We know how important web icons can be to a web page. They look more interesting than text and are more likely to attract the eye than the words. For instance when you use lists to show a product’s feature it’s recommended to use web icons as people are often bored to read full descriptions and putting icons next to features’ description will definitely make the list easier to process.

The problem is, lists are boring, and they are especially boring when they have a lot of text. People browsing your website certainly won’t put much effort into reading your ads – and they’re there to browse, not work – so it’s up to you to make the list as easy to process as possible. [...] Icons beside feature description in lists work like bullet points: they’re little anchors on the page which our eyes can easily focus.

Quote from “The Smashing Book“.

I would like to share with you three valuable web resources that you can use to get the web icons you want.

IconFinder.net is a database of over 156,000 icons / 484 icon sets. You can download the icons in either .PNG or .ICO format. They have different sizes ranging from 12×12 to 256x256px. The search feature of the website is customizable: you can set total results per page, the background of the icons, a license filter (2 options: No license filtering, Allowed for commercial use). If you know a good icon set / or have one that you created and want to share it with others you have the option to “Submit icon set”.

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Imperial Porcelain is a free icon set consisting in 5 beautiful original icons in .PNG format (160×160px). This set, designed by Roman Khramov and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers, can be used in various settings including hotel and restaurants websites, e-commerce-sites or even on food-related blogs.

The set can be used in all your projects, for free without any restrictions. You can freely used in both personal and commercial projects including software, online services, templates and themes. However, it may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use.

Quoting Roman Khramov, the designer of these icons:

Icons were made in design of Russian imperial porcelain. We wished to perform this work with humour and in Russian traditions. The icon “partners” is especially distinguished. We tried to pay huge attention to difficult pictures and small details. The icons set is freely available for commercial and non-commercial use, without any restrictions. The set consists of 5 custom-made icons in the resolution 160×160 .png.

Copenhagen is an icon set consisting in 25 icons that cover many of features shown on web app sites, which include icons for client, payment, download, secure, email and many more. Asher Abbasi, the designer of these icons, named the icons after his own home city, Copenhagen.

The icons are based on the most popular terms from IconFinder.net, but targeted web design for web apps. The icons may be used commercially, but you have to link back to http://www.iconfinder.net. They may not be redistributed without written permission.

Gesturecons is sharing a set of high-resolution multi-touch vector icons created to aid in the design, development, implementation and promotion of multi-touch interfaces. You can use these icons in the creation of wire-frame documents, digital help files and printed documentation. You can also use Gesturecons inside of your applications in order to demonstrate to users how to complete actions or prompt them to interact with an application when they approach it.

Swap out symbols to create your own icons, because these are scalable vector shapes, you can scale them to any size and alter them in any way you wish. Use your favorite vector graphics application to edit.

There are 2 sets available: a main set and a mobile set.

Icojoy is sharing a new free weather icon set containing 16 (24×24 sized) icons made in web 2.0 style. The download package contains 5 icon file types: .png, .gif, .bmp, .ico and .tif. The images are colored with and without shadows, with a subtle grey shade and transparent .bmp, .gif formats are optimized for lighter backgrounds. The icons are free to use in any kind of personal and commercial projects unlimited times.

Vector Social Media Icons is a free set that includes 50 icons of the most popular social media network from the internet. With the vector format (16px and 32px), you can scale the icon to any size ideal to fit in your web design projects or in any high quality print materials. The icons come in 3 different files format: vector EPS, PNG, and GIF.

Icons include: AOL Amazon, App Store, Apple, Bebo, Behance Network, Blogger, Delicious, Design Bump, Design Float, Deviant Art, Digg, Email, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Friendster, Google, Google Talk, Last.fm, LinkedIn, MSN, Microsoft, Mister Wong, Mixx, MobileMe, MySpace, Netvibes, Newsvine, Posterous, Qik, RSS, Reddit, Retweet Button, Share This, Skype, Slash Dot, SlideShare, Squidoo, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Tumblr, Twitter, Viddler, Vimeo, Virb, WordPress, Yahoo, Yahoo Buzz, YouTube.

Furry Cushions Social Icons is a set with 6 transparent furry social icons in .PNG made by the Italian graphic designer Andrea Austoni and released especially for Noupe and its readers. This set can be used free for both personal and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. It may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use.

Quoting Andrea Austoni, the designer:

It’s that time of the year again, when you just need a furry cushion to help you socialize. The Furry Cushions Social Icons set includes icons for Delicious, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS, StumbleUpon and Twitter. All icons come as transparent PNGs in 4 popular sizes. Have a comfy social life in 2010!

To celebrate the Redesign of the Envato Marketplaces, GraphicRiver is sharing a completely free web icon set that was designed by the icon designers from Turbomilk. All you need is a link back to the free icon set page (http://graphicriver.net/free-icons) and you can use the icons in anything from personal to commercial items for sale on ThemeForest and FlashDen. Go wild!

FatCow Web Hosting, a leading provider of web hosting, domain registration and related marketing services, is sharing 1000 free beautifully designed web icons for download. The icon set includes both the 16px and the 32px versions of the icons. The images are available in PNG format with transparent backgrounds.