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Ask DN: Icon Manager for Mac & Windows

almost 7 years ago from , Lead UI/UX Designer @ Splash Damage

Hey guys, I need some recommendations:

Our team use a mixture of Windows and Mac, and so far the likes of IconJar and Lingo are only supported on Mac. I want to avoid using bloated programs like Bridge for such a simple task.

Does anyone here know of other software that can act as a manager for our icon sets?

21 comments

  • Robert PaigeRobert Paige, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    IconJar

    2 points
  • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 7 years ago

    Windows and macOS both have pretty nice ways to preview images in the Windows Explorer and the Finder. Both can be set to view a grid of images. Maybe just used files and folders, and a shared folder on something like Dropbox?

    Or are you after more features than that?

    1 point
    • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

      Thanks for the response Marc. Our biggest problem is finding an icon that may have already been created.

      We have a long-term relationship with a number of our clients, and it is not uncommon for us to have 1000s of icons for them across a number of product categories, with different members of the team creating these.

      I might call my icon "star-16.png" but if I'm searching for "favourite" I won't be able to find it using traditional methods. This creates situations where someone on the team spends a stupid amount of time trying to find a specific icon manually, or can't be bothered and just creates a duplicate anyway.

      Personally, I would want some kind of tagging system in place, so we can assign a list of terms for an icon ( for example, star, favourite, rating, rate).

      Also, we'd love the ability to have a single entry for multiple file formats. For example, If I export "star" out at iOS sizes, Android sizes, and SVG for the web, I don't want to see all of those in my folder - just the single entry which I can then get the right format for that file.

      I haven't yet found anything (other than Bridge) to manage this easily. Convincing my team to even install Bridge is proving difficult, so I'm hoping for a "nice and simple" solution if you get what I mean.

      0 points
      • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 7 years ago

        I definitely get what you mean and thanks for the additional info.

        Nothing comes to mind, unfortunately. Pixa is another option, but Mac only again.

        http://www.pixa-app.com

        4 points
      • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

        Why not use the CC Libraries? It's not a standalone app but it is integrated into every major CC app by now and if I remember correctly, it's even accessible from the web, so you could just save your icons and assets there and everyone gets access.

        It's the only cloud connected cross platform solution that I know of.

        1 point
        • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 7 years ago

          Thinking about it, this might work out okay. It doesn't fill all of my requirements but at least it's simpler than Bridge. Thanks for the suggestion.

          0 points
  • Jay Pineda, 3 years ago

    Hi Tom,

    I just found a free app called Iconset, which organizes icons on both macOS and Windows, hopefully it addresses your needs.

    https://iconset.io/

    0 points
  • Scott LewisScott Lewis, over 6 years ago

    Hi Tom. You might look into Extensis Portfolio, which is a general image management application. I have not used it in several years but I liked it quite a bit when I was using it. http://www.extensis.com/digital-asset-management/portfolio/

    The only caveat is that it isn't cheap at all. Back in the day you could get it or about $100 per license but it is significantly more expensive than that now, I believe.

    0 points
  • Skye Selbiger, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    Feel free to give https://www.lingoapp.com/ a shot :). Super simple, easy to organize, tag, share, etc.

    0 points
    • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 7 years ago

      Hi. Appreciate the reply, but as my post described I need a cross-platform solution. My creative team are using a mixture of Windows and Mac for common tasks.

      1 point
  • Joey BrennanJoey Brennan, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    I love https://icomoon.io/. You create a project, upload svgs or add from their free libraries and make icon fonts.

    0 points
    • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 7 years ago

      Cool, this actually looks pretty nice. Is it only a web app?. I think this I'll try this out regardless.

      0 points
      • Joey BrennanJoey Brennan, almost 7 years ago

        As far as I know its only a web app. They have premium accounts if you want the project to be hosted by them, otherwise its just cached to your local storage. You get a selection.json file when you download though so you can reupload that to icomoon and have all the icons and settings again. Its basically the best, especially for icon fonts.

        0 points
  • Nick Dominguez, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    Wouldn't be a very elegant solution but you could use Evernote for this.

    0 points
    • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 7 years ago

      Interesting. How would this work? Attach icons to individual posts? Sorry, I haven't used evernote for quite a few years now.

      0 points
      • Nick Dominguez, almost 7 years ago

        You could create a notebook for each icon library and individual tagged notes for each icon. Each note could also contain multiple formats of the icon inside a table.

        0 points