12 ms·

Font Awesome 5

355 points by kauegimenes 10y ago

StavrosK 10y ago
I quite like Font Awesome, but it strikes me as a bit bloaty to include 200 KB (best case) of files (i.e. all the icons) just to add a few icons. Would the old method of a bunch of small png files in a directory work much better, now that HTTP/2 is here?
- Ciantic 10y ago
  You should be able to extract the SVG really easily from the fontawesome-webfont.svg file, and colorize those with simple css e.g. fill: #ff0; The svg font file contains SVG path elements as glyph elements. In light of what I said, why is SVG support "Pro" feature?
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    We're doing a lot more than just SVG support. Our goal is to make them as easy to use as icon fonts. That means you can auto-inherit color, size, drop-shadow, etc. And more. (And the SVG font file format automatically flips the icons. So you'd need to invert. TOTALLY doable, if with a good bit of effort.)
    - amelius 10y ago
      But how often do people share attributes between fonts and icons? And how often do you need to inherit attributes that way? I'm not sure why an icon font would be easier to use than SVGs. Yes, you only have to reference a file once (the font file), but that actually makes it more difficult to use, because now you have to remember two things: how to reference the file, and how to reference the icon. With SVG, it's simpler, because everything is usually contained in one CSS rule. Yes, it has a reference to a file, but does that matter from the viewpoint of simplicity? I.e., make another icon? Then just copy a CSS rule and edit it. Also, using an icon font makes it difficult to substitute a single icon by another icon. Suddenly, you have to start rearranging your CSS. With SVGs not so: just edit the referenced url. Anyway, I love the font-awesome graphics. Except for a few icons, such as icons containing people (they look too bulky and inelegant, for my taste). But most icon-sets don't get people-icons right.
      - jrochkind1 10y ago
        > But how often do people share attributes between fonts and icons? Often.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Now that Pro is SVG, it's super-easy to subset yourself.
- olavgg 10y ago
  You can use fontello.com to build your custom set of fonts ;-)
- knowuh 10y ago
  I just wanted to plug Icomoon ( https://icomoon.io/ https://icomoon.io/ ) -- They will let you assemble your own custom font icon set using subsets of public glyphs such as FA, and your own SVG images. I Hope this helps someone.
  - brookside 10y ago
    I use icomoon and it is definitely helpful but I must say the UX for creating icon sets is quite scary to use. Clicking on an icon by default removes or adds it to the icon set, so its incredibly easy to exclude an icon you are using already (meaning next time you publish your font, that icon will no longer render on your page)
    - kumaraman 10y ago
      Yeah, I've done this countless times, only realising once I have packaged it into my project. I ended up creating a Webpack loader which takes a small JSON file and creates an icon set for my project. I could consider releasing it on Github if there is interest in something like this?
      - grawlinson 10y ago
        That would be awesome, I'd definitely be interested in having a look.
      - vmasto 10y ago
        Absolutely!
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - TenJack 10y ago
    I use Icomoon extensively, it works great.
  - irrational 10y ago
    I usually use icomoon as well. Are there any benefits to font awesome over icomoon?
- notlisted 10y ago
  If included, in full, via a CDN, wouldn't this be mostly cached? (I use bootstrapCDN)
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Correct! (I know for some folks they just like having all their static assets in one place so there's just a single point of failure.)
- timdorr 10y ago
  The same crew runs Fort Awesome, which lets you do exactly this: https://fortawesome.com/ https://fortawesome.com/ They also just bought an icon design studio, Symbolset, and include many of their icons in the Fort Awesome icon selector: https://symbolset.com/ https://symbolset.com/
  - ollerac 10y ago
    I've been using Fort Awesome for 6 months and I'd highly recommend them. For $50/year it's a steal. My favorite workflow is grabbing an svg icon from Noun Project, modifying it in Illustrator until it suits my needs, copying it (Cmd + C), and pasting it directly into the Fort Awesome import box. This has all the benefits of generating svgs on your own with very little downside. It's saved me a lot of time and it makes turning an app design into a finished product a much faster process.
- SimeVidas 10y ago
  PNG? I think you mean SVG :)
- partiallypro 10y ago
  That's why they introduced FortAwesome where you can just take the glyphs you want. Not free though.
- oliwarner 10y ago
  Don't include all the icons then. I parse my CSS file (I embed content:"\f..." strings instead of fa-... classes) to see what I'm actually using and then hack up the font file to only include those characters. The how is a little technical but I've gone through it here: http://askubuntu.com/q/557980/449 http://askubuntu.com/q/557980/449 And it's definitely worth it. Most of my sites' FA files are under 2KB.
baldfat 10y ago
Font Awesome PRO????? No thank you. This makes Font Awesome less Awesome and divides the ecosystem.
- bpicolo 10y ago
  Paying rock bottom price for a quality product that takes a ton of effort to develop. What's the issue there?
  - baldfat 10y ago
    > What's the issue there? The business model
    - angry-hacker 10y ago
