Fresh Free High-Quality Icon Sets

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The most important aspect of designing an individual icon is that it has to be instantly recognizable, you have to know its function, and you need to know exactly what it is. If you are designing a set, the actual design becomes a lot harder, the designer has to face two initial challenges: each icon they design has to be individual and distinctive from the other, and, they also have to have similar features to show that they are related, completing the set. Not an easy task.

Perhaps that is why we love those small indispensible graphical images so much, it’s an appreciation of the hard work, creativity and talent of the designer. And to think, all those hours spent in front of a laptop crafting these little marvels, and then, allowing everyone else to download them for free. To all icon designers we say: “thank you”.

In this post we present a round-up of fresh high-quality icons that are available for free download and (sometimes only for personal) use. Please make sure to read license agreements before using icons in your designs – they can change from time to time.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

e-Commerce Icons

Money Back Guarantee Icon Set (registration is required)
100 % Money Back Guarantee Vector Icon Set. The set contains 3 versions: 30 day – 60 day and 90 day.

Money Back Guarantee Icon Set

Open Source Icons – (37signals)

Open Source Icons - (37signals)

10 Free High-Quality E-Commerce Icons

10 hochwertige, exklusive E-Commerce Icons

Credit Card Icons
22 Credit Card Icons that are perfect for your sites.

Useful Icons and Vectors

Daily Exhaust: Hand & Arrow Icons

Daily Exhaust: Hand & Arrow Icons

Free hand pointer icons

Royalty Free Icons and Stock Images

Webdesigner kit

Webdesigner kit

The Webdesigner Sketchup Icons

Webdesigner kit

Web Buttons Vector
Compilation of the free web button vectors and elements – useful for wireframing and prototyping!

Web Buttons Vector

Top 3 icons pack

Top 3 icons pack

500+ Free Vector Traffic Signs

500+ Free Vector Traffic Signs

Packaging Vector Pack
This Vector Freebie Pack is created by Ian Yates and is available exclusively from Vectortuts+. If your looking for high quality graphics to mock up your next client presentation with, then check out these packaging graphics.

Packaging Vector Pack

Exclusive Stationery Vector Pack
This new Vector Freebie Pack is created by Ian Yates. If you are looking for high quality graphics to mock up your next client presentation with, then check out these graphics.

Exclusive Stationery Vector Pack

Moderators Icons

Moderators Icons

How to be Green at Home

How to be Green at Home

Simple and Minimal icons

Free iPhone Toolbar Icons
Icons designed specifically for iPhone developers, available for free for anyone to use commercially under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada license.

PixelPressIcons

Glyphish
Designed and carefully optimized for use on toolbars and tab bars in iPhone apps, these icons are also perfect for Android apps, websites, t-shirts, tattoos and more.

Glyphish

A travel and business vector pack

A travel & business vector pack

Token

Token

Standard Iconset by Templay

New Icon Sets

RRZE Icon Set

New Icon Sets

Characters so far
35 very original and eccentric characters.

New Icon Sets

Beautiful Icons

Philippe Starck Icons
Philippe Starck icons for Windows, Mac OSX, Linux.

Vase

Snow Leopard Icon
The new version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, was just released, so the designer decided to celebrate it with a new artwork. Download the Snow Leopard Wallpaper as well!

Snow Leopard

Billiardo 1

Billiardo 1

Moleskine Helvetica Icon

Moleskine Helvetica Icon

Foto Icon

Foto Icon

Free Cute Furry Monster Icons
“I’ve put together a little family of monsters, available for free download in the form of icons. Each monster can be found in PNG, ICNS and ICO filetypes for use on your Mac, PC or for inclusion in your website designs.”

Free Cute Furry Monster Icons

LiveJournal turns 10
Anniversary edition icons set, LiveJournal is celebrating its 10th Anniversary.

Royalty Free Icons and Stock Images

stratocaster Classic psd

stratocaster Classic psd

2001 Space Odyssey

Zyotism:Aesthetics

Vector Kitchen Icons
Vector Kitchen Icons – 25 different examples of kitchen stuff created in funny cartoon style. Set include: teapot, knifes, saucepan, pot, frying pan, plates, cups, microwave oven, forks, kitchen-range and so on. Soft gradients and colors, smooth contours, creative shapes.

