New Inkscape Icons | 2019 Theme and Installation Tutorial

New Inkscape Icons | 2019 Theme and Installation Tutorial 1024 602 Nick Saporito

A few years ago I redesigned the tool icons for Inkscape and posted them here on the blog for download. Inkscape has released quite a few updates since then and my understanding of UI design has evolved a bit as well, so I figured it was time for a refresh.

In this post I’ll be sharing a newly redesigned set of Inkscape icons that you can download and install yourself. For step-by-step instructions, watch the video at the top of the page.

New Icon Theme

The idea was to give Inkscape a fresh, modern look from its dated clip art-style icons. Here’s a comparison  snapshot…

New Inkscape icons before and after

And here’s a complete look at the entire tool set…

Complete icon mockup

Click to enlarge

 

And here’s the variation for the dark theme…

Inkscape dark theme

Click to enlarge

As of right now I’ve only redesigned the tool icons, and only for the standard light theme. I simply made the rest of the icons black & white to match the theme.

Download Link

The icon pack can be downloaded here: inkscape-icons-2019.zip

It should be noted that the file titled icons-2019.svg is the updated icon theme. The file titled icons-original.svg is a backup copy of the original icons that come with Inkscape in case something goes wrong and you need them.

UPDATE 2/10/2019: I’ve added a copy for the dark theme as well. You can learn how to install the dark theme for Inkscape here.

How To Install Icons in Inkscape

Before you install these icons please make sure you are using the correct version of Inkscape. These icons are for Inkscape version 0.92.4 and will only work with this version. If you’re unsure which version of Inkscape you’re using just go to Help > About and a window will pop up with all of the relevant info. You can download the latest version of Inkscape here, which is 0.92.4 as of the time of this writing.

Inkscape current version

Go to Help > About

I’d also like to point out that these installation instructions are for Windows 10 users. I can’t vouch for this working on any other operating system. If you can make it work then feel free to leave a comment informing us.

To install the new icons, simply open up a folder and go to Local Disk (C:) > Program Files (not Program Files x86) > Inkscape > Share > Icons, and look for the file titled “icons.svg”.

The file with that title is the file Inkscape pulls data from to display the icons, so in order to use the new icons you simply have to change the name of that file to anything other than icons.svg, then drag and drop the new icon pack in there and change the name of it to “icons.svg”.

Once you do that, Inkscape will draw data from that file to display the icons next time you restart Inkscape. If you already have Inkscape open, just close out of it and reopen it and your new UI should appear.

2016 Icon Pack

If you’d like a copy of my old icons from 2016, they can be downloaded here…

This pack comes in both dark and light themes…

2016 icon theme

Standard light theme (click to enlarge)

2016 dark icons

Icons for the dark theme (click to enlarge)

If you have any questions or would simply like to share installation tips for other OS users, please leave a comment below. It would be greatly appreciated!

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Nick Saporito

Hi, I'm Nick— a Philadelphia-based graphic designer with over 10 years of experience. Each year millions of users learn how to use design software to express their creativity using my tutorials here and on YouTube.

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41 comments
  • Den

    Hi nick, I’m using inkscape 1.0 version, I wanna try your cool icons, but in the (inkscape/share/icons/) there is no ‘icons.svg’ that we have to be removed with new ‘icons.svg’. do you have any suggestions? Thanks!

    • Den

      I’ve been solved my problem nick, by creating new folder on (share/icons/) then paste the nick’s icons.svg on new folder, then open the inkscape, finally the nick’s icons appear!!! Thanks for your cool icon nick!!

  • John Kossik

    Nick,

    I like your new Icons and the dark theme especially. One question, as I am an old man. The icons even when I change the toolbar size in Preferences to Larger is still a little too small for me. Is there anyway for me to get them even larger?

    Thanks

    John Kossik

    • Nick Saporito

      Not at the moment unfortunately. The latest release of Inkscape didn’t take larger resolutions like 4K into account. They’ve said it will be addressed in the next release.

  • Kuba

    Works on Arch Linux. I had to replace icons.svg located in /usr/share/inkscape/icons with desired icon set (and renaming this set to icons.svg).

    Thank you for these awesome icons Nick!

