Here are the key insights about Iconify in a Q&A format:
What is Iconify and what problem does it solve?
Iconify is a universal icon framework that allows developers to use icons from different icon sets through a single unified API and components.
It solves the problem of having to bundle icons from each set or use multiple icon fonts which has drawbacks like large file sizes and inconsistent styling.
How does Iconify provide icons on demand without bundling?
Iconify has an API that serves icon data dynamically. The Iconify components fetch icons from this API as needed instead of bundling icons.
This means you can use thousands of icons without heavy network usage or bloating your application bundle size.
What format does Iconify use for icon data?
Iconify uses a JSON format called Iconify JSON to store information about each icon like the SVG content, aliases, categories etc.
This allows compact storage and easy manipulation of icon metadata compared to just raw SVG files.
How does Iconify process icon sets?
Iconify has an automated pipeline that:
- Cleans up and optimizes SVG icon files
- Converts them to Iconify JSON format
- Adds metadata like aliases and categories
- Updates icon repositories weekly with latest icon sets
This gives clean and consistent icons optimized for web and UI development.
What Iconify tools are available for developers?
- Icon components for React, Vue, Svelte and other frameworks
- Iconify Icon web component
- Utilities for working with Iconify JSON data
- CLI tools to convert SVG icon sets to Iconify JSON
- Design plugins for Figma and Sketch
These make it easy to use Iconify in your projects.
Why is Iconify better than icon fonts?
Unlike icon fonts, Iconify:
- Renders pixel-perfect SVG icons on demand
- Loads only icons used on a page
- Supports icon coloring, animation, alignment
- Provides thousands of icons from different styles
- Is fast, lightweight and flexible
Developers get great icons without the downsides of fonts.
Summary
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