Vector Kitchen Icons

Modern Chairs Icons

Modern Chairs Icons

Google Talk Icon

New Icon Sets

Chamber Orchestra

PixelPressIcons

Classic Cameras

Classic Cameras

Camera Nikon

Camera Nikon

Lollipop

Lollipop

Desktop & GUI Icon Sets

Gnome Icon Theme

Gnome Icon Theme

Alcohol

Alcohol

Generic Applications
This icon set is released under a special license which will allow software developers to use this set of 7 icons in their projects.

PixelPressIcons

Bevel and Emboss
Ever wondered how are all these glossy looking icons made? This is not a tutorial how to make them, as there is a lot of these out there, this is a fully editable PSD source you can download for free and use them for your projects (commercial and non-profit) or to see how this look is achieved.

Bevel And Emboss

32px icons set
A simple set of icons, available only in the resolution 32×32px, only in the iContainter format.

MacThemes

Windows 7 DVD-Box

Windows 7 DVD-Box

Xedia

Xedia

GiNUX
There are 64 icons in this set, all are 64x64px and available in both PNG. and ICO. formats.

New Icon Sets

Related Posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

Paul Andrew is a freelance Web designer. He is chief admin for Speckyboy - Design Magazine, a Web design, Web development and graphic design resource blog.

  1. 1

    The Dude

    September 16th, 2009 2:46 am

    Some great icon sets there – randomly I have used a few on my site in the past.

    Love the Strat set – just wish I had somewhere I could use them! Keep em comin SM!

    0
  2. 2

    Tschai

    September 16th, 2009 2:59 am

    grreat collection, indeed!

    0
  3. 3

    Sal Azad

    September 16th, 2009 3:21 am

    Super Collections! Thx SM!

    0
  4. 4

    rafi.pl

    September 16th, 2009 3:22 am

    Very nice sets. Good job.

    0
  5. 5

    Andre

    September 16th, 2009 3:22 am

    Very nice collection…i love the Webdesigner Mini Kit :)

    0
  6. 6

    Keri

    September 16th, 2009 3:25 am

    Nice collection there, will no doubt use some of these in the future.

    Not important in the slightest but the Nikon Camera one appears twice for some reason.

    0
  7. 7

    legs

    September 16th, 2009 3:49 am

    WOW, what an amazing collection…

    Thanks a lot!

    0
  8. 8

    Ömer Uzun

    September 16th, 2009 3:55 am

    Hi’q'h? lol.

    0
  9. 9

    Dom Ioanna

    September 16th, 2009 4:00 am

    A great collection, Thanks guys. (You may want to look at the slight typo in the page title……)

    0
  10. 10

    John Faulds

    September 16th, 2009 4:12 am

    Nice work on the stratocaster although the head actually looks closer to a Jaguar than a Strat.

    +1
  11. 11

    kattiChicha

    September 16th, 2009 4:16 am

    You guys ROCK !

    0
  12. 12

    Simca

    September 16th, 2009 4:30 am

    I love this icon collections. I will use it on my blog.

    0
  13. 13

    Dennis

    September 16th, 2009 4:32 am

    Fantastic article and very comprehensive resource list. One of the best and NEWEST!! Keep up the good work guys. I can’t wait to get your book here in Italy!

    0
  14. 14

    Josh Tummel

    September 16th, 2009 4:43 am

    Love these icons, and all the others posted here. Great resources.

    0
  15. 15

    Bill Lord

    September 16th, 2009 4:47 am

    Thanks again, you guys are always a great source for inspiration.

    0
  16. 16

    meuledor

    September 16th, 2009 4:57 am

    Thanks a lot ! Very usefull.

    0
  17. 17

    Abhijeet

    September 16th, 2009 5:00 am

    Cool! Thanks a lot!

    0
  18. 18

    Vincent Ouellet

    September 16th, 2009 5:05 am

    Awesome !!

