (1500 icons, 22 Mb) and dozens of further icon sets. Sizes: 128×128, 16×16, 22×22, 32×32, 48×48 and 64×64. By Everaldo Coelho.
OpenPhone Pack contains 12 high quality (256×256 pixels) icons; PNG and ICO formats. Licensed under GNU Public License.
Mac OS Boxes: realistic looking white boxes (Mac OS only). Free for personal use.
iPod Shuffle (FastIcon): iPod Shuffle Dock, iPod shuffle headphone. You can find a dozen of further icon sets on Fasticon.com.
Iconshock’s Icon Sets (7 icon sets) include Consoles Vista icons, Red Hot Chili Icons, Elm Nightmare Street Icons, NBA Web Icons, Disk Jockey Icons, Filming Vista icons and more.
RSS Feed (Fasticon): designed in 3D-look.
Adobe CS 3 Icon Pack: nine 256×256 png icons
mAqua ChronoSync: free for personal use only.
Aqua Neue (Graphite): 86 icons, a new set of system replacement icons in Aqua style.
The iconset below includes 94 pieces and was designed by the graphic artist Jonas Rask from Denmark. The 32×32-icons can be downloaded in a .zip-archive as .ico, .png, .tiff, Mac Icons and Pixadex iContainer. These fancy and professional icons (some are certainly looking familar) can be used on commercial web-sites without any charge. You’ll find the download-link at the bottom of Jonas’ startpage. His download-page may present some other icon treasures – but in this case for private use only.
Feedicons is a 34-part iconset from Zeus Box Studio. You might be willing to use them to give your “subscribe to RSS-feed”-button a fresh look.These icons are, besides some inept exceptions, variations of the well-known original, which makes sense. You may download them in a 32*32 and 16*16 format as .png (.zip-archive). Released under the Creative Commons License.
Web 2 Social Bookmarks: 12 FastIcon-freeware “iPhone-like” icons of Web 2 Social Bookmarks for use in blogs, websites, on desktop and software. The Content: Blinklist, BlogMarks, Delicious, Digg, Feeds, Flickr, Furl, Magnolia, Newsvine, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Technorati. The Linux version includes .png files sized from 512×512 to 16×16 pixels.
Emoticon: 14 smileys-icons.
104 standard PC keyboard key icons: useful for video training projects.
Circle Feeds (FastIcon): 4 variations of Feeds Icon in circle shape, for Linux, Mac OS and Windows.
Further references
- PixelGirl Icon Sets
467 icon sets for Mac OS X and 164 icon sets for Windows XP. - IconKits Free Delivery
As a Iconkits.com member you get access to the ForFree section with free stock icons you can use in both personal and commercial projects. When you sign up you will receive 2 points which means you can download 2 optional icon kits in the ForFree section. - Icon Bee
Collects gorgeous free icons. RSS feed is also available. - Vistaicons.com
is a collection of free Vista Style icon sets of over 2000 high quality icons in png and ico format. - Simple System and Windows Icons: 84 + 65 freeware “desktop” icons.
- InterfaceLift Icons
Literally thousands of icons sets – for free downoad for Mac OS, Linux and Windows. - Free Icons Pack
A collection of free icons collected from public domain resources. Available for free download as a .zip-file.
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 79 Comments
- 2
August 25th, 2007 12:37 amI really like a lot of these icons, specifically the Mac OS box. It is really well done.
- 3August 25th, 2007 12:37 am
Very good icon sets. Personally, I think that Everaldo (from YellowIcon) is a very good designer. Other packs, too are good.
- 4August 25th, 2007 12:43 am
Very useful icons! cool!
- 5August 25th, 2007 1:10 am
I’m partial to famfamfam which has a nice set of 1000 free mini-icons and also a nice set of mini-icons with the flag of pretty much every country in the world.
- 6August 25th, 2007 1:23 am
This is what I can call a great list *thumbs up*
I also use iconlib.info to find some icons but I doubt the copyrights on it.
- 7August 25th, 2007 1:44 am
I loved the Crystal set, but I wonder if it is really free? Can we just use them in our projects, or do we need to adhere to any license terms.
- 8August 25th, 2007 2:01 am
I love old set’s. It’s really fantastic
- 9August 25th, 2007 2:24 am
The Crystal set is for PERSONAL use only — which sucks because it is a great set.
