After the showcase of a collection of 3D icon designs, this time we would like to show something quite small but extremely beautiful. Like I said some of my previous articles, icon designing now has two directions: one is for huge icon designs with a lot of details, the other is for mini icons which are able to save space and give enough information. For example, the sizes of Windows icons, initially in Windows 95 there are only 2 sizes in each icon (16px and 32px). Now Windows 7 has been released, the icon sizes are from 16px to 256px. However, for web design or desktop application design, small icons are somehow still very useful, especially for listings and toolbar buttons.

To me, mini icons are all about sharpness and maintenance of details. Also the consistency of style is important. Here we summarised a number of very nice mini icon sets for you. Most of them are free resources, but please check the author website for the appropriate licensing information before you use them.

Fugue Icons by pinvoke

This is the most impressive mini icon set I have ever seen. Not only the quantity of the icons (2396 icons in this set) but also the details and style. The author is so kind to include the PSD source files in the download pack.

Diagona Icons by pinvoke

This set is from the same author of the above icon set. And in a different style with the same true quality.

Silk Icons by famfamfam

Another big set of icons with extremely good design, the sharpness of icons has been maintained very well.

Mini Icons by famfamfam

Another mini icon set from the previous author.

ASP.NET icons

A set of colourful mini icons with high contrast. Very useful web development toolbar icons. Somehow the link of author is not working. You can download the icon set at Icon Finder.

Free Web Development Icons by Icojoy

Two sets of web development icons, again very useful in web application.

LED Icon Set

This is another very large and nice set of mini icons, there are totally 513 icons in high quality which covered almost everything useful in web/desktop designs.

Mini Pixel Icons by Icondock

This is a nice set by Nick La from Icondock. It is a set of 320 icons in 14×14 pxiels.

Sizcons by RandomJabber

A small but very nice set of mini icons.

Vaga Icons by tenbytwenty

Another relatively small set (60 icons) but with high quality.

Web Mini Icons by Axislis

Axialis Icon Workshop is one of my favorite icon editor. On its website, there are a number of free icon sets available for download, here are two sets of nice mini icons.

Xiao Icons by Delacro

Xiaoin Chinese means small or mini. This is a very nice set of mini icons in various colours by Delacro, a Chinese UI designer.

Some Mini Icons by Double-J Design

At last, I would like to introduce some mini icon designs by myself. Blockie Icon Set is one set of mini icon that I developed for Icondock. There are several versions available for download and purchase. Here I have shown a free version. Shinyis the most recently developed icon set by myself, it is available in 16×16 pxiels as well.

If you would like to use these icons in your projects or developments, please double check the authors’ websites or blogs for license information. If you have any nice design that you can share with us or if you have any mini icon development experience. Please feel free to leave your comments or information here. Thanks and enjoy.