      What else the busibess model should be? Ads injected with their fonts from cdn? Some people are never satisfied.
- edcastro 10y ago
  Not sure why you are being downvoted but I agree with you. I wouldn't mind if the pro version was for the assorted "addon" packs and I'd definitely contribute to the project even without using it ever, but making it the pro having a different set of icons from the free one is kinda chilling. Guess I will just stick with Material Design Icons.
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Pro is basically a giant assorted addon pack. It's Free +1,000 icons.
hacksonx 10y ago
I work for a corporate. A South African based company with inroads' in England and the USA. Should I donate in my personal capacity or ask the company to contribute? Yes, we use fa on our front-end projects.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  The licenses follow the person or organization. If it's for a personal project, then you'd want to have one. If for the company, then the company would want one. :)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
VectorVictor 10y ago
I think this is utterly irresponsible and disrespectful to charge for the SVG icon set like this since it only harms usability and disabled users, which is the main reason people are migrating away from icon fonts in the first place.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Actually, we handle accessibility quite well already: http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/ http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/
  - VectorVictor 10y ago
    No, you don't. I've already had to migrate to using SVG glyphs of this font to usability issues with the web font. Enjoy the cash grab, but don't kid yourself. You're being scum right now.
    - fortawesome 10y ago
      Was there something in that link we're missing? We've had input from the top names in the accessibility world. (Happy to listen and discuss any specifics we're missing.)
      - VectorVictor 10y ago
        The difference between using a web font and using SVG is primarily that you do not break the underlying assumptions of usability software, primarily one that a font contains actual information to be parsed. An SVG icon is not going to cause a screen reader to say 'Unpronounceable'. A web font is going to do this. Among other things.
        fortawesome 10y ago
        Again, untrue. Please take the time to read: http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/ http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/
serg_chernata 10y ago
I love fa, I don't see an explanation as to why it's necessary to redesign the set though. Does anyone know?
- fortawesome 10y ago
  16px grid system is the biggest reason. Currently, FA is at 14px. To do it pixel-sub-perfect, we'll need to do it all from scratch. Oh, and the icons aren't that consistent. It happens over time as you do 40-ish icons per release. It wanders a bit and you lose consistency. We're fixing all that.
  - serg_chernata 10y ago
    Treading dumb question territory, what's wrong with 14px to demand the switch to 16?
    - fortawesome 10y ago
      Mostly the base font size on the internet is changing. For instance, old Bootstrap 3 is 14px. New Bootstrap 4 is 16px.
      - serg_chernata 10y ago
        That makes sense, thank you!
      - Nadya 10y ago
        It has been 16px as default for as long as I can remember. People designed at 12-14px and it has been trending larger, 18-22px, for quite some time now - at least since 2012-2013. I think larger screen sizes plays a big part in the change, or maybe marketing people realized people dislike small text/prefer larger text? :) Coders have learned that it's best to not touch the default font size, or resize html/body font size. The ugly 62.5% (16-->10px) is also dying out for accessibility reasons.
  - niftich 10y ago
matthoiland 10y ago
This video alone merits my support. Well done. Well done.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Aw, thanks. We had a LOT of fun doing it.
spdustin 10y ago
I had submitted an issue about the removal of the non-identifying direct CDN link to FontAwesome in favor of a user-identifying JavaScript embed, and it was closed. I tagged in to another issue to make the same point, https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/9245#issuecomment-224039112 https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/9245#issu... Still no answer. Am I the only one that cares that the current state of FontAwesome encourages tying your email address (via a unique token) to your site's specific FontAwesome usage?
- fortawesome 10y ago
  There are plenty of places to serve Font Awesome from a CDN for free. All the old options are there (and still listed in the documentation). https://www.bootstrapcdn.com/fontawesome/ https://www.bootstrapcdn.com/fontawesome/ isn't going anywhere anytime soon. (Also, 4.7 was released today with 41 new icons. If you had one of our unqiue CDN links, you'd be able to upgrade without pushing any code.)
tga 10y ago
I like FA because 1) it's FA and looks alright as it is 2) can't beat free, so I don't need to worry about licenses for every single web project A completely redesigned, larger, commercial library might be interesting, but it is a new project and has practically nothing to do with FA 4.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Font Awesome Free isn't going anywhere. Re-design is largely due to changing the base size to 16px which requires a re-design to keep pixel-perfection.
  - tga 10y ago
    Thanks. Remaking all of FA Free sounds like a lot of work for little benefit, but I imagine it makes sense in the light of all the extra icons you're adding to Pro.
    - fortawesome 10y ago
