In a time of whopping digitization where creativity lies at the pinnacle of UI designing, lending an edge to your website can be a challenging task. It so happens that your idea and strategy may be smashing, but making it look intriguing on the internet seems out of league. This is exactly where Icon Font come in!

Icon Font are fonts which contain symbols and tiny graphics, usually used to accompany text. You may design letters too as Icon font. The basic purpose of icon font is just to add that touch of completeness to your content. They add a visual appeal to your pages in a very simple, yet an immensely effective manner.

Icon Font can be used as primary and secondary tools. Standalone icons can lead the pack on their own, while small icons serve the purpose of supporting a piece of information.

‘So why not just use images instead?’ If this is what you’re wondering, the answer is simple: Icon Font are easy!

• They’re easily adjustable in terms of size and colour
• You can easily shadow their shape
• There’s no fear of losing quality as in case of bitmap images
• They can have transparent knockouts
• The load time is reduced without compromising on the look and feel parameter.

To summarize, icon fonts are basically awesome. Even though there are free sets available, you can go ahead and create them yourselves as per your customization, using simple tools.

Here are 10 free tools to help you create your own icon font:

1. Fontello

Fontello provides a very handy platform to easily create icon font. When you open the website, you find a wide embedded collection of icon font already. You can set a few settings, like the name of the font and a prefix for your css classes. But, if you want to create something else for yourself, the process is quite simple. All you need to do is import your custom images into Fontello. There are currently two vector formats supported by it- SVG images and SVG fonts.

Just drag your SVG file from your computer and drop it to the bar below the ‘Custom Icons’ heading, and you’re done!

1. Icomoon

The icomoon app allows you to browse thousands of icon font from their collection, and build your own icon font. You can upload your own SVG using the ‘import icons’ button and your glyphs will appear in a sorted manner. Thereafter, you’re free to edit, rearrange, and delete each of the glyphs.  You can also create your own fonts in this app. Icomoon stores all your fonts in your account itself, but if you want to access them through the cloud, an option of buying a premium accounts is present.

1. Icon Vault

Icon Vault is a super smooth website and very easy to use! It offers properly sequenced icon templates divided into sub-headings like Social and iOS. You have the option to create your own font by downloading their pre-tailored icon template. Once your zip folder is ready, simply drag and drop it in the section which says ‘Drop files here to upload.’

1. Glyphter

Glyphter is a quirky platform that welcomes you with a unique character grid, where you can drag and drop SVG files. On the right hand side, a comprehensive grid of their free icons is visible and you can select as many of them as you want and just drag them to the left. When you have assembled the icons you want to create in the grid, you can select each and edit them using the ‘Glyph Editor’. After you’re done with editing, just click the download arrow and viola! The task is done.

1. Pictonic Icon Font builder

Here is a creative solution to your web designing problems. Pictonic has a platter of exactly 362 free icons, after which it charges $0.59 per icon from users.

This website needs you to sign up to be able to work on it. It has a humungous collection of over 2700 icons.

The website is pretty effective and you can browse icons from their wide and sequentially arranged categories.

1. Fontastic

A splendidly quirky website with over 9000 font icons; need we say more?

To access the icon creation system, registration with Fontasic is mandatory. You can thereby select from a tray of their freely available icon sets, such as Octicons, Steamline Icons, Foundation Icons, etc. You can also upload your own SVG icons. Thereafter, on clicking the ‘Publish’ tab, you will have the option to download your icon font, or to publish it on their Icons’ Cloud. The best feature in this website is that you can edit, change colour, etc. of your icons whenever you want to, using Fontastic.

1. We Love Icon Font

As the name suggests, this website lets you choose and build your own icon font package. You are served with a choice of great quality icon font, including Brandicon, Entypo, Font Awesome, to name a few. You can directly add and use a set to your own site. Click ‘Add’ and thereafter, you will receive an embedded code and you can use css to further customize your collection!

1. Font Custom

Generating your own icon font has become way more hassle-free using this website. It has strikingly unique features, like a cross-browser functioning. One command, and you’re all set to create multiple font formats along with accompanying CSS file and a bulletproof stylesheet with it. Also, there is no standard configuration required and no need to manually update, given the presence of a command line watcher that allows you to edit the icons with CSS using Bootstrap’s naming convention. How amazing is that?

1. Font Awesome

This platform surely does justice to its name. It provides an easy to use interface, with infinite scalability which means that every icon stays crisp and clear at any size. You can use CSS to do all possible actions on the font icons, plus it is compatible with all screen readers and all frameworks in addition to Bootstrap.

And the best part? It is fully and completely free for commercial use!

1. Pictos

Just when we thought it couldn’t get better than this, Pictos made its way to the UI designing arena with a bang. It offers great options in its forever free pack. Each interface icon in its new and innovative collection called ‘Redux’ has three variations, viz.

• Line: shows icon shapes’ outlines
• Solid: the icon shapes are filled with a solid B&W colour theme
• Colours: all icon fonts have fully complete colours.

These icons are also sub-divided into useful categories.

Above all, Pitcos guarantees seemless quality since every Redux icon has been carefully crafted and fitted in to a 24 x 24 grid to ensure utmost clarity.

It is needless to say that web interface has taken a big leap, thanks to icon font, which provide just the perfect amalgamation of humble, quirky, edgy, awesome and appeal. Basically, their significance in the look and feel of a site cannot be understated. So go ahead and get creating these hugely impactful little icon font!

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