8 CSS Icons and Icon Sets in CSS File Format

5 Best CSS Icons and Icon Sets in CSS File Format 2025

CSS Icons Sets to Download

CSS icons are very popular across the web.

Their customizability, suitability, and ability to improve the user experience make them the perfect elements to add to whatever type of digital asset.

By the moment they're understood and recognized globally, icons can also improve the accessibility of your content. In other words, people from different countries, with other cultures and languages, can understand the icon's meaning immediately, with no additional information needed. This means you won't need to translate your content into many languages.

What's more, icons can also improve the readability of your content. As walls of text aren't nice to see and read, you could place icons among the lines and divide the content into smaller and more readable parts.

These were just a few of the many benefits icons bring.

However, to be perfectly functioning and perform their role at their best, icons need to be designed by experienced experts using professional programs.

If you're a beginner or have no experience at all, trying to create them from scratch may end up with poor or zero results. In such a case, buying ready-to-use icons might be a better solution for your needs.

There are a lot of expert web designers selling their artworks on the web today. Moreover, you don't have to worry about not fitting or being compatible with the intended use.

There are many formats available, and you can choose the one that best suits your needs. For example, if you're familiar with the CSS programming language, you can choose icons available in this format.

CSS icons at TemplateMonster

The TemplateMonster marketplace offers a wide range of CSS icon sets.

Every set presents multiple icons representing different objects, actions, and ideas within the same topic. Although the representations are different, each icon included in the set has the same design, similar or the same colors and shapes. This will allow you to guarantee design consistency throughout your content.

All the icons are ready to use. However, if you don't find a design that suits your needs or preferences best, you can edit it. Most of the graphics are, in fact, editable and customizable. You can change their colors, shapes, and overall styles by using some compatible software or online tool.

Plus, you can filter the results by colors, topics, rating, file format, compatibility, last update. This way, you'll get only the icon sets you might be interested in, making the research more straightforward and quicker.

CSS icon topics

The CSS icons you'll encounter across the TemplateMonster marketplace are graphical representations associated with different topics. Whatever the industry you operate in, you'll find a related set of graphics. The following are some of the most popular topics:

• business;
• medical;
• nature;
• people;
• food;
• data;
• security;
• web development;
• file formats;
• industrial.

Where to place icons

Icons can fit almost every digital asset. Even if their original file format isn't compatible with the intended use, you can easily convert it into another one using one of the several available free online converters. Anyway, the following are some of the most common icon placements:

• websites;
• landing pages;
• ebooks;
• presentations;
• social media posts;
• brochures;
• Instagram stories highlight covers;
• flyers.

How to edit CSS icons

As previously mentioned, you can easily edit CSS icons. You can change colors, shapes, and designs. To do so, you can either directly edit the CSS code using a text editor or visually edit them using some compatible software or online tools.

Advantages of using CSS icons

CSS icons can bring you more advantages if compared with other file formats. Therefore, they can benefit both you and the users.

Below, we listed some of the most relevant.

Easy to maintain and update

If you need to change the style, you'll only need to edit the code. This will require less time and allow you to update your content frequently if needed.

Better design consistency

With a single style sheet, you can make sure that your content's design looks uniform and polished. If it were not for CSS, you would have to note the style you used for certain elements or pages and reference it while changing another. By doing so, it would have taken you much more time.

Lightweight code

CSS is minimal code. This means that, if used correctly, it won't slow down, load, or ruin the overall performance of your website or other digital assets.

Faster web page download time

Loading your website with a lot of elements and code may slow it down, and users can get easily bored with waiting for it, and, as a result, they'll probably abandon it almost immediately.

Since it is minimal code, CSS leads to less code behind your web pages, improving the download time.

Device compatibility

Style sheets allow content to be optimized for multiple types of devices and browsers. In this way, regardless of the browser from which your users access your content, it will appear correctly.

Best practices for icon usability

It is important to consider some important details when selecting and using icons. These practices will allow you to get the best results and guarantee a better user experience and functionality.

Below, we listed some of the best practices for better icon usability.

Choose familiar icons

First and foremost, choose familiar icons and avoid those that you have never seen before. If not recognizable, icons may disorientate and confuse users, which, in such a case, might be tempted to leave your website.

Test icons for recognizability

To make sure that icons are familiar to the users, you can run a test for recognizability. If they take over five seconds to guess the right related meaning, you should choose another more familiar icon type.

Ensure design consistency

When selecting icons, make sure they present colors, shapes, and styles which are identical or at least similar to the ones you've already used across your content. If not so, consider editing them using some compatible editing programs.

They must communicate meaning

Icons shouldn't be placed without a purpose. You should use them to communicate a message or help users better understand a concept that may be complex. Thus, before choosing them, think about what meaning you want to attribute and what they should communicate to users.

Use labels

Although users can understand the icons' meaning with no additional information, it is better to accompany them with a text label. By doing so, you'll clear any possible doubt or uncertainty the users may have about their meaning. The label should comprehend two or three words at maximum and able to perfectly summarize the significance.

Don't use the same icons for different purposes

If you intend to communicate different meanings, use a single and distinct icon for each of them. Thus, it's better not to use the same icon for different purposes, as this may confuse the users.

How icons can improve your content and the UX

Many reasons explain why people like to embed icons into their content. Some of them are related to aesthetic factors, others to UX improvement. In any case, icons

Here, we listed some of the most important benefits they can bring.

Icons confer an eye-catching look

In the first place, icons are visual elements. This means they can confer an eye-catching look to your content. In addition, their original colors, shapes, and designs will make your content look more professional and polished, and users will be more likely to spend more time interacting with it.

Icons enhance the navigation

Apart from their visual function, icons can also serve as guides for the users. For example, if presented with blocks of text, they may find it difficult to follow a path or orientate themselves. In this sense, you can use icons as anchors that guide the users step by step.

You can also use icons as buttons that link one page with another. This way, you'll redirect the users and drive them to take the last action, which represents your business goal (e.g., subscription, purchase, and so on).

Icons draw users' attention

As they're visually appealing, icons can easily draw the users' attention. However, if you place them strategically on your website, users will be drawn to the important sections of your content. So, instead, avoid placing them close to information that is not relevant for achieving your business goal.

Icons can save space

As you can use icons to summarize and sometimes even replace words, they'll allow you to save space on your content. In this way, you won't overload it with tons of information, affecting its performance. Plus, you won't make your content full of words and information, which may look unorganized and unprofessional.

Icons improve the readability

Walls of text are outmoded. Nobody likes or goes through them anymore. This means you need to find alternative solutions. To mention one, you could place icons among the text and split it into smaller parts, which will become more readable. By doing so, your content will be more pleasant to see, and users will be more willing to read and interact with it for a longer time.

Icons can improve the accessibility

Icons are universal. With different backgrounds in terms of languages and cultures, people from all around the world can recognize and understand the meaning of almost all icons. This means that you'll make your content accessible worldwide by using icons without the need to translate it into other languages.