      Honestly, the grid system in 4 is quite inconsistent, especially with vertical centering. But that happens over time with an open source project. Things wander each commit. Been jonesing to start over for a while. Super excited.
      - tga 10y ago
        Looking forward to it! Can't go wrong from a user's point of view, like this we get both FA4 and FA5.
      - PixyMisa 10y ago
        Yes, I'd noticed that (my boss is a stickler for pixel-perfect vertical centering). Really happy that this will be addressed.
chmln 10y ago
I feel the free version has been neglected ever since the commercial versions were born. Also, there are too many unnecessary brand icons (e.g. skyatlas? houzz? most people aren't gonna use those). Donated $5 anyways.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Appreciate the pledge! As it turns out, we get far more requests for brand icons than anything else. And you're right. It is a bit neglected. That's why we're re-doing everything. :)
dwynings 10y ago
Any ETA on when backers will get private repo access? Super excited for this!
- fortawesome 10y ago
  We'll add folks when everything clears through Kickstarter. Should be just a week or so after the campaign ends. Already have a huge start on things.
arikfr 10y ago
I just wonder how licensing for the pro version works in regards to open source projects? If I buy the license, can I use it for my open source project? Also the option to commission your own icon is really exciting! :-)
- fortawesome 10y ago
  I'd say just don't put the commercial version in a public code repo where other folks could easily use it. But if you avoid that, open souce projects would definitely qualify for our $20 non-profit license. And Font Awesome 5 Free will be pretty awesome too. Your pick.
  - arikfr 10y ago
    "if you avoid" - you mean if I just include specific icons from the Pro version?
    - fortawesome 10y ago
      Well, the real problem is that every resource is available for folks to use, even those that aren't intended (typefaces have the same problem). Ping me offline. We'll get you something for the open source project you're happy with where you can use Pro.
      - arikfr 10y ago
        Super! Thanks.
mgkimsal 10y ago
Any idea why there's no FA icon(s) to represent police, sirens, badges? Anything relating to civil authorities? (well, I guess there's some fire stuff).
- fortawesome 10y ago
  We normally prioritize from top to bottom based on number of requests and upvotes. For these, there just haven't been enough. I really like that icon category though. We'll add it to the potential stretch goal icon category packs.
  - mgkimsal 10y ago
    Oh hey, thanks! It was not a complaint, but I wasn't sure if perhaps there were other factors (concern about representing life-saving activities via your icons, for example). There are some security apps a family member is working on, and having some more related icons would help make his app better. We were talking about it this morning, and then this post arrived. Thanks!
paublyrne 10y ago
Even pledgers to the $5,000 tier have to choose between mug and t-shirt! Throw in a mug, will you? :p
- fortawesome 10y ago
  No, they get 5! They get to choose if they want mugs OR shirts. :) (Seriously, those mugs are going to be awesome. Enamelware lasts forever and we found this fantastic place to make them. They'll probably outlast me.)
  - paublyrne 10y ago
    You're tempting me now.
- jagtodeath 10y ago
  It says T-shirt OR Mug (x5) so I'm assuming you can choose any combination such as 3 shirts and 2 mugs.
boubiyeah 10y ago
Using plain svgs nowadays, never looked back.
- csallen 10y ago
  Me too! I was all about FontAwesome for a while, then I discovered http://iconmonstr.com http://iconmonstr.com (which has far more icons), and now I just use the SVGs from there for everything.
- KingMob 10y ago
  Yes, using fonts for icons was always a wee bit of a hack. The only real major advantage over SVGs was easy sizing for being inline with text.
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    The implementation with the :before class definitely qualifies as a bit of a hack. No question. Some of the icons themselves represent something of a universal language for websites. Using those symbols in a typeface is similar in some ways to character based languages like Japanese or Chinese. So I might argue that icons as fonts are quite an appropriate use.
- dancek 10y ago
  The compelling feature of icon fonts over svg used to be IE8 support. But then there was IE9 mobile, which didn't support @font-face. I remember coding detection for that, and creating a script that automatically generates png versions and the required CSS of the glyphs in use. Sigh.
jashmenn 10y ago
The commercial is great! Who helped produce the video? I'd love to hire them for something like this.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Knox Avenue out of Los Angeles. Imagine getting a Sandwich Video made before they were astronomically expensive. Ping me over email and I'll make an intro. Amazingly talented and honestly my favorite human beings I've met in the past month. CANNOT recommend them highly enough.
  - rawnlq 10y ago
    Out of pure curiosity, what's the ballpark cost of a commercial like this?
    - bduerst 10y ago
      I haven't worked with this agency specifically, but it depends on a variety of factors - e.g. # of animations, actors/actresses, reshoots, reviews, etc. and how in-demand the agency is. It can usually run you low to mid six figures.
      - chronolitus 10y ago
        If I understand, Font Awesome paid >$100'000 for a video, in order to ask for $30'000 on kickstarter? Or do you think that this video was cheaper? (good will because of the open source nature of the project, or some other factor)
