
Icon search engine - iconfinder
http://www.iconfinder.com
======
paraschopra
I have been using IconFinder.com for years now and I can attest that it is the
best icon search engine out there. Almost all icons used in VWO come from
there. I just wish that icon library was more comprehensive that what it is
now but all in all, a well-executed site.

~~~
iconfinder
Thanks, man. I love your tool and I'm happy to provide you with icons.

Every week I add 10 new icon sets so the icon library is growing. I have
chosen not to let the users upload icons directly to make sure the quality is
high.

------
twidlit
I have been using this for months and the interface is really good and the
rights management filter is a very nice touch.

I am hoping it starts indexing/storing vector files soon or maybe have
accounts for the artist/shops behind the icons so that people can easily
contact then hire them from the site itself.

~~~
iconfinder
Adding vector version of the icons are definitely next step content-wise.

The account for designers is a feature that is planned and coming within 2
months.

------
jeffmiller
Looks pretty much like findicons.com.

<http://www.iconfinder.com/search/?q=rss>

<http://findicons.com/search/rss>

~~~
iconfinder
Yes, findicons copied my site in February 2010. Iconfinder launched in 2007.

~~~
timmaah
What are you hoping to gain by the "Show HN" post?

~~~
iconfinder
Feedback from the smart users on Hacker News.

------
scrrr
Nice service, just tried searching "save" and I find it funny that what
apparently is the standard icon still shows a floppy disk. Somebody should
survey 10 year old kids if they know what it means..

~~~
toddmorey
I'll bet before the floppy disk icon gets a chance to be replaced, the concept
of manually saving files will be obsolete. It just might serve us 'til the
end.

~~~
ugh
I don’t think there is a Save command anywhere in the default iPad apps or the
iWork apps. Even Office could easily switch away from forcing the users to
save. They already have this nice, big menu with recent documents in their
newest version, all they need to do is rework that into a sort of library of
all documents. Then my dad, too, would no longer be confused by saving Word
documents.

~~~
wensing
I don't like it when 'Save' is greyed out on Google Docs. I'd rather have it
auto-saving and removing an asterisk that indicates changes have been made.
Then I could see that I don't need to save, but still get the satisfaction of
mashing the little save button (which evokes a warm and fuzzy feeling of
safety).

------
sovok
Nifty. Only the info window is 38px too far left in FF 3.6.11:
<http://imgur.com/M7546.png>

~~~
iconfinder
I'll fix that.

------
emilsedgh
I dont understand why people dont use consistent icons on their apps.

I always choose an icon set (Oxygen, Tango, etc) and use it for whole project.
Sometimes there are missing icons, but i think its worth the consistency i
get.

Same style and same palette for all my icons.

~~~
symptic
Most of the icons on the site are part of an icon set which is easily found.
Been using IconFinder for a short while and it's a great service.

------
sgt
Speaking of icons, I'm pretty much only interested in vector icons, because I
can resize them any way I want and I'm doing the quality control when
converting to PNG etc.

Bitmap icon quality, even the ones based on original vector artwork, are
sometimes simply not up to my standards. My favorite free icon collection is
the "Tango" collection, but it is also lacking in a few ways.

So I'm looking for another decent free or commercial vector collection that I
can use for my projects. Most of the icon collections I see are selling bitmap
versions only. Any ideas?

~~~
iconfinder
These are probably the best vector icons out there: <http://helveticons.ch/>

~~~
sgt
Thanks for the tip. I see they are all single-color, but that's not really a
problem since customizing them with colors or gradients is simple to do in
Inkscape or Illustrator.

------
CoffeeDregs
That's just really nice and super helpful... Seems as though you have highly
targeted content but have no real monetization. What are your plans for
monetization?

~~~
iconfinder
I'm planning to have have a premium area where paying users can get access to
quality icons.

~~~
jessriedel
The site has been up for 3 years without monetization? Has it just been on the
backburner?

~~~
iconfinder
It launched 2007, but it really took off in 2009. I'm still in school so I
haven't had that much time to work on it. I'm doing ok from ads now and it is
growing fast, so when I finish school in 2 months, I'm going to work on
monetizing.

You can see the growth compared to Dropbox.com and Ycombinator.com:
<http://icnf.me/brcjhH>

~~~
CamperBob
This may already be supported somehow, or otherwise planned, but one obvious
way to monetize might be to act as a broker for contract designers. As a user,
if I search for an icon and either don't find one that works for me, or find
only icons with incompatible license terms, then the next thing I'm going to
want to do is find someone who can design what I want. This is also going to
be true in the event that I need a whole set of icons with a common motif or
color/design scheme.

No matter how good a search engine like yours is, most of its users will be at
least partially unsatisfied, and you may be able to turn that into an
advantage. It might also be a good way to stand out from the copycat sites.

~~~
iconfinder
It is not supported but I think it's a great idea. Perhaps doing something
like 99designs, where jobs are posted and then icon designers can choose to
upload their work. The designer who is chosen will win the "auction".

------
GavinB
Looks great. Makes me wish I had something that needs icons!

The one thing that was a bit odd to me was the way the tiled icons don't often
fill out the last line, even when there are many more pages of results.
Typically an incomplete grid sends a message that this is the last page of
results.

