The Noun Project is a large collection of over 800 open-source icons that you can use with your mind mapping program – with a little bit of modification.
“The Noun Collection consists of the symbols we feel best communicate the objects or concepts they are representing, while at the same time exhibit a high level of design skill and execution,” says an explanation of what the mission of The Noun Collection is. In the open-source spirit, this large library of vector art contains icons created by contributors from around the world, and the site has been translated into 25 languages. This library enables you to view graphics by topical categories, featured collections and keyword search. Because it’s open source, The Noun Collection is constantly growing, as designers and illustrators from around the world contribute their best icons and symbols.
Designed for use by illustrators, these high-quality images are in a scalable vector graphic (SVG) form – perfect for incorporating into an illustration. As their name implies, SVG files can be made larger, without any loss in quality. The problem for mind mappers is that most visual mapping software can’t import this type of graphic file. So you will need to use a graphics program (my preference is Adobe Fireworks – but it can’t open SVG files, unfortunately) to convert it to a format that your program can handle, such as JPG, GIF or PNG. From there, you should be able to import them into your mind mapping program. Click here for a post in which I summarized which programs enable you to add to their icon and symbol collections, and which do not.
If you don’t have a commercial graphics editing program that can handle SVG graphics, you may want to consider a free or low-cost SVG editor such as Inkscape or the browser-based SVG-edit.
If you’re handy with graphics editing software, you may want to consider adding some of these icons to your favorite mind mapping program.
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