    Should put a ‘Download full package link’ :P !

    0
  19. 19

    Miguel

    September 16th, 2009 5:05 am

    You guys are incredible.

    0
  20. 20

    Syed Balkhi

    September 16th, 2009 5:08 am

    Amazing collection. Just downloaded some of these.

    0
  21. 21

    Richard Reddy

    September 16th, 2009 5:17 am

    Brilliant collection of top notch icons! Thanks :D

    0
  22. 22

    Venkatesh

    September 16th, 2009 5:18 am

    Wonderful Collections :)

    0
  23. 23

    Joshua Sortino

    September 16th, 2009 5:48 am

    Once again, Smashing Magazines delivers a quality collection of icons!

    0
  24. 24

    bs.kishore

    September 16th, 2009 5:54 am

    Smashing mag has done it again… an awesome collection..

    -1
  25. 25

    Schajee

    September 16th, 2009 5:56 am

    Never liked so many in one set… lovely!!!

    +1
  26. 26

    Mladen

    September 16th, 2009 6:10 am

    There are genius. I have to learn a lot…

    0
  27. 27

    vinz

    September 16th, 2009 6:16 am

    I’d like to suggest vectors icons i made a few time ago…. There are several usual bitmap icons, vectorized :
    http://www.reticula.fr/index.php?page=vector

    0
  28. 28

    chopeh

    September 16th, 2009 6:50 am

    Nice icons, though left-handed Stratocaster guitar messes with my mind. Just looks wrong!

    0
  29. 29

    onepack

    September 16th, 2009 7:00 am

    Wow. this is great stuff. I love your great work to look this up for us. I will definately buy the smashing book! It’s good and you guys deserve to be succesful!

    0
  30. 30

    Jack Griffiths

    September 16th, 2009 7:30 am

    2 Errors: Snow Leopard has been released, It’s ‘high’ not ‘hiqh’

    0
  31. 31

    stevenlac

    September 16th, 2009 7:30 am

    the article title reads “HIQH quality icons”.

    0
  32. 32

    Jon

    September 16th, 2009 7:43 am

    Awesome post! Usually I end up having to create my own icons like on my portfolio, but Its awesome that you continue to give sources for inspiration!

    0
  33. 33

    ilz

    September 16th, 2009 7:54 am

    good looking out!

    0
  34. 34

    Jon

    September 16th, 2009 8:09 am

    Awesome post! Usually I end up having to create my own icons like on my portfolio, but Its awesome that you continue to give sources for inspiration!

    0
  35. 35

    Meat Mangler

    September 16th, 2009 8:20 am

    when did the term “icon” and high resolution vector graphic become intertwined?

    half of those are graphics you would use on a full page print spread, or some home page advertisement…

    i dont know. not impressed.

    0
  36. 36

    andrewthong

    September 16th, 2009 8:39 am

    Sweet, more icon collections

    0
  37. 37

    whalen

    September 16th, 2009 8:44 am

    These are great!

    0
  38. 38

    Jad Graphics

    September 16th, 2009 8:48 am

    This is awesome. Probably one of the better icon round-ups to date.

    0
  39. 39

    Mark

    September 16th, 2009 9:24 am

    This one is probably my favorite icon set posts ever. Great stuff.

    0
  40. 40

    Michael

    September 16th, 2009 9:32 am

    Awesome! Thanks SM, this roundup is great. Love the money back guarantee icons and the XP web designer’s kit.

    0
  41. 41

    bara

    September 16th, 2009 9:59 am

    thank you very much ! you guys always smashing !

    0
  42. 42

    Batfan

    September 16th, 2009 10:11 am

    Great job SM! Love these collections. Keep them comin’

    0
  43. 43

    Michael Austin

    September 16th, 2009 10:21 am

    OK so any one else think the live journal set looks like a bunch of bank robbers with stocking on their head? look at the one to the right really!

    0
  44. 44

    Michael Austin

    September 16th, 2009 10:21 am

    OK so any one else think the live journal set looks like a bunch of bank robbers with stocking on their head? look at the one to the right really! interactive artist Michael Austin

    0
  45. 45

    hey

    September 16th, 2009 10:49 am

    THESE

    ARE

    AWESOME.