~~~
iconfinder
Thank you for the feedback. The last row is always a bit of a headache. Google
Images an iStockphoto solves the problem by having results from the next page
shown to fill out the last row. So you'll get duplicate results in the search
results - maybe that is the best solution.

------
jessor
Switched from iconlet. I really like it. The commercial usage filter is a
killer feature. Great job!

------
abraham
I created an account using Chrome but only the username seems to have been
saved. Trying to edit my account results in a white screen so I can't add an
email address or change my password. They username I signed up with is
"abrahamwilliams"

~~~
iconfinder
I fixed the bug - it should be working again.

------
arnorhs
This is great. Sometimes all you need is just a quick Facebook like button.

It's a great way to discover icons. Of course, you would usually want to use
only icons from a single icon set, so your icons become consistent through
your application.

However, sometimes you get into trouble when the set doesn't have a particular
icon. This site could be a life saver if you don't have any budget to contact
the original designer and ask for custom work.

Good job iconfinder

~~~
iconfinder
You can search the different icon sets - just go to iconfinder.com/browse

When you have found a great icon set you can add a search term to the search
query e.g. <http://www.iconfinder.com/search/?q=iconset:duesseldorf+star>

It works like Google when using the filtype: or site: keywords.

------
icode
I would say its not legal. Many icons are licensed "for personal use only". So
putting them on a website with advertising seems to be against the license.

~~~
iconfinder
I only put icons with this license on the site when I have permission from the
author.

~~~
icode
Ah, ok! Didnt think of that.

------
utoku
We use the floppy disk for the save icon, but we don't use floppies anymore.
Just something that has been bothering me.

~~~
michael_dorfman
We also don't throw our floppy disks into a trash can to eject them, but
that's what the "intuitive" Mac interface proposed, all those years ago.

If these things bother you, you probably shouldn't study etymology. Most words
(and concepts) retain leftover residues of previous strata of meaning. Such is
change...

~~~
blacksmythe

      >> what the "intuitive" Mac interface proposed, all those years ago.
    

That was never intuitive. I thought that was a bad choice from the beginning.

------
charlief
Very very nice. Is there any way to categorize icon styles or qualities as
well? An example after background colour and file format I would need: "Web
2.0-styled" or "cool/warm". I find the only time I page through search results
is looking for specific style qualities.

~~~
iconfinder
Thanks. Categories are coming within a month.

------
lubos
this is great, I was using google images up until now for this... not anymore

------
codefisher
It has been around for awhile, been using it since about 2008. Cool service.

~~~
iconfinder
2007

~~~
codefisher
Went and did a search on my email, the first time I recommenced it to someone
else was the 13th Oct 2007. So yeah 2007 it is!

------
zimro
First place I go when I seek a new icon. Simply perfect and easy to use.

------
PostOnce
I searched for "Sword". Got a bunch of pictures of locks and keys. :P

~~~
iconfinder
It searches for both "sword" and "%sword%" (with wildcards in both ends). It
ranks results with exact match for "sword" higher than wildcard matches and
what you are seeing are icons with the keyword "pasSWORD" since it hits
"%sword%"

------
MisterWebz
Absolutely love the design. Did you hire someone to do it?

~~~
iconfinder
I did the design, but not the logo. The logo was done by the talented
TurboMilk -> <http://www.turbomilk.com>

They also did a nice illustration for the 404 page:
<http://www.iconfinder.com/pagenotfound>

------
Omnipresent
awesome. this definitely beats office clip art search. You should maybe have a
section "User's who downloaded this ...also downloaded X icon"

~~~
iconfinder
Thanks. That's not a bad idea.

------
coreyrecvlohe
Really useful site. The usual method for myself is to use advanced filters
through google, but this is definitely more optimized.

------
StavrosK
That is fantastically useful, thank you.

------
d3b14n
The main problem I observe using iconfinder.com is the mess with different
licenses selecting desire icons.

~~~
iconfinder
This is not just a problem for iconfinder.com but for icons and free web
design stuff in general.

~~~
d3b14n
I mean the lack of fine grain the search.

------
ceejayoz
How can there not be a bacon icon?!

~~~
iconfinder
No narwhal icons either - sorry to let you down.

------
AndrewWarner
It's been my go-to icon search for a long time, but how are you bringing in
revenue?

~~~
iconfinder
It is only ad-based revenue at the moment and with 14MM per month it gives an
ok revenue. I'm planning to add premium content in the coming months.

Would you consider paying for high quality icons?

~~~
ryanelkins
I'd consider paying for the ability to use some icons for commercial purposes.
Perhaps you could get some sort of affiliate program going? Then you could add
another rights type - 'Allowed for commercial use (purchase)' or something
like that. Then you could start allowing designers to offer their icons
directly. A centralized place for purchased icons would be much nicer than
what you have to do now - search all over the web and trudge through lots of
designer's websites to try and find what you're looking for.

------
andrewljohnson
Icon search engine: images.google.com, include the word icon, or specify size

~~~
iconfinder
Yeah, you can compare the results here:

<http://www.iconfinder.com/search/?q=computer>

[http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1342...](http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1342&bih=702&gbv=2&tbs=isch:1&sa=1&q=computer+icon&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=)

------
ibejoeb
This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing. This will save me many hours.

------
levesque
Is there no support for SVG icons?

~~~
iconfinder
Not at the moment - but it's coming soon.

------
mdoyle
great service, one of the best.