- 10August 25th, 2007 2:29 am
Wonderful ;) …
Thanks … Very Good Icon Sets…
- 11August 25th, 2007 4:22 am
Very nice set of icons.
But in my opinion these icons are desktop oriented.
All the new designs and layouts are very poor in icons.
I think that this pack is a very valuable one in DTP area and graphic design. - 12August 25th, 2007 5:14 am
Some great links, as usual, Smashing…
So who has a good link to free, quality, general-purpose favicons?
- 13August 25th, 2007 5:54 am
This is greate list, thanks!
- 14August 25th, 2007 6:17 am
Boring. Get yourself a job, guys.
- 15August 25th, 2007 6:34 am
Good stuff, just what I needed!
- 16August 25th, 2007 8:05 am
The site I use for more exceptional icons is IconBuffet. They have sets from eclectic over queer to just beautiful. They are free for personal and commercial use and the community (to exchange icons) is fun.
- 17August 25th, 2007 11:33 am
That’s smashing good! I like the Smiley Development Kit more than anything else!
- 18August 25th, 2007 2:55 pm
The Adobe Creative Suite 3 icons are a rip-off of http://www.artofadambetts.com/weblog/?p=190, I believe.
- 19August 25th, 2007 4:02 pm
That’s gorgeous!
Thanks - 20August 25th, 2007 5:45 pm
Great list as always, though I’m surprised the fantastic Silk icon pack from http://www.famfamfam.com didn’t get a mention. Cheers SM!
- 21August 25th, 2007 9:29 pm
i was looking flights icons. i found more of them but ur icons r better than others.
ty so much - 22August 25th, 2007 10:16 pm
Nice.. Thanks…
- 23August 26th, 2007 12:29 am
Nasty icons. Great job.
- 24August 26th, 2007 1:00 am
Another nice surprise. You guys just keep delivering the goods.
These will definitely get a nice workout on my system and sites.
- 25August 26th, 2007 1:09 am
WoW… Excellent Collection
- 26August 26th, 2007 1:42 am
Some are great and free is great but I would like to see better samples and download links on some.
- 27August 26th, 2007 3:48 am
Nice place to find icons is: http://guistyles.com/category/icons/
I found there many great icons.
- 28August 26th, 2007 6:22 am
Wow. The Adobe icons rule. And so do the Web 2 social bookmarks. Where is the icon for pollicious.com that new social network polling website?
- 29August 26th, 2007 6:55 am
most definitely some great stuff in here. Thanks.
- 30August 26th, 2007 10:22 am
Im still being fan of the old school. What about make your own icons…
- 31
- 32August 26th, 2007 2:49 pm
Another great royalty free icon set http://www.guimods.com/august-iconset-royalty-free/
- 33August 26th, 2007 6:50 pm
Why are you publishing this stupid I… icons?
Do we need such commercial stuff and hype?
I feel pested by this.
You are publishing commercial, marketing stuff and call it essential for webdesignersI doubt that and I think you should refrain from that stupid hypes.
- 34August 26th, 2007 7:20 pm
Excellent Icon Sets. Great list
Thank You very much
- 35August 27th, 2007 3:59 am
exelente listado!!, gracias
- 36August 27th, 2007 8:56 am
I love the Adobe CS3 icon kit! The Web 2.0 ones are nice too, though I still think that no matter how you spin it, the del.icio.us logo is a lost cause.
- 37August 27th, 2007 11:07 am
this is just an amazing collection, personally i look around for more types of rss buttons, unique styles, which i found many here like circle ones and couple other new styles.
Good job done staff
- 38August 27th, 2007 1:10 pm
Amazing collection, thanks for sharing :)
- 39August 27th, 2007 4:16 pm
Very nice. I’m going to take my time and go through all of these heh. They all look great.
- 40August 27th, 2007 8:48 pm
Wonderful collection!
Thank you for this nice links :)
- 41August 27th, 2007 9:55 pm
Amazing collection, thanks! :)
- 42August 29th, 2007 6:17 am
add to my favories
- 43August 29th, 2007 11:41 pm
Sweet, I’m definitely gonna be using some of these in upcoming projects.
I was also pretty surprised at the absence of the famfamfam.com silk icons. Those are the bomb.
- 44August 30th, 2007 5:02 pm
Amazing!!! Thanks guy for sharing…
- 45August 31st, 2007 8:12 pm
This is an awesome icon list. I have killed the Tango ico’s so many times it’s nice to have a fresh new set to play with.