      - manigandham 10y ago
        These videos can be done for lot less than 6 figures - avg branded video is 15-25k.
  - me_bx 10y ago
    Are some of the people in the video actually working in fo[n|r]tAwesome, or are they all actors? I'm curious.
gokaygurcan 10y ago
Still no Node.js or npm icons after almost 3 years? Thanks but no thanks. -- Edit: not trying to be sarcastic or blaming anyone. I'm saying what I feel about Font-Awesome. If you don't like my thoughts, you just have to live with that. As a member of the community, I guess I also have rights to ask for something, which I do, and I guess I also have all the rights to talk about something that I've been waiting for, for a long time. Thanks for the downvotes. I hope you can ever understand what was written in the future before downvoting it.
- icelancer 10y ago
  "I guess I also have rights to ask for something, which I do, and I guess I also have all the rights to talk about something that I've been waiting for, for a long time." Yes, you do. You can also ask for it in a reasonable way instead of being a dick, which led to the downvotes in combination with your excessive arrogance in the edits. This isn't that hard to figure out.
- mdevere 10y ago
  lmao. the whole library is worthless then?
  - gokaygurcan 10y ago
    No, I didn't say that. But in any case, there's no actual use for the whole library besides from some specific cases. So, I need around 10 of them most of the time and 2 of the ones that I need are not there yet. I guess you can imagine the situation now.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  We prioritize based on number of upvotes. Most everything in 4.7 was over 100 upvotes and some even almost at 300. In FA5 we're adding a good number more brand icons. Entirely possible they make it in.
  - gokaygurcan 10y ago
    Wow, didn't know that. At least for the 100+ part. Thanks for the clarification.
zachruss92 10y ago
I'm a huge fan of Font Awesome and have been a user of it for years. I'm quite excited for the new version, and am proud to pledge for the development of FA5!
dopeboy 10y ago
Big fan of Font Awesome - I use it for all my client projects. Just pledged $20 on the KS.
banhfun 10y ago
I don't understand why someone would choose the student license over the small business one.
- okanesen 10y ago
  The small business license is only available for a limited time only.
  - banhfun 10y ago
    Isn't the student one also for a limited time as well?
- tengkahwee 10y ago
  The Font Awesome Pro Business license (40USD) is more expensive than the Student license (20 USD). However, if you are an early backer for the Business license, you can get it at 20 USD.
banhfun 10y ago
Can we get a backer reward to get both the t-shirt and mug?
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Yes! Just add an extra $30 to your pledge and we'll take care of the rest during the survey phase!
williamle8300 10y ago
Why are they running a Kickstarter if they actually have a "PRO" business model thing going? Shouldn't they just focus on building their business, instead of raising money? The video is cool-hip-quirky but... I don't get why they need to stick out their hands and ask for a handout here.
- jweir 10y ago
  I reckon this is pure promotion. That video was pretty slick and I doubt it cost less than $30,000 to produce – writer, camera crew, actors, director, lighting, bakers, etc.
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    It was less.
- TheBiv 10y ago
  It appears that they are doing it for 2 reasons: 1. Using Kickstarter as a way to give PRO users a discount on their normal $40 rate. 2. Using Kickstarter as a way to market/announce their new business model. If that's indeed why they are doing this as a Kickstarter then its a pretty great way to use Kickstarter, imho!
  - williamle8300 10y ago
    If it was just for marketing, then they should do marketing not fundraising.
    - TheBiv 10y ago
      Marketing a discount through Kickstarter is brilliant!
    - mikeleeorg 10y ago
      Though you may not agree with it, a lot of people use crowd funding as a mixture of fundraising, marketing, and market validation. I'm not sure exactly which mix of benefits FA has in mind, but personally, I don't mind it. And currently, they've gotten well over double their original goal - which is huge validation that the market likes what they are doing.
parr0t 10y ago
Have thought for awhile that fontawesome is excellent and was sucked in by the great kickstarter video - you get my first kickstarter backing!
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Thanks for the kind words! We had SO much film writing and filming that thing!
spoiledtechie 10y ago
They are calling it pro as I imagine their other offshoot didn't work or make any money. It was that black bar at the top of the screen each time you go to the site. This makes sense, but maybe they shouldn't have tried to name it something different in the first place.
graffitici 10y ago
Really cool video! Can anybody guess how much it may have cost them to make?
kixpanganiban 10y ago
Just have to say, that Kickstarter video is hands-down one of the funniest I've seen. Wonder how much they spent on that.
- runeks 10y ago
  I love how he just stands with his axe for a while in the end, taking in the room, and enjoying the bouquet of his glass of sprinkles.
Walf 10y ago
Well at least now I know why they've held back so many useful icons from the free version. This one's a classic: https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/1958 https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/1958

