GlyphLibrary professional icon packs
2011
GlyphLibrary emerged during the mobile app development boom, when developers needed high-quality icons but often lacked design resources or skills to create them.
In the mid-2010s, several trends created an opportunity:
- Mobile app development was exploding
- Flat design and minimalism were dominant
- Demand for professional iconography
- There was limited competition in the icon pack market
I wanted to build something focused on developers:
- Icons delivered in multiple formats (SVG, PNG, BLEND, AI icon fonts)
- Consistent naming conventions
- Developer-friendly licensing terms
- Technical documentation and implementation guides
GlyphLibrary had 4 core releases, ultimately dropping 1400+ icons. After I stopped working on the core set, I’d occasionally build out some specific packs.
I designed them all by hand in Illustrator, and wrote scripts to output the AI files into SVG, Expression Blend, Windows Phone/iOS/Android variants, etc.
Distribution
Self distributed - I distributed GlyphLibrary via glyphlibrary.com with a tool I built with a friend called Pallet. It was a bit like Gumroad.
Paddle - An early version of Paddle was a site to sell digital goods. I sold many more copies via this distribution channel than my own. An early lesson to this young entrepreneur about distribution being king!
Fate
- I sold thousands of copies. I’m really happy about that! This was the go-to pack back in the day so chances are you’ve used apps with some of my icons.
- I focused on Silverlight compatibility; which got me a reference in Expression Blend 3 with Silverlight
- Free alternatives emerged. I stopped selling the icons myself and moved to Iconfinder.
- Personally: I’ve become unreasonably picky about sizing icons so that the anchor points align with exact values, because different renderers will (potentially) create blurry edges if they’re slightly off.