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How do you manage icons? [Questionnaire]

almost 7 years ago from , Product Designer @ Inkling

Hey DN fiends,

After experiencing some frustration with the icon discovery, sharing, and delivery process, I am exploring some potential solutions outside of things like Lingo and Dropbox. Apparently, other designers have experienced similar issues.

I'd love to dig deeper and get the community's thoughts around how people manage their icon assets. Fill out a quick 30 second questionnaire and comment with any additional thoughts. Thanks!

Update October 11, 2016

Thanks for the responses, all! If you've responded to the questionnaire, you can see a summary of >60 responses here

Summary of options from comments:

Iconjar

  • Pulls from local folder structure
  • Good for solo use
  • Create sets, tags, export different sizes
  • Might be a good collaborative option in pair with Dropbox

Lingo

  • Recently popular icon mgmt app to sync across machines
  • Create sets, tags, export different sizes/formats
  • Good for solo use and across teams
  • Cloudsync capabilities

Design file (e.g. Illustrator, Sketch)

  • Easy to update within design team
  • No extra tooling required
  • Difficult to search and filter down

Github, icon fonts, InVision Craft

FWIW We are trying to roll our own React web app to make things easier for both design and development. Still very early stage.

10 comments

  • Guilherme SchmittGuilherme Schmitt, almost 7 years ago

    Switched from IconJar to Lingo recently. Both are very nice tools but I really like the syncing capabilities of Lingo.

    2 points
  • Andrius PetraviciusAndrius Petravicius, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    Was looking for a way to manage icons myself recently. Tried most of the stuff I could find: IconJar, svgsus, Lingo. I chose Lingo and absolutely love it now. Lingo recently had a great update, which made the app much more stable and improved asset management. The best Lingo feature compared to other mentioned apps is instant cloud syncing. For me it's a no brainer to go with Lingo, as all my icons are available from everywhere, easy to find, manage and preview.

    2 points
  • Anwar ChoukahAnwar Choukah, almost 7 years ago

    I've tried IconJar and loved it until I started using Lingo.

    Not only does it sync, but you can also subscribe to icon collections which will ensure they're always up to date (so far I only subscribe to the Noun Project and Google's Material Icons).

    Heartily recommended and it's free!

    1 point
  • Skye Selbiger, almost 7 years ago

    I've tried Iconjar, Craft, and Lingo.

    And I prefer Lingo, because of the cloud capabilities, but also because it automatically generates alternate file types (as well as being app-agnostic). So when I'm trying to make quick comps with existing icons I can just grab the PNG, or if I need to make some small edits I'll grab the SVG.

    1 point
  • Brent RiddellBrent Riddell, almost 7 years ago

    Been using http://www.svgs.us/ like it so far :)

    1 point
  • Scott LewisScott Lewis, almost 7 years ago

    I feel your pain, Ray. I have about 5,000 icons in my personal library (my own designs) and managing them has been a pain for quite some time. I recently decided to start treating my icon sets like development projects, though. Since the software release and update process is well-understood (I am also a developer), I decided that for now it is probably the best option. So far I've been pleased with the results.

    I am using Github to store the icons and manage versioning. This not only gives me safe backups of all of my work but it also gives me the added benefit of being able to revisit any previous version, create branches for specific purposes, and work on new releases without relying only on file naming for my version identification and control.

    The one drawback is the lack of a GUI for searching and browsing. I haven't tried to tackle that issue yet but I'm thinking something like IconJar may work for my needs.

    0 points
  • Daniel WearneDaniel Wearne, almost 7 years ago

    To manage icons at the code level I've been using FontCustom at Culture Amp and my last few projects before that. It basically watches a folder for svg's and creates a font based on those icons. The svg filename becomes a class and you can spit them out on the DOM. It's fairly trivial forward for a designer to add an svg to the font:

    1. place svg into folder
    2. run 'fontcustom compile' on terminal
    3. commit and push

    cons:

    • font has to load before icons render
    • font size grows pretty quick
    • the repo is no longer active
    • once shapes are compiled, they're no longer svg's. They're still customisable but only to the extent of font css properties.
    0 points
    • Evgeny BeckerEvgeny Becker, almost 7 years ago

      Therefore i prefer Grunticon Instead of an iconfont it creates a CSS that can contain svgs with multiple colors and even interactivity. PNG fallback can be also set if needed, a gulp alternative is also available.

      0 points