I hate to complain, but I am so tired of these articles that just repost all the same old icon sets that have been out for years (or years in the digital sense). Every month a new one of these posts comes out, but with the same icon sets as every other post. Pet peeve.

http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/21-best-icon-sets-for-de...

http://speckyboy.com/2008/07/28/96-best-ever-free-icon-sets-...

http://www.problogdesign.com/resources/30-best-free-icon-set...

http://www.webiconsets.com/

And the list goes on.

I don't think you are complaining. I see a site like this every few weeks, and even though the icons are different, the majority are also just plain and not-unique. A site that was full of unique icons would be interesting.

Basically, I have no idea who would use the majority of those icons. Most look completely useless as a set, and that's the problem. If one were to use icons on his or her site, most likely he or she actually wants them to look good. I find it hard to believe the majority of those icons could ever be used on a good looking site. ~It is almost as if the creators made the icons to show that they could make icons.

The icon set "Fugue" is my favourite. It has over 2000 icons and can easily be edited, layered etc. I have built an entire web application around them. But yes, I agree.

Thanks for this. Google returned this: http://pinvoke.com/ It is a very complete set.

Well to be honest I saw an icon set one time that was so artistically brilliant (don't ask what that means) that I HAD to use them for something, thus I made an application just for the icons.

I'm not saying the icons are completely useless, but to use them, you have to have the application centered around the design of the icons! ~Which, in my opinion, is not how I want to start a website, or a project. I want a good idea and then apply the correct design and layout, but it's not important. Doing what we did is fun, even though it may not be very practical in all cases.

I like Fugue a lot as well. It's also CC-By Attribution which is a very easy license to work with.

Those are awesome, much nicer than the icons I was using before. Thanks!

I'm tired of seeing "free" icon sites where the icons are only "free" if you do something obscene like post ads for the icon site on your page. If anyone knows of any actual free as in BSD / ASF licensed or similarly licensed icons then that would interest me.

I was a little surprised that the tango icon set was in the 'mini' section, considering it contains everything up to svg copies of the icons.

It seems free icons are somewhat unpopular around here. I mostly use them as application icons on my desktop, considering many of the *nix GUI apps don't have an icon, or even a logo.

They're free-as-in-beer, but double check the licenses before using them.

I can't recall the last time I needed an icon. I need easy curved borders on divs and color palettes. But icons?

Have you tested what attractive icons can do to conversion rates? I have. Suffice it to say that "free" is the last thing I need in an icon set, because whether they cost $25 or $500 if you use them well on an actual business you'll recoup the costs very, very quickly. (The difference between the stock Java icon set and one which was more appropriate to my users was 100% back in 2006. If for some reason you're using signup or download text links instead of buttons drop what you were planning to do today and make yourself a big,　obvious button.)