User Interface Icons for Web Applications

Monday, May 20, 2013

There are so many newly released icon sets which are free to download and use in your own projects. Building a website application will take a lot of time and patience. If you are using a CMS or backend programming framework then it might shave off some time. But overall you will be dedicated to finishing your projects in a decent timeframe. It is worth taking any help which can hasten the completion date.

I feel these small user interface icon sets will provide a lot of benefit to web developers. Creating webapps specifically for mobile and desktop computers are not easy to design. Why should you have to make all your own icons from scratch? It becomes a lot easier when you know exactly what you are looking for. Check out these freebie icon sets and see if you can locate designs which may work well in your own projects.

Batch Icons

The free Batch icons released by Adam Whitcroft are a sure-fire place to get started. This set includes over 300 beautiful icons which are fitted seamlessly into website layouts. The icon styles may be used in both light and dark color schemes, which will look great for navigation menus or content blocks.

The Batch webfont has also been released, which you may utilize by adding a CSS3 @font-face declaration into your stylesheet. Then you can import the Batch icons font into your website and use this like any other typeface! The possibilities are endless and I would certainly recommend Batch for use in any mainstream web application.

Eldorado Mini

The freebie Eldorado icons are much flatter and simpler than Batch. I really like this set because of the various color schemes and icon notations you will find inside. Plus Icojam is a fantastic website that has both premium and freebie icons for download. I think any developer who is struggling with a design interface should check out these releases.

iPhone Toolbar Icons

Normally you will find glyphs and single-colored icon sets for use inside iOS applications. But the mobile web is taking over in various forms, along with desktop website layouts using similar designs related to mobile apps. I think PixelPressIcons really did an outstanding job with their free iPhone toolbar icons. The whole set includes retina-ready icons which are designed for a typical iOS UITabbar setup.

Keep in mind that you may include these almost anywhere in your layout. As long as the icons will help present more context to the user, it will surely benefit the design. Each icon in the set is a fantastic addition when you are working to create a mobile responsive navigation. Try it out and see how you feel because although the icons are beautiful, they will not look right for all of your projects.

Iconic

The release of Iconic is somewhat symbolic in-and-of itself. This is a completely free and open source icon set using vector shapes and a custom web font. This means you have access to edit the icons in Photoshop or Illustrator, stretching and resizing to fit your layout. The vector format is a welcome distinction compared to many other PNG icon sets.

But the web font is another fascinating release altogether. This means you can automatically resize the icons just by editing your CSS font size. The Iconic set is definitely worth using as a CSS-based design feature. I have yet to see much of any other iconset which comes this close to offering a complete web-based solution.

Sketch Icons

Just earlier this month a new sketch icons freebie was released on Dribbble by Brett Jones. You can download a copy of the icons right from his Dribbble shot page. The full-size @2x icons preview gives a much clearer picture of what is included. I really like how the icons are almost fully transparent and they provide a nice baseline for designing any typical user interface.

These new sketch icons are certainly not going to break headlines as the next big craze for designers. But like many other freebies on Dribbble, it is one of those hidden gems which requires some insight and knowledge to use tastefully. I would think any web developer will love this icon set because it is easy to look at. Plus the glyphs will fit nicely into any design.

Closing

Freebies are released almost every day on various blogs and social networks. Web & graphics designers love to offer their works for download. It is a very gratifying community where designers like to help out other creatives. And if their work can get some attention it will certainly build a greater appreciation for their other works. Keep designing with awesome related user interface icon sets, and let us know your thoughts on these freebies in in the discussion area below.