    0
  46. 46

    Brett Favre

    September 16th, 2009 11:17 am

    Wow this is the best Icon collection i’ve ever seen. Usually you just see the same ones over and over again.

    Stay Smashing!

    0
  47. 47

    Venkat

    September 16th, 2009 11:55 am

    Great Collections…

    0
  48. 48

    Ben

    September 16th, 2009 12:41 pm

    there are some good guitar icons here: . Good for replacing the Garage Band icon.

    Ben.

    0
  49. 49

    Enk.

    September 16th, 2009 1:11 pm

    Great List… some are going to be of great use for my next design.. Many thanks ! :)

    0
  50. 50

    kobs

    September 16th, 2009 4:37 pm

    thanks.. great collection…..

    0
  51. 51

    JoetheFunkyAnimator

    September 16th, 2009 5:39 pm

    AAAmazing.

    0
    • 52

      Ivan Brezak Brkan

      November 18th, 2009 4:01 pm

      Agreed! :)

      0
  52. 53

    Jonath Lee

    September 16th, 2009 6:09 pm

    Wow, really a great high quality free icons. Never imagined they are free for download. THought this was a premium set.

    0
  53. 54

    Guubir

    September 16th, 2009 6:44 pm

    Thanks Share!

    0
  54. 55

    yoxx

    September 16th, 2009 7:25 pm

    very very nice icons… i like it

    0
  55. 56

    Sravan

    September 16th, 2009 10:11 pm

    That’s really a fresh collection – good job and thanks for sharing…..

    0
  56. 57

    Mike Knight

    September 16th, 2009 10:23 pm

    Hmm – Nothing new here. I get tired of seeing the same old icons and graphics all over the web.

    Come on Smashing Mag. Feature things we have not seen before.

    0
  57. 58

    Chris

    September 17th, 2009 12:15 am

    Nice collection indeed. You’ve gotta love icon-wednesday!

    0
  58. 59

    Tate

    September 17th, 2009 12:41 am

    wow, nice collection! thanx!

    0
  59. 60

    Lucy

    September 17th, 2009 1:26 am

    OMG! How on earth did you guys find all these?

    0
  60. 61

    spritzstuhl

    September 17th, 2009 1:26 am

    Nice, just a pity that I cannot use them all somewhere :-)

    0
  61. 62

    Felipe

    September 17th, 2009 4:45 am

    Very nice collection, thanxs!

    0
  62. 63

    Hayat

    September 17th, 2009 5:03 am

    :) I love smashing ^_^ it’s always full of goodies!

    0
  63. 64

    Brendon Kozlowski

    September 17th, 2009 6:51 am

    Michael Austin: Yeah, I thought so too.

    0
  64. 65

    divinefusion

    September 17th, 2009 7:47 am

    fantastic collection. Thanks for sharing.

    0
  65. 66

    Sean

    September 17th, 2009 8:05 am

    Wow! great collection… thanks.

    0
  66. 67

    Echilon

    September 17th, 2009 11:20 am

    Nice icons, loads I don’t have.

    0
  67. 68

    Corrado Coia

    September 17th, 2009 5:57 pm

    Thank you very much for this. As an avid graphics designer, this will be extremely helpful. Thanks again.

    Corrado Coia

    0
  68. 69

    holy2050

    September 17th, 2009 6:34 pm

    It is very useful. Thank you.

    0
  69. 70

    Damodharan

    September 17th, 2009 8:55 pm

    Very nice and useful…
    Keep Rocking…
    Thank You…

    0
  70. 71

    anisha

    September 17th, 2009 9:27 pm

    lovely collection. thanks :-)

    0
  71. 72

    Jesus Herman

    September 18th, 2009 2:18 am

    Thanks SM, I think is the best icon round-up so far

    0
  72. 73

    Allen

    September 18th, 2009 7:14 am

    Hey! those strats are all southpaw.

