from: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/top-sites-to-get-free-icon-sets/
Pictures talk a lot more than words do, so placing icon in websites and blogs in key areas will gain the attention of the readers. Web designers work a lot searching for best icons to include in the site and to make their site more effective and reachable. You can also use these icons to replace the icons on your computer folders, etc.. to make them look attractive and to able to know what the folder contains in a symbolic way.
Here you’ll find some of the best websites that offer various free icon set collections as well as just separate good collections in other sites, so browse through the sites and download the icon sets for free.
1) Icons Etc
You can find more than 104,297 icons in this site. So you are sure to find the right icon set that you are looking for. You can download the free icon sets and clipart stock images as whole or browse through the icon set and download a single icon that you need. All the icons present in this site are of high quality and there are some 3D icon sets available for download as well.
2) FreeIconsWeb
FreeIconWeb offers hundreds of icon sets for free download. It hosts various kinds of icon sets from basic icons to 3D icons. Icon sets are present in different formats like .PNG and GIF. This website enables you to preview the icon set prior to download. You can also submit your icons on this site.
3) FreeIcons Download
Browse through number of icon sets and download the one you like. You can browse through the icon sets by categories for easy finding. There are icons for every need like computer icons, food, animals, people, etc.
4) Iconarchive
If you are looking for art icons, then this is the place where you have to look for. Find icons for windows, Mac and Linux computers in Iconarchive. Web designers can also find the icons they are looking for easily.
5) Icon Stick
Icon Stick hosts number of vibrant icon sets that you can download for free. You can find various kinds of icons in different formats like PNG, GIF, vector and pixel icons. You can download icons for Windows, MAC and Linux operating system.
6) abb soft
Abb soft is very rich in icon set collections. All the icon sets are arranged in categories for easy finding. It sports icon manager that makes you even easy to find the icon set that you are looking for.
7) Icon factory
This is one another icon rich site where you can download icon sets for Windows, Linux and Mac system. You can also find desktop pictures to download for widescreen, full screen and wallpaper sizes.
8 ) Dry icons
It has got some excellent icon set collections you can download in .IOC or .PNG or .ICNS format. All the icons present in this site are of high quality such that you can insert them into the web site without any corrections or resizing.
9) bestfreeicons.com
This site holds more than 20,000 free high quality icons and many more are been added every day. Browse through the different categories to find the icon set you need and download it for free use.
10) Deviant ART
This site hosts a variety of icon sets which are shared by users. You can find icons for various needs and it also hosts avatars to download.
11) Icon Dock
It has got many free and stock icon sets which are compiled from various sites, such that you can download all of them from one place.
12) Elite by Design
This web site adds new icon sets every day so that you can find new icon sets daily. In this site you can view and download high quality icon sets for free.
13) Smashing Magazine
This website offers 35 cool icon sets to include in your web design project or for use on your computer. You can see icons of animals to latest gadgets to choose from for free download.
14) SpeckyBoy
In this post the author has included some 96 free icon sets. These icon sets will be useful for the web designers, developers and bloggers. Most of the icon sets are of high quality and are available in various formats.
15) Comment.net
If you are looking for free bright icons, then you must have a look at this site. Here you can find about 40 free icon sets that are bright and milky with high quality icons.
16) Hongkiat.com
This site contains some of the cool icon sets for WordPress and other applications. You can download most of the icons for free which are of high resolution and quality. This site is especially useful for the web designers and developers.
17) Nigraphic
Here you can find free icon sets for websites and applications. Icon sets from other websites are also included to help you find the most useful resources possible.
18) Iconpot
Hundreds of different icon sets are present in this site with credits to the name and link of author of each icon set.
19) Iconbuffet
It features many icon sets and you can download them for free in this site. It also features stock icons, standard icons, blog and vector iocns for free. You can also preview the icon sets before you download.
20) Graphic Push
This site has a good collection of blog icons, XML and RSS, file, folder and application management icon packs. They are available for free download and use, very useful for web designers.
21 Naldz Graphics
This blog post contains links to 44 awesome icon sets ranging from browser icons to iPhone icon sets. You can also find latest icon sets like transformers, etc., which look cool on any of the gaming sites.
22) Spheres Graphics
In this site you can find icon set in 4 different colors and you can download it in different formats and sizes. For windows 48 x 48 and 128 x 128 icon set is available and for Mac 128 x 128 icon sets are available.
23) Ganato design
This website is for freelance web designers and developers. In this site you can find different styles for a single icon type so that you can choose to select the best out of all. There are about 24 icon sets are present and all of them are PSD icons.
24) FAMFAMFAM
It has got four icon sets which are very useful to anyone. In this site you can find flags icon set which has many country’s flags. The icon sets are available in GIF and PNG formats.