355 points by kauegimenes 10y ago

I quite like Font Awesome, but it strikes me as a bit bloaty to include 200 KB (best case) of files (i.e. all the icons) just to add a few icons. Would the old method of a bunch of small png files in a directory work much better, now that HTTP/2 is here?

Ciantic 10y ago
You should be able to extract the SVG really easily from the fontawesome-webfont.svg file, and colorize those with simple css e.g. fill: #ff0; The svg font file contains SVG path elements as glyph elements. In light of what I said, why is SVG support "Pro" feature?
- fortawesome 10y ago
  We're doing a lot more than just SVG support. Our goal is to make them as easy to use as icon fonts. That means you can auto-inherit color, size, drop-shadow, etc. And more. (And the SVG font file format automatically flips the icons. So you'd need to invert. TOTALLY doable, if with a good bit of effort.)
  - amelius 10y ago
    But how often do people share attributes between fonts and icons? And how often do you need to inherit attributes that way? I'm not sure why an icon font would be easier to use than SVGs. Yes, you only have to reference a file once (the font file), but that actually makes it more difficult to use, because now you have to remember two things: how to reference the file, and how to reference the icon. With SVG, it's simpler, because everything is usually contained in one CSS rule. Yes, it has a reference to a file, but does that matter from the viewpoint of simplicity? I.e., make another icon? Then just copy a CSS rule and edit it. Also, using an icon font makes it difficult to substitute a single icon by another icon. Suddenly, you have to start rearranging your CSS. With SVGs not so: just edit the referenced url. Anyway, I love the font-awesome graphics. Except for a few icons, such as icons containing people (they look too bulky and inelegant, for my taste). But most icon-sets don't get people-icons right.
    - jrochkind1 10y ago
      > But how often do people share attributes between fonts and icons? Often.
fortawesome 10y ago
Now that Pro is SVG, it's super-easy to subset yourself.
olavgg 10y ago
You can use fontello.com to build your custom set of fonts ;-)
knowuh 10y ago
I just wanted to plug Icomoon ( https://icomoon.io/ https://icomoon.io/ ) -- They will let you assemble your own custom font icon set using subsets of public glyphs such as FA, and your own SVG images. I Hope this helps someone.
- brookside 10y ago
  I use icomoon and it is definitely helpful but I must say the UX for creating icon sets is quite scary to use. Clicking on an icon by default removes or adds it to the icon set, so its incredibly easy to exclude an icon you are using already (meaning next time you publish your font, that icon will no longer render on your page)
  - kumaraman 10y ago
    Yeah, I've done this countless times, only realising once I have packaged it into my project. I ended up creating a Webpack loader which takes a small JSON file and creates an icon set for my project. I could consider releasing it on Github if there is interest in something like this?
    - grawlinson 10y ago
      That would be awesome, I'd definitely be interested in having a look.
    - vmasto 10y ago
      Absolutely!
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- TenJack 10y ago
  I use Icomoon extensively, it works great.
- irrational 10y ago
  I usually use icomoon as well. Are there any benefits to font awesome over icomoon?
notlisted 10y ago
If included, in full, via a CDN, wouldn't this be mostly cached? (I use bootstrapCDN)
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Correct! (I know for some folks they just like having all their static assets in one place so there's just a single point of failure.)
timdorr 10y ago
The same crew runs Fort Awesome, which lets you do exactly this: https://fortawesome.com/ https://fortawesome.com/ They also just bought an icon design studio, Symbolset, and include many of their icons in the Fort Awesome icon selector: https://symbolset.com/ https://symbolset.com/
- ollerac 10y ago
  I've been using Fort Awesome for 6 months and I'd highly recommend them. For $50/year it's a steal. My favorite workflow is grabbing an svg icon from Noun Project, modifying it in Illustrator until it suits my needs, copying it (Cmd + C), and pasting it directly into the Fort Awesome import box. This has all the benefits of generating svgs on your own with very little downside. It's saved me a lot of time and it makes turning an app design into a finished product a much faster process.
SimeVidas 10y ago
PNG? I think you mean SVG :)
partiallypro 10y ago
That's why they introduced FortAwesome where you can just take the glyphs you want. Not free though.
oliwarner 10y ago
Don't include all the icons then. I parse my CSS file (I embed content:"\f..." strings instead of fa-... classes) to see what I'm actually using and then hack up the font file to only include those characters. The how is a little technical but I've gone through it here: http://askubuntu.com/q/557980/449 http://askubuntu.com/q/557980/449 And it's definitely worth it. Most of my sites' FA files are under 2KB.

baldfat 10y ago

Font Awesome PRO????? No thank you. This makes Font Awesome less Awesome and divides the ecosystem.

