Blog
Guides to drawing, choosing and shipping UI icons, from the designer who draws every Pikaicon.
Duotone icons, and how to colour them
A duotone icon draws its key part at full strength and a supporting part a tone lighter. Here's how that second tone is built, where to find it, and how to repaint it.
Free icons for commercial use, and when you still have to give credit
Most popular free icon sets let you ship in a paid product without a credit line. Here is which ones, what their licenses do ask, and the places where free still means credit us.
How to use SVG icons in React
A typed component covers most apps, SVGR turns your own .svg files into components and a sprite takes over when a page shows hundreds of icons, so here is working code for each and the fixes for the errors you are likely to hit.
Icon sizes for UI design, and why 16px looks soft
Icons are drawn on a grid and screens are grids too, so an icon is only as sharp as the line-up between the two, and the size you pick decides that more than the stroke does.
Outline vs filled icons, and when to use each
Outline icons are quiet and filled icons are loud. Most interfaces need both, and the trick is giving each one a job.
The best free icon libraries in 2026, and the fine print on each
Sixteen free icon sets you can ship in a commercial product today, which one fits what you're building, and the fine print that separates open source from merely free.
The best icon libraries for UI design in 2026
Seven icon libraries worth building a product on, which to pick for React, Figma, Android or brand logos, and the trade-off each one asks you to accept (we make one, and say so).
The best paid icon libraries, and what they really cost
Seven premium icon libraries checked at the source: what each is best at, what a seat or a team costs over three years, and the license lines that decide whether it fits.