  • Michael DeLomba

    In your videos it appears that you’re using sooner version of Linux with the Numix Circle icons. I was curious how you installed the icons and theme. I noticed that some of the icons change while others appear to be overwritten by the icon pack (Numix Circle). If I’m wrong in assuming this, no biggy. I’m running Ubuntu 18.04 and would love to use these icons, was just curious how you or others went about installing it.

  • Nick

    Hi, I have been using the dark theme with these icons. Something I’m having a problem with though is when I push a tool it doesn’t show it is selected, but rather it always has the same dark theme color around all of the icons. So it works, but I have to test/guess what tools are selected in order to know what I am using. Do you know what the problem could be?

  • Abner

    My icons appear dark. Aren’t they supposed to be white?. I have Windows 10 and the correct Inkscape. Also on my computer it only said icons not icons.svg. Any help would be appreciated?.

  • theguy2012

    hello im using your dark theme mixed with the original inkscape icons tho i
    cant see some things like check boxes, arrows and scrollbars and the
    pop up bubbles are missing corners how can i fix that keeping the
    original look of the icons

  • Anonymous

    I really like your icons and wanted to use them. I used the icons-2019 icon pack and loved how it looked. There was one problem however, when I used the pencil, when I finished the path, a weird paper icon would show up at the end of my drawing. I’m not sure if this is a problem with the icons or if it’s someting wrong with something else(I’ve been messing around with the theme and icons). Could you test it out and see if it’s a universal problem or if it’s just me? Thanks

    • Anonymous

      Inkscape has been very easy and clear before, simple as that. I agree that one could argue that the design of the old icons looked a bit outdated and somehow not polished. But in my opinion the icon design standpoint can’t live without the functionality standpoint. Form follows function. Using the old icons I’ve been able to associate each icon with it’s function right away. Now I have to look twice at least. A big advantage of the former icon set: big, colored, different. Yours are small, single colored and somewhat similar. To put it another way: You designed icons for a nice looking, polished, homogeneous set and not for the user.

      • Nick Saporito

        I see where you’re coming from, but I think these icons do a pretty good job of communicating what they represent, and I think they’re distinguished enough to identify on their own. If you’re having trouble differentiating a circle from a square from a star — something only a toddler would find challenging — I don’t know if I can help you. I really don’t think the average user needs things spelled out to the extent of big, colorful pictures, as if it were a children’s toy.

        Since “the user” encompasses more people than just you, I’ll reconsider my approach if more people share your concerns. Until then, you’re more than welcome to not use my “crap” icons that cost you nothing, and in the future it would be appreciated if you kept your rude comments to yourself.

  • Alexander Tycoon

    If you wanna see what really is inside the icon.svg simply open this up with Google chrome or any browser supporting SVG, you too can create one for yourself if you know a little bit about HTML or XML and inkscape .

    • Nick Saporito

      How I did it was by opening the SVG file with Inkscape, and if you right click on each icon and go to Object Properties, you’ll see an ID and Label for each object. What I did was reassign the labels and IDs of the old icon designs to my new designs, then saved it.

  • Ev

    Hello Nick,

    You are doing an amazing work with your tutorials on Inkscape! I am really grateful to you.

    Just to notify that I replaced the old Dark Theme with the new one and now when I hover items on menus they appaer white on white. words are not following the behavior: I presume they probably should be darker than the background.

    Maybe it is because I am with Windows 7…

    If you have any idea, a quick fix. Please, just let me know.

    Meanwhile, I switched back to the old Dark Theme version.

    Thanks again,

    Eve

      • BILKISU YUSUF

        Hello,
        thank you Nick. mine worked on windows 7 too. however my inkscape isn’t completely grey. there are some black or should i say dark grey around the grid and the align and distribute menu. its not plain grey like the one you pasted above and the two color tone is messing with my eyes. how do i fix this. P.S it was there right after i downloaded 0.92.4 it doesnt have anything to do with the icons.

  • Russell

    So funny, I just, last night, finished redesigning my Inkscape dark theme and some of the icons from your original pack so I could see them better. The snaps, for instance, are difficult to see in my dark theme since the lines and nodes are darker in color. I left most of your tool set icons as is but removed most gradients in the others for a flatter look. Look forward to seeing what you come up with for a dark version. Thanks.

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