bpicolo 10y ago
Paying rock bottom price for a quality product that takes a ton of effort to develop. What's the issue there?
- baldfat 10y ago
  > What's the issue there? The business model
  - angry-hacker 10y ago
    What else the busibess model should be? Ads injected with their fonts from cdn? Some people are never satisfied.
edcastro 10y ago
Not sure why you are being downvoted but I agree with you. I wouldn't mind if the pro version was for the assorted "addon" packs and I'd definitely contribute to the project even without using it ever, but making it the pro having a different set of icons from the free one is kinda chilling. Guess I will just stick with Material Design Icons.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  Pro is basically a giant assorted addon pack. It's Free +1,000 icons.

hacksonx 10y ago

I work for a corporate. A South African based company with inroads' in England and the USA. Should I donate in my personal capacity or ask the company to contribute? Yes, we use fa on our front-end projects.

fortawesome 10y ago
The licenses follow the person or organization. If it's for a personal project, then you'd want to have one. If for the company, then the company would want one. :)
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

VectorVictor 10y ago

I think this is utterly irresponsible and disrespectful to charge for the SVG icon set like this since it only harms usability and disabled users, which is the main reason people are migrating away from icon fonts in the first place.

fortawesome 10y ago
Actually, we handle accessibility quite well already: http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/ http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/
- VectorVictor 10y ago
  No, you don't. I've already had to migrate to using SVG glyphs of this font to usability issues with the web font. Enjoy the cash grab, but don't kid yourself. You're being scum right now.
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Was there something in that link we're missing? We've had input from the top names in the accessibility world. (Happy to listen and discuss any specifics we're missing.)
    - VectorVictor 10y ago
      The difference between using a web font and using SVG is primarily that you do not break the underlying assumptions of usability software, primarily one that a font contains actual information to be parsed. An SVG icon is not going to cause a screen reader to say 'Unpronounceable'. A web font is going to do this. Among other things.
      - fortawesome 10y ago
        Again, untrue. Please take the time to read: http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/ http://fontawesome.io/accessibility/

serg_chernata 10y ago

I love fa, I don't see an explanation as to why it's necessary to redesign the set though. Does anyone know?

fortawesome 10y ago
16px grid system is the biggest reason. Currently, FA is at 14px. To do it pixel-sub-perfect, we'll need to do it all from scratch. Oh, and the icons aren't that consistent. It happens over time as you do 40-ish icons per release. It wanders a bit and you lose consistency. We're fixing all that.
- serg_chernata 10y ago
  Treading dumb question territory, what's wrong with 14px to demand the switch to 16?
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Mostly the base font size on the internet is changing. For instance, old Bootstrap 3 is 14px. New Bootstrap 4 is 16px.
    - serg_chernata 10y ago
      That makes sense, thank you!
    - Nadya 10y ago
      It has been 16px as default for as long as I can remember. People designed at 12-14px and it has been trending larger, 18-22px, for quite some time now - at least since 2012-2013. I think larger screen sizes plays a big part in the change, or maybe marketing people realized people dislike small text/prefer larger text? :) Coders have learned that it's best to not touch the default font size, or resize html/body font size. The ugly 62.5% (16-->10px) is also dying out for accessibility reasons.
- niftich 10y ago

matthoiland 10y ago

This video alone merits my support. Well done. Well done.

fortawesome 10y ago
Aw, thanks. We had a LOT of fun doing it.

spdustin 10y ago

I had submitted an issue about the removal of the non-identifying direct CDN link to FontAwesome in favor of a user-identifying JavaScript embed, and it was closed. I tagged in to another issue to make the same point, https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/9245#issuecomment-224039112 https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/9245#issu... Still no answer. Am I the only one that cares that the current state of FontAwesome encourages tying your email address (via a unique token) to your site's specific FontAwesome usage?

fortawesome 10y ago
There are plenty of places to serve Font Awesome from a CDN for free. All the old options are there (and still listed in the documentation). https://www.bootstrapcdn.com/fontawesome/ https://www.bootstrapcdn.com/fontawesome/ isn't going anywhere anytime soon. (Also, 4.7 was released today with 41 new icons. If you had one of our unqiue CDN links, you'd be able to upgrade without pushing any code.)

tga 10y ago

I like FA because 1) it's FA and looks alright as it is 2) can't beat free, so I don't need to worry about licenses for every single web project A completely redesigned, larger, commercial library might be interesting, but it is a new project and has practically nothing to do with FA 4.

fortawesome 10y ago
Font Awesome Free isn't going anywhere. Re-design is largely due to changing the base size to 16px which requires a re-design to keep pixel-perfection.
- tga 10y ago
  Thanks. Remaking all of FA Free sounds like a lot of work for little benefit, but I imagine it makes sense in the light of all the extra icons you're adding to Pro.
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Honestly, the grid system in 4 is quite inconsistent, especially with vertical centering. But that happens over time with an open source project. Things wander each commit. Been jonesing to start over for a while. Super excited.
    - tga 10y ago
      Looking forward to it! Can't go wrong from a user's point of view, like this we get both FA4 and FA5.
    - PixyMisa 10y ago
      Yes, I'd noticed that (my boss is a stickler for pixel-perfect vertical centering). Really happy that this will be addressed.

