I’ve had an IconFinder account for a number of years, and occasionally use it to find icons to add to my visual creations. But I recently discovered a tool that makes it even more valuable for visual thinkers: The IconFinder Editor.
This web-based vector image editing tool is closely integrated with this massive icon repository. It looks like it’s been operational for about three years, but I never knew it existed until now. Here’s how I discovered it.
I was working on a presentation to explain a new mind mapping framework I’ve developed. I wanted some icons to help my readers to visualize each of its four steps. I found the perfect icons on IconFinder and purchased them, but I was immediately faced with a problem: The icons were black, but I needed them to be white.
At the time, I didn’t have a program on my new laptop that enabled me to easily adjust the colors of vector images, so I poked around IconFinder to determine if the icons I selected were available in other colors.
I clicked on one of the images that I purchased and was both surprised and delighted to see a link to a tool called the IconFinder Editor. Intrigued, I clicked on it and discovered a simple, well-designed image editor that enables you to selectively re-color specific elements of your image. Or, you can select the entire image and re-color it with just a few clicks.
In a matter of minutes, I was able to re-color the four icons I purchased from black to white and download them as PNG files with transparent backgrounds. Perfect!
The Editor also includes a rudimentary set of shape and path drawing tools that you can use to personalize icons more extensively to meet your needs. You can also superimpose text onto an icon. You can download icons as PNG or SVG vector images.
How can you use this tool?
You can now re-color icons to meet your needs, whether it’s to display them against a contrasting background color, to make them conform with your brand colors and a myriad of other applications.
IconFinder Editor expands your ability to enhance your mind maps, diagrams, infographics, presentations, collaborative visual workspaces and other visual creations with icons and symbols that convey the exact meaning you have in mind.
If you haven’t checked out IconFinder before, I urge you to do so. For two dollars per icon, it’s an excellent deal. And the Editor is a big time-saver. You no longer have to be a wizard with vector graphics to customize icons to meet your exact needs!
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