25) Graphic Design
In this site the developer has aggregated a list of cool icon sets in one place. Such that you can download or have a quick preview of the icon sets directly. You can find icon sets for use in social bookmarking and networking most of the icon sets are useful for the web developers and designers.
26) Directory for designers
In this site you can find 50 icon sets for social media and also to use on your blog. Most of the icons are of high quality and you can also find some free hand drawing icon sets in this site.
27) Six Revisions
About 40 icon sets are present in this site which you can use for many ways. In total there are more than 3000 individual icons in this article.
28) Tutsaz
A large collection of free and commercial icon sets in one place. You can find icon sets like functional, milky, silk, blogging, etc., icon sets in this site.
29) Function
This web sites adds information about new icon sets frequently. In this site you can see the work of freelance designers and can find icon sets to include in your work or applications. You can also find icon sets for social media, bookmarking and sharing.
30) Instant Shift
Cool icon set collections are submitted by the users in this site such that you can download these icon sets for free. There are many free vector icon sets are present in various colors, designs and formats to download in this site.
31) We Love Icons
The icon sets present in this site are free for personal use. You can dowload the icon set in the format you want either for Windows, Mac or in png format. It also features icon converter such that you can upload a file or image to generate icons.
32) Pro Blog Design
In this site there is the coolest collection of some of the best free icon sets on the web. There are different kinds of icon sets like the social bookmarking to vector resources. You can easily download the icon sets directly from this site.
33) Back to essentials
Here in this site you can find 120 free icon sets to download. There are different forms of icons you can find icons for MS office to many cartoon character icons. The collection is really cool with thousands of icons you are sure to find one for you.
34) Ntt.cc
There are more than 400 icon sets in this site ranging from simple web application icons to iPhone icon sets.
35) OpenSourceHunter
This site hosts an article with the list of great free social icons. You can have a instant preview of the icon set and download them directly from this site.
36) Pingable
It host some 20 free and royalty free icon sets. You can see icons of daily gadgets like iPods and other items in this site.
37) Noupe
You will find 50 free icon sets in this site. You can find icons for celebrations, social bookmarking and for other purpose in this site.
38) Traffikd 
There are 10 social bookmarking icon sets in this article which are of high quality.
39) Novus Volce
The author of this article has given the information of icon lists that are hosted on various sites on the net. By clicking on any of the link you can have access to many icon sets at once.
40) dhtml site
In this site there are 22 essential and free icon sets like Silk icons, mini icons, drunkey icon set, etc., to choose from. Most of the icons are useful for the web designers.
41) Web Design Ledger
There are total of 21 best and free icon sets in this article which can be used for web designing projects or in the blogs. All the 21 icon sets are unique among them and there are icon sets like the ASP .Net icons, Tango Icon Library, etc., such that you can find an icon set for every project.
42) Semlabs
In this site the developer has designed and published some 310 icons in the form of one icon set. This icon set can be proving to be the life line of the web designers when they do not find the required icon anywhere else. The icons are present in 16 x 16 size and in PNG format and are free to use in any project.
43) Web Design Dev
This is one of the popular online journals for the web designers. In this site they have included an article that is containing some cool icon sets for free. You can find social bookmarking icon sets, RSS icon sets, flavors icon set, etc., in this site.
44) Blog Perfume
If you are looking for some of the glossy blogging icon set then you must have a look at this site. It has got only one icon set but the designers have done full justification for their work. Every icon looks like a master peace and there are available in 3 sizes 24 x 24, 36x 36 and 48 x 48 in the PNG format.
45) Icon Joy
In this site the developer had included brighter and lighter versions of the icon sets such that the user can choose which icon set to use according to the shade of the background. There is only one icon set is available for free download and use where as you can buy others at low price.
46) Tha Slayer
With in-depth knowledge of web design and latest industry standards the author of this article has included the most useful and high quality icon sets that are useful for the web designers and bloggers. The icon sets are available in different sizes and formats.
47) Best Design Options
This is a blog site that is completely dedicated to help web designers. In this site there is a blog post which contains 18 very useful icon sets for the web designers and bloggers alike. There are icon sets in 3 different sized and are available in various formats.
48) Superb Hosting
In this site there are links to the popular icon set hosting sites so you can browse through all the sites and find the best one to include in your project.
49) CSS Reflex
50) IconFinder *updated
Search through 106,839 icons or browse 167 icon sets. Beautiful website with really huge collections of free icons, in my opinion first place to look for big research.
The author of this article has included the most awesome social bookmark icon sets to download. As most of the people are using social networking sites and the social networking sites are the good means to spread the word across the internet. There are different sizes and formats of icons in this post you can also find some hand crafted icons sets and other graphically designed icon sets in this article.
About the author
Guest blogger Srikanth writes on Tech Inspiration blog about tips, gadgets, and technology. You can also check out his blog or Linkedin Profile for more information.
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