    0
  73. 74

    Aaron

    September 18th, 2009 1:52 pm

    Wow, that’s one of the best collections I’ve seen in a while.

    0
  74. 75

    Ozan

    September 18th, 2009 3:33 pm

    perfect collection! thanks..

    0
  75. 76

    Mitja

    September 19th, 2009 1:47 am

    If anyone needs some small simple icons, here’s another free set

    0
  76. 77

    maq

    September 19th, 2009 8:11 pm

    WOW. I want all!!

    0
  77. 78

    Ekrem Büyükkaya

    September 20th, 2009 6:31 am

    That’s an awesome collection TY!

    0
  78. 79

    aledesign

    September 20th, 2009 1:26 pm

    a good post, some icons set are really fantastic, and so fabulous for every site!

    0
  79. 80

    leaveoff

    September 20th, 2009 6:16 pm

    so good icons,thks a lot……

    0
  80. 81

    Sasan

    September 21st, 2009 2:56 am

    tnx a lot
    great icon packs , It’s very useful for me…

    0
  81. 82

    umesh

    September 23rd, 2009 5:36 am

    very useful for ingress design knowledge…………Thanks!

    0
  82. 83

    Rameexgfx

    September 30th, 2009 6:07 am

    ALL Very nice Design I Like it….

    0
  83. 84

    Alia Karibskaya

    October 2nd, 2009 5:30 am

    thanks! Very nice and useful collection!

    0
  84. 85

    Shoaib

    October 4th, 2009 3:31 pm

    Great Collection
    Thanks alot

    0
  85. 86

    thanks

    October 7th, 2009 7:47 am

    So great…… thank you very much and CONGRATULATIONS to all the creators !!!

    0
  86. 87

    Shankar Ganesh

    October 22nd, 2009 3:36 am

    These things are really helpful.Awesome Creativity.
    Thanks to creators for their Creativity

    0
  87. 88

    Ashish Gaikwad

    October 25th, 2009 9:58 pm

    Great Icons! Can we use it on our websites ?

    0
  88. 89

    customicondesign

    October 31st, 2009 6:25 pm

    the icons list are great. look beautiful. thanks

    0
  89. 90

    gabriel

    November 6th, 2009 2:05 pm

    very nice, I will use; :)

    0
  90. 91

    Jessy

    December 2nd, 2009 1:10 am

    Thank you for putting together such a great collection!
    It’s Amazing how Smashing Magazine contributed to the web.
    I have linked to you guys from my blog

    0
  91. 92

    Ondaweb

    December 15th, 2009 7:48 am

    Nice colection! Fun, cute and very functional. Cheers.

    0
  92. 93

    Manu Parashar

    December 29th, 2009 10:10 am

    The icons collection is pretty awesome .. will try to use them somewher thanks a ton

    0
  93. 94

    Emmanuel

    January 19th, 2010 3:10 pm

    Awesome Icons, Just downloaded a few, Planning to use them in my next blog design. :)

    0
  94. 95

    janezhou

    January 25th, 2010 1:28 am

    Nice work! i like very much!

    0
  95. 96

    stylee

    March 8th, 2010 11:34 pm

    thanks thanks enjoy

    0
  96. 97

    ana

    August 3rd, 2010 11:05 pm

    Desktop & GUI Icon Sets

    Gnome Icon Theme

    Are these icons free for commercial use?

    Thanks!

    0
  97. 98

    Animation Institute

    August 25th, 2010 4:37 am

    good icons..

    0
  98. 99

    Spyros

    September 26th, 2010 6:11 am

    Brilliant as usual.
    Keep them coming ;)

    0
  99. 100

    Dreb

    December 5th, 2010 3:29 pm

    I have Smashing Magazine fever. Can’t stop shopping around. Lotsssss of good stuff down here.

    0
  1. 1

    John Faulds

    September 16th, 2009 4:12 am

    Nice work on the stratocaster although the head actually looks closer to a Jaguar than a Strat.

    +1
  2. 2

    Schajee

    September 16th, 2009 5:56 am

    Never liked so many in one set… lovely!!!

    +1

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