The Importance Of A Good Icon

Icon design is a funny old game. Computer applications have always had icons; well, ever since operating systems offered graphical user interfaces (sometime in the 60’s and 70’s, though this is a blog post in itself). As screen and display technology improved, so too did icons. It became possible to display some real complexity and quality in that small square space.

Icons then went a bit out of vogue as the world wide web came to prominence. Websites could display an icon in later browsers, but it never seemed high on the agenda of web developers. This all changed with smartphones and the explosion in popularity of apps. Suddenly icons were cool again. A good icon became part of a brand, and often helped to make the program stand out in an app store. Developers had a 57x57 pixel area to make their app stand out against the hundreds and thousands of other apps it was displayed alongside. Put simply, icon design is important, although not everyone has the design ability to create something suitable.

Infragistics recognizes this and offers its own icon catalog, featuring over 380,000 general and industry specific icons. Have a look at our icon browser to cast your eye over the icons themselves, and see what packs they are available in. All packs contain icons in seven different sizes, and in ICO and PNG format. The best part? The more you buy, the cheaper they are.