Making Icons with Fonts

Need a shopping basket icon

[knighty]

I have created a load icons using various fonts like webdings and webdings.

BUT - I cannot find a shopping basket anywhere. I'm sure I've seen this in a font .. Any ideas?

PS - I'm on a Mac

[mivox]

Doesn't the Microsoft Webdings font have a shopping cart?
::runs off to check::
Amazingly enough: No, it does not seem to have one. A cheesy spider and a web to go with it, and even a "links" chain... but no shopping cart.

I personally used a "buttonized" dollar sign, but I'll check my fonts at home this evening if you haven't found one by then.

[korkus2000]

Have you seen these? This is the font that I know have plenty of carts but its not free.

[myfonts.com...]

[knighty]

Its really annoying I am sure I saw it somewhere, eventually made my own 'shopping basket icon' only thing is this is something I want to use in the future and trying to resize it makes it go all blurry :(

Those fonts look pretty nice Korkus but I would like to avoid paying if I can.

[mivox]

If you have to draw your own icon, you could use a vector drawing program to make the basic outline. Then resize it in the vector program before exporting it to make the final graphics.

korkus... LOL! Now I know where 99% of all ecommerce websites get their shopping cart icons from. hehehe... small world.

[korkus2000]

Those font guys are really making a killing. 50% of my job is creating icons for desktop applications so I never really had a problem with small pictures. I think using dingbats is pretty clever if icons are time consuming or not your thing.

[tedster]

> Now I know where 99% of all ecommerce websites get their shopping cart icons from.

SSHHHHH!!

A while back I was going through some symbol fonts, and I found the Overture logo - it was rotated 90 degrees, and without the color fill-in, but the shape was undeniable. It gave me a chuckle!

[mivox]

I found the Overture logo
Clip art/dingbats are SO unbiquitous. Very good argument for building your own shopping cart icon, IMO. But then, I enjoy building icons. ;)

[idiotgirl]

Just built one this weekend cuz I'm too cheap to buy a font package and cruising through 500,000 pieces of clip art on 20 cd's or so seemed too dreary.

Stick outline. Square dots across the middle to indicate some sort of mesh. Two wheels. Pure cheese but very effective. Saved as a vector object so now I can have cheesy carts in any size or color.

[mivox]

now I can have cheesy carts in any size or color

Hehehe... c'mon, make a puffy chrome BladePro cart. You know you want to...

[idiotgirl]

ouch! Alas, but my CD with BladePro on it seems to be lost. Wait- okay - I think my ashtray is sitting on it. I think those are coffee cup stains around the rim, now that I look a little closer.

At any rate, it was kind of fun to draw sticks and dots and have it come out looking like a cart.

Cart races, anyone?

PS - anyone using Painter 7? It rocks!

[mivox]

Alas, but my CD with BladePro on it seems to be lost.

I can send you a copy. :) Wouldn't want you feeling left out when I bring my puffy chrome shopping cart to the races...

fun to draw sticks and dots and have it come out looking like a cart

That's what I love about making icons. Having sitcks and dots end up turning into a shopping cart is as much of a kick as having a bunch of individual colored pixels turn into a desktop icon... and it's really hard to make those silly super-realistic desktop icons you see on the download sites.

But, if you're interested in saving time on a project that just doesn't demand (or pay for) your attention sufficiently to draw your own... I admit to just doctoring clip art now and then. (OK. I admit to doing it rather frequently...)

[idiotgirl]

Exactly! I'm sure some people are far better organized - but I never figured out how to bill for time spent cruising clip art CD's when you have a stack of 20 or so (well... probably more) or even refer to the book that came with the CD's (if you can find it) to find that itty bitty piece of clip art you remember you saw... but can't remember where or when you actually saw it. Maybe you just think you saw it. Or maybe you dreamed you saw it and it wasn't even on a CD. Or maybe you saw it when you were at someone else's house. But whos house?

Sound familiar or am I the only one suffering from a tired brain?

In such case, you can whip up an icon (like a cart - nothing too sophisticated) in a fraction of the time. If you're ambitious - you can turn them into fonts and sell them <G>.

[mivox]

LOL... I was actually saying that I used clip art to save time, and did the custom icons when I had time to spare. Maybe I nitpick about my icons too much?

If we have such totally opposite time-saving practices, maybe we should go into business together, and see if we can't get a site slapped together in *less* than no time. Then we could just make up line items for the invoice... (either that or it would take a year just to get the logo & front page done)