Icon Resources

Icons can often play an important role in the things you are designing. They are great for helping to reduce text, call attention and a host of other nice benefits. Fortunately, there are a lot of great resources for finding exactly the icon you need. Some of my favorites include:

Some of these sites have basic options for customization. Typically just an option for choosing a single solid color.

Dingbat or Icon Fonts are another good source for icons. Here are six ways to use these types of dingbat fonts.

Font Cutter Trick

Many folks may never need to go beyond either of these options for their icons. But if you want to go a step further or tap into the ability to customize things a bit more you’ll definitely want to know what Taylor Croonquist call’s the “Font Cutter Technique” for converting the symbols in your icon font into fully customizable shapes.

This is a simple, easy to use technique that leverages PowerPoint’s Merge Shapes tool.  Watch his video to see how it works:

Be sure to grab Taylor’s Ultimate Icon Resource Bundle which includes:

• His PowerPoint Font Cutter tool
• A collection of 886 ready to use “pre-cut” icons
• A handy font icon reference sheet for the built-in wingding and webding fonts

My favorite thing about this trick for converting the characters from your icon fonts into easily editable shapes how easy it is to make stunning professional graphics. Take this before and after example for instance. On the left is the original font character/symbol and on the right is the converted/customized graphic. Quite an improvement right? And it took less than 60 seconds!!!

How do you use icons in your designs? Do you have a favorite, “go to’ icon source? Have you ever used the Merge Shapes tool? I’d love to hear from you!