MotoCMS Blog

Sites for Free Icons – How to Choose and Use Symbols

Daria Kosych

Icons play an essential role in website navigation as they attract visitor’s attention and create necessary logical connections concerning your services. Moreover, they help you emphasize the uniqueness of your business and share its atmosphere and vision. That is why, today, we’d like to show you the most popular sites for free icons and consider how to add symbols to your pages effortlessly. Also, we’ll find out how to choose and use the very icons.

Free Website Design Icons and Their Role

Icons are pictures or symbols used as buttons, links, or decorative elements to draw attention to the text(services, or business strengths, for instance). Let’s observe what their role for your site is and whether it’s necessary to think about them:

Types of Icons

  1. Linear. These are icons that are made up of lines or outlines. Strict and minimalistic images are used both for navigation and in information blocks. Lines can be thin or thick; sometimes, images are filled with color.
  2. Illustrations. Instead of thin lines and clear outlines, special color drawings are used. Such pictures make the site colorful and catch the eye when viewing the page.
  3. Volumetric. Some web designers are moving away from flat and minimalistic design trends and are using stand-alone images instead of icons. These can be clippings from product photos or thematic pictures.
  4. Simple elements. In some cases, not pictures are placed on the site, but simple geometric shapes or numbers, not to clutter up the design with elements.
  5. Font icons. It is a special kind of icon connected to the site as a font with vector images instead of symbols. The advantage of these icons is changing colors, shadows, sizes, and other CSS properties.

The Best Sites for Free Icons

There are various free icon libraries for you to choose from. We offer you to have a look at the best ones:

Besides, it presents icons for both personal and commercial use in the most popular formats.

It’s not a secret that today users scroll the content, and only if something attracts their attention, they start reading the text. Icons from this website will cope with this task 100%.

Moreover, it does all the work for you. After choosing the appropriate category, it shows you the icons divided according to the necessary website element. For example, if you need symbols for an eCommerce site, Streamline offers you icons for products, discounts, baskets, etc.  If you like some premium products, there is a 5-day trial period for you to decide whether you’ve made the right choice.

– price;

– style;

– license conditions.

Even if you like a premium icon, there are good pricing plans so that it won’t cost you a lot of money.

Time to Find Out How to Use Free Website Design Icons

Most online sites for free icons have similar usage conditions. Although they are free, some of them have licensing requirements. Therefore you should log in or buy at least the cheapest plan to use icons for free and without any links.

With MotoCMS templates, you can choose from the list of current icons or add your own in the form of an image(if necessary). To manage it, go to Widgets – Accordion. Nowadays, accordions are popular interface elements. For mobile users, it’s an essential tool that folds content and makes the page length acceptable. On desktops, they reduce visual complexity and allow visitors to focus more on the content.

Then, click on the Settings on the right – Items – Add button. That’s all. Note that it’s better to download free icons png format.

Some Tips to Avoid Mistakes

  1. Choose the icons with apparent meaning, so the users know what to expect and click on them. Of course, if it plays a decorative function, you have more space for your imagination. Also, avoid using inappropriate and random symbols, follow their consistency.
  2. In most cases, the icons should be used with a piece of text as it’s often not clear what the icon stands for. Thus, they play the role of additional tools that emphasize content.
  3. Do the test and check whether the chosen free icons for website implement their functions. You can ask your friends or clients to give feedback on the work of icons, whether they understand what each of them means or not.
  4. Follow the same style, size, and color. It’s better to choose a set of free website design icons to make your site look professional. Downloading symbols from different sites for free icons and combining them on one page won’t bring good results.
  5. Does the size matter? Small icons provide the same level of visual interest as large ones but do not distract attention so much. Ensure that the icons are easy to recognize and that they are close in meaning to the text they are focusing on.
  6. It may sound simple, but it’s essential not to overuse icons. When you have unlimited access to free platforms, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessary to place signs everywhere. Use spare space(sidebars, headers and footers, and lists) on a page reasonably. Usually, it’s an excellent solution for presenting your business benefits, strengths, services, and products:

Key Answers to Ask Before a Final Decision

1.Ask yourself whether an icon can:

2. Decide whether a selected icon:

If you answered “yes” to all questions, you can use the icon.

3. Don’t use an icon if it:

How to Create Your Own Icons

Using standard or clear-to-understand icons certainly won’t play against you. Nevertheless, if you can’t find the desired symbols on sites for free icons, you can create them on your own:

Give a Chance to Free Website Design Icons

Icons serve the same psychological purpose as empty lines between paragraphs: they visually divide content, making it less intimidating to read. A well-formatted page with text breaks and accented icons is easy to read and engaging enough to keep visitors’ attention. Stop wasting time writing huge texts that nobody reads. Start using icons!

Please, consider the sites for free icons and all the things we’ve discussed and use the opportunities effectively. Remember that such simple tools as icons may play a significant role in a good user experience, website navigation, and ideal bounce rate.