chmln 10y ago

I feel the free version has been neglected ever since the commercial versions were born. Also, there are too many unnecessary brand icons (e.g. skyatlas? houzz? most people aren't gonna use those). Donated $5 anyways.

fortawesome 10y ago
Appreciate the pledge! As it turns out, we get far more requests for brand icons than anything else. And you're right. It is a bit neglected. That's why we're re-doing everything. :)

dwynings 10y ago

Any ETA on when backers will get private repo access? Super excited for this!

fortawesome 10y ago
We'll add folks when everything clears through Kickstarter. Should be just a week or so after the campaign ends. Already have a huge start on things.

arikfr 10y ago

I just wonder how licensing for the pro version works in regards to open source projects? If I buy the license, can I use it for my open source project? Also the option to commission your own icon is really exciting! :-)

fortawesome 10y ago
I'd say just don't put the commercial version in a public code repo where other folks could easily use it. But if you avoid that, open souce projects would definitely qualify for our $20 non-profit license. And Font Awesome 5 Free will be pretty awesome too. Your pick.
- arikfr 10y ago
  "if you avoid" - you mean if I just include specific icons from the Pro version?
  - fortawesome 10y ago
    Well, the real problem is that every resource is available for folks to use, even those that aren't intended (typefaces have the same problem). Ping me offline. We'll get you something for the open source project you're happy with where you can use Pro.
    - arikfr 10y ago
      Super! Thanks.

mgkimsal 10y ago

Any idea why there's no FA icon(s) to represent police, sirens, badges? Anything relating to civil authorities? (well, I guess there's some fire stuff).

fortawesome 10y ago
We normally prioritize from top to bottom based on number of requests and upvotes. For these, there just haven't been enough. I really like that icon category though. We'll add it to the potential stretch goal icon category packs.
- mgkimsal 10y ago
  Oh hey, thanks! It was not a complaint, but I wasn't sure if perhaps there were other factors (concern about representing life-saving activities via your icons, for example). There are some security apps a family member is working on, and having some more related icons would help make his app better. We were talking about it this morning, and then this post arrived. Thanks!

paublyrne 10y ago

Even pledgers to the $5,000 tier have to choose between mug and t-shirt! Throw in a mug, will you? :p

fortawesome 10y ago
No, they get 5! They get to choose if they want mugs OR shirts. :) (Seriously, those mugs are going to be awesome. Enamelware lasts forever and we found this fantastic place to make them. They'll probably outlast me.)
- paublyrne 10y ago
  You're tempting me now.
jagtodeath 10y ago
It says T-shirt OR Mug (x5) so I'm assuming you can choose any combination such as 3 shirts and 2 mugs.

boubiyeah 10y ago

Using plain svgs nowadays, never looked back.

csallen 10y ago
Me too! I was all about FontAwesome for a while, then I discovered http://iconmonstr.com http://iconmonstr.com (which has far more icons), and now I just use the SVGs from there for everything.
KingMob 10y ago
Yes, using fonts for icons was always a wee bit of a hack. The only real major advantage over SVGs was easy sizing for being inline with text.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  The implementation with the :before class definitely qualifies as a bit of a hack. No question. Some of the icons themselves represent something of a universal language for websites. Using those symbols in a typeface is similar in some ways to character based languages like Japanese or Chinese. So I might argue that icons as fonts are quite an appropriate use.
dancek 10y ago
The compelling feature of icon fonts over svg used to be IE8 support. But then there was IE9 mobile, which didn't support @font-face. I remember coding detection for that, and creating a script that automatically generates png versions and the required CSS of the glyphs in use. Sigh.

jashmenn 10y ago

The commercial is great! Who helped produce the video? I'd love to hire them for something like this.

fortawesome 10y ago
Knox Avenue out of Los Angeles. Imagine getting a Sandwich Video made before they were astronomically expensive. Ping me over email and I'll make an intro. Amazingly talented and honestly my favorite human beings I've met in the past month. CANNOT recommend them highly enough.
- rawnlq 10y ago
  Out of pure curiosity, what's the ballpark cost of a commercial like this?
  - bduerst 10y ago
    I haven't worked with this agency specifically, but it depends on a variety of factors - e.g. # of animations, actors/actresses, reshoots, reviews, etc. and how in-demand the agency is. It can usually run you low to mid six figures.
    - chronolitus 10y ago
      If I understand, Font Awesome paid >$100'000 for a video, in order to ask for $30'000 on kickstarter? Or do you think that this video was cheaper? (good will because of the open source nature of the project, or some other factor)
    - manigandham 10y ago
      These videos can be done for lot less than 6 figures - avg branded video is 15-25k.
- me_bx 10y ago
  Are some of the people in the video actually working in fo[n|r]tAwesome, or are they all actors? I'm curious.

