Iconator Review: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives

Get Creative with Iconator — Fast, Custom Icons for Any ProjectIcons are the small visual anchors that guide users, explain functions, and give interfaces personality. Whether you’re designing a mobile app, a website, a presentation, or marketing materials, high-quality custom icons make interfaces clearer and more memorable. Iconator is a tool designed to speed up icon design while keeping creative control in your hands. This article explores how Iconator works, why you might choose it, practical workflows, tips for better icon design, and how to integrate Iconator output into real projects.

What is Iconator?

Iconator is a digital tool for generating, customizing, and exporting icons quickly. It blends template-based design, procedural generation, and manual editing so you can create consistent icon sets in minutes rather than hours. Iconator typically offers features like:

• Template libraries for common categories (social, productivity, ecommerce, UI controls)
• Style presets (outline, filled, flat, glyph, hand-drawn)
• Color and gradient controls
• Adjustable stroke widths, corner radii, and padding
• Export in multiple formats: SVG, PNG, PDF, and icon fonts
• Batch editing to keep icons consistent across a set

Why use Iconator?

• Speed: Create consistent icon sets much faster than drawing each icon from scratch.
• Consistency: Apply a global style or preset so every icon shares the same visual language.
• Flexibility: Export vector SVGs for scalability or raster PNGs for legacy systems.
• Accessibility: Many icon generators include built-in labeling and focus on clear, legible shapes suitable for small sizes.
• Iteration: Rapidly test visual variations (color, stroke, background) to match brand identity.

Typical workflows

1. Quick set generation

   • Choose a category (e.g., navigation, ecommerce).
   • Pick a style preset (outline, filled).
   • Select or generate icons, adjust spacing and stroke.
   • Export the set as SVGs or a sprite sheet.

2. Brand customization

   • Start from a base template.
   • Apply brand colors and rounded corners.
   • Adjust stroke weights to match existing UI components.
   • Export icons and generate a CSS file with variables for colors and sizes.

3. Iterative design with developers

   • Create an initial set and export as SVGs.
   • Share a ZIP with developers including icons, a style guide, and naming conventions.
   • Tweak icons after feedback and re-export; maintain versioning to track changes.

Design tips for better icons

• Start simple: Reduce details so icons remain clear at small sizes (16–32 px).
• Maintain optical balance: Keep stroke widths and shapes visually consistent across icons.
• Use grids: Align key strokes and elements to a consistent 16 or 24 px grid.
• Limit colors: One or two accent colors plus neutrals prevents visual clutter.
• Test at scale: Preview icons at the smallest and largest sizes they’ll be displayed.
• Consider mental models: Use metaphors users recognize (a magnifying glass for search, a gear for settings).
• Make actions distinct: Ensure icons representing different actions look visually separable.

Export and file-format best practices

• Use SVG for UI work: SVGs are scalable, editable, and small in file size for crisp rendering on any screen.
• Provide PNG fallbacks: For apps or platforms that require raster assets (e.g., legacy email templates).
• Optimize SVG: Remove unnecessary metadata and combine paths where possible to reduce file size.
• Use icon fonts carefully: Icon fonts are convenient for scaling and color control via CSS but can cause accessibility issues if not handled with proper aria-labels.
• Provide multiple sizes: Export commonly used sizes (16, 24, 32, 48, 64) to ensure pixel-perfect rendering where needed.

Accessibility considerations

• Include descriptive names and alt text for each icon when used in HTML.
• Avoid relying on color alone to convey meaning; pair icons with labels when possible.
• Ensure sufficient contrast between icon and background for readability.
• Test icons with assistive technologies — screen readers should receive meaningful labels.

Integration examples

• Web: Import SVGs as inline SVG or as background images. Inline SVG allows CSS styling and animation.
• iOS/Android: Use platform-specific asset catalogs; provide 1x/2x/3x PNGs or vector PDF/SVG where supported.
• Design systems: Store icon tokens (color, stroke, padding) in your design system so teams reuse consistent assets.
• Presentations & marketing: Export high-resolution PNG or PDF for print and slide decks.

When Iconator might not be right for you

• Highly unique, hand-crafted icons: If your brand needs a signature icon style, a custom illustrator may be preferable.
• Complex pictograms: Very detailed diagrams or infographics might require manual vector work.
• Full creative control: Some designers prefer building each icon from scratch in a vector editor for micro-adjustments.

Sample project timeline (small product)

• Day 1: Define icon set (list 40–60 icons), choose style preset.
• Day 2: Generate base icons, apply brand colors and spacing.
• Day 3: Review and tweak with stakeholders; export SVGs and PNGs.
• Day 4: Developer integration and accessibility labeling.
• Day 5: Final polish and asset delivery.

Conclusion

Iconator accelerates icon creation without sacrificing a unified visual language. It’s best used when you need consistent, scalable icons quickly—especially for product teams, freelancers, and small agencies. Combined with careful design decisions around simplicity, accessibility, and export formats, Iconator can help you produce professional icon sets that improve usability and polish across any project.