- 46October 3rd, 2007 1:51 am
IconBuffet is more than just a place to get free Icons. It’s the Icon trading ‘game’! Every month you get 10 free tokens (or get 30 for $6 a month) which you can use to get any of the 120+ sets of icons from other IconBuffet members, via Trading! Sets cost from 1 token, for the bronze, to 10 tokens for the single Diamond set! Also, once or twice a month token-free sets are given to everyone, but no one is given all the new sets, so there is always new stuff to trade with. You can download all the icons you get, or you can just download the ones you know you’ll use (recommended). Either way, it’s a blast!
Enjoy!
- 47October 25th, 2007 4:43 pm
Hey man, thanks a lot for this list. it is always difficult to find good icons around.
- 48October 30th, 2007 8:10 pm
I very much agree with the last comment, I had a hard time finding good icons when working on one of my latest projects. But I found this dryicons.com web site, and I think they had a couple icon sets with over 100 icons each. The best part is, they are giving the icons for free! These icons are available in 32-bit PNG and also PSD, and they come in these sizes: 16 x 16px; 24 x 24px; 32 x 32px; 48 x 48px and 128 x 128px .
Cheers! - 49November 1st, 2007 2:24 am
Hey Fust, great site. Thanks a lot man, they really got some good stuff there for free :)
- 50November 11th, 2007 12:47 pm
Does anybody got a copy of FastIcon? Unfortunately, the website is currently not available.
- 51November 29th, 2007 6:24 am
Very nice! Thanks for the sets..
- 52December 6th, 2007 2:26 pm
Thanks for such good stuff!
- 53December 7th, 2007 10:57 pm
found another great Mini icons page LINK [http://icons.primail.ch] currently adding tiny mini world flags, really neat
- 54January 21st, 2008 3:50 am
Nice set of icons, even in the comments!
- 55January 24th, 2008 10:26 am
Sweat graphic sets, well pleased.
- 56January 25th, 2008 3:27 pm
Excellent, Excellent links
- 57February 2nd, 2008 4:50 pm
Excelent icons! I was looking for some new social bookmark icons and found these. Thanks!
- 58March 6th, 2008 10:41 pm
excellent post. very good icon sets. will be useful for programmers who designs!
- 59March 7th, 2008 5:45 am
Excellent icon resources!
Thank you
- 60April 13th, 2008 9:20 am
These are gorgeous!
- 61April 17th, 2008 4:30 am
Hi….Just wanted to know if these icons are totally free? Can I use them for templates? I found that some of these sets are fully free for any kind of use… could you please let me know which are the sets that I can use for templates?
- 62May 14th, 2008 11:28 am
Nice icon set thanks
- 63May 21st, 2008 12:35 am
this thing sucks! Just kidding :D
GREAT WORK! Just keep it comin’ - 64May 23rd, 2008 10:54 am
This is gr8! I love SM. You guys are truly a wonder weapon in my design arsenal. Thank you again so much!
- 65September 9th, 2008 11:17 pm
wooo,thank you !
about japanese Onsen Icon in here : e7art creative icon-japan (only picture)
- 66September 29th, 2008 5:15 am
Its Wonderfull i like it
- 67October 15th, 2008 1:23 pm
Here’s a great free set that I found.
http://momentumdesignlab.com/icons/index.php - 68
- 69January 12th, 2009 5:27 am
Thanks, Great Collection
- 70
- 71March 17th, 2009 7:56 am
A very good collection of icons. You can see a lot of good ideas and techniques.
- 72March 17th, 2009 4:14 pm
Nice icon. Thanks
- 73March 22nd, 2009 1:20 pm
Excellent Collection. I was looking for some new social bookmark icons and found these.
Thanks. - 74April 22nd, 2009 8:37 pm
Thank you.
Very Good icon cool! - 75April 28th, 2009 7:12 pm
thanks, Great Icon sets
- 76September 16th, 2009 12:48 am
Very useful icons! cool!
- 77December 17th, 2009 1:33 pm
This free flag set is quite impressive (256×256px): http://www.nordicfactory.com/creative/illustrations/download-free-flag-set-in-png/
- 78January 30th, 2010 3:31 am
Thanks a lot for this great collection
- 79February 1st, 2010 12:10 am
great.. thanks for this collection. big help.
- 00
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I’m finding a lot of use out of iconfinder.net. There sets are being constantly added to and the search feature helps me find just the right icon. You can also filter search results to just get the right size icon.