gokaygurcan 10y ago

Still no Node.js or npm icons after almost 3 years? Thanks but no thanks. -- Edit: not trying to be sarcastic or blaming anyone. I'm saying what I feel about Font-Awesome. If you don't like my thoughts, you just have to live with that. As a member of the community, I guess I also have rights to ask for something, which I do, and I guess I also have all the rights to talk about something that I've been waiting for, for a long time. Thanks for the downvotes. I hope you can ever understand what was written in the future before downvoting it.

icelancer 10y ago
"I guess I also have rights to ask for something, which I do, and I guess I also have all the rights to talk about something that I've been waiting for, for a long time." Yes, you do. You can also ask for it in a reasonable way instead of being a dick, which led to the downvotes in combination with your excessive arrogance in the edits. This isn't that hard to figure out.
mdevere 10y ago
lmao. the whole library is worthless then?
- gokaygurcan 10y ago
  No, I didn't say that. But in any case, there's no actual use for the whole library besides from some specific cases. So, I need around 10 of them most of the time and 2 of the ones that I need are not there yet. I guess you can imagine the situation now.
fortawesome 10y ago
We prioritize based on number of upvotes. Most everything in 4.7 was over 100 upvotes and some even almost at 300. In FA5 we're adding a good number more brand icons. Entirely possible they make it in.
- gokaygurcan 10y ago
  Wow, didn't know that. At least for the 100+ part. Thanks for the clarification.

zachruss92 10y ago

I'm a huge fan of Font Awesome and have been a user of it for years. I'm quite excited for the new version, and am proud to pledge for the development of FA5!

dopeboy 10y ago

Big fan of Font Awesome - I use it for all my client projects. Just pledged $20 on the KS.

banhfun 10y ago

I don't understand why someone would choose the student license over the small business one.

okanesen 10y ago
The small business license is only available for a limited time only.
- banhfun 10y ago
  Isn't the student one also for a limited time as well?
tengkahwee 10y ago
The Font Awesome Pro Business license (40USD) is more expensive than the Student license (20 USD). However, if you are an early backer for the Business license, you can get it at 20 USD.

banhfun 10y ago

Can we get a backer reward to get both the t-shirt and mug?

fortawesome 10y ago
Yes! Just add an extra $30 to your pledge and we'll take care of the rest during the survey phase!

williamle8300 10y ago

Why are they running a Kickstarter if they actually have a "PRO" business model thing going? Shouldn't they just focus on building their business, instead of raising money? The video is cool-hip-quirky but... I don't get why they need to stick out their hands and ask for a handout here.

jweir 10y ago
I reckon this is pure promotion. That video was pretty slick and I doubt it cost less than $30,000 to produce – writer, camera crew, actors, director, lighting, bakers, etc.
- fortawesome 10y ago
  It was less.
TheBiv 10y ago
It appears that they are doing it for 2 reasons: 1. Using Kickstarter as a way to give PRO users a discount on their normal $40 rate. 2. Using Kickstarter as a way to market/announce their new business model. If that's indeed why they are doing this as a Kickstarter then its a pretty great way to use Kickstarter, imho!
- williamle8300 10y ago
  If it was just for marketing, then they should do marketing not fundraising.
  - TheBiv 10y ago
    Marketing a discount through Kickstarter is brilliant!
  - mikeleeorg 10y ago
    Though you may not agree with it, a lot of people use crowd funding as a mixture of fundraising, marketing, and market validation. I'm not sure exactly which mix of benefits FA has in mind, but personally, I don't mind it. And currently, they've gotten well over double their original goal - which is huge validation that the market likes what they are doing.

parr0t 10y ago

Have thought for awhile that fontawesome is excellent and was sucked in by the great kickstarter video - you get my first kickstarter backing!

fortawesome 10y ago
Thanks for the kind words! We had SO much film writing and filming that thing!

spoiledtechie 10y ago

They are calling it pro as I imagine their other offshoot didn't work or make any money. It was that black bar at the top of the screen each time you go to the site. This makes sense, but maybe they shouldn't have tried to name it something different in the first place.

graffitici 10y ago

Really cool video! Can anybody guess how much it may have cost them to make?

kixpanganiban 10y ago

Just have to say, that Kickstarter video is hands-down one of the funniest I've seen. Wonder how much they spent on that.

runeks 10y ago
I love how he just stands with his axe for a while in the end, taking in the room, and enjoying the bouquet of his glass of sprinkles.

Walf 10y ago

Well at least now I know why they've held back so many useful icons from the free version. This one's a classic: https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/1958 https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-Awesome/issues/1958