Across the Awesomeverse

A versioned archive of posts from Bluesky, Mastodon, GitHub, npm, YouTube, Hacker News, and blogs. See the most popular posts.

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Font Awesome Changelog

7.3.1

New icons, plus fixes for brand icons missing from Free and a few 7.3.0 icon glitches.

Added

Fixed

  • These new brand icons were introduced in 7.3.0 but were mistakenly excluded from Font Awesome Free: visual-studio, dolibarr, obs-studio, storybook, a11y-project, copilot. Those responsible have been sacked, and the icons have been freed.
  • The new meerkat icon in 7.3.0 somehow got a capitalized name alias of "Suricata", though all names are supposed to be lowercase.
  • Some new Slab Duo icons looked already-pressed in 7.3.0, like their Slab Press Duo counterparts: box, bug. They've been un-pressed.
  • The primary and secondary layers for the gear icon in Jelly Duo Regular were swapped.
  • These seal icons were redesigned and rotated: seal, seal-exclamation, seal-question.
Font Awesome Changelog

New Plans

Three new plans, Starter, Solo, and Team, with nothing changing for current subscribers.

We've simplified our plans to better fit how folks actually use Font Awesome, whether you're one person with a side project or a whole team shipping constantly. The new lineup: Starter, Solo, and Team. Details on our plans page.

Already a subscriber? Nothing changes for you. Your current plan stays exactly as it is. Same price, same limits, same features. Questions? We've got answers.

Font Awesome Changelog

Changelog Refresh

The changelog gets a month-by-month sidebar, type filters, and website updates alongside Icon Library releases.

We're going full inception on this one and posting a changelog entry about a change to our changelog. Among the changes:

  • A month-by-month sidebar
  • Filter changelog entries by type: All, Icon Library, or Website
  • Website updates now share the feed with the Icon Library
  • Tooting our own horn just got easier
Podcast Awesome

Josh Williams on Icon Design, AI, and Knowing When to Stop [Pt. 2]

What if software had a final season? Josh Williams is back for round two, and this conversation goes places the first one didn't. We get into designing as a generalist instead of a specialist, why some of the best products (RIP Gowalla, RIP Path) might have worked better as limited series instead of forever-apps, and what it actually feels like to use AI tools day to day — not the hot-take version, the real one, where the hardest part isn't the tech, it's knowing when to stop adding features.

Josh also breaks down how the Mosaic icon pack came together, Jory reflects on why his dad's Vermont highway signs are a kind of legacy he thinks about often, and Josh shares his advice for those getting into icon design today. Spoiler: it involves not knowing the rules yet, and that's a good thing.

**
What We Cover**

  • Why physical, tangible work sticks with you in a way digital work — which can vanish with a hard drive — never quite does.
  • Jory's dad's landscape architecture and signage firm, and how that legacy is scattered across Vermont
  • The Mosaic icon pack, and how Scott Riley's Mindful Design site used FA's Slab icon set in a way the team never expected
  • Generalist vs. specialist: why Josh keeps circling back to brand work but can't stay in one lane
  • The venture-capital pressure that pushes good products toward becoming "everything apps"
  • Gowalla, Path, and the idea of software with a beginning, middle, and end — like a TV show's final season
  • The early App Store era of one-off apps that just were what they were (RIP the beer-drinking app)
  • Font Awesome's own internal AI experiment weekend, and what came out of it
  • Taste and discernment as the new bottleneck now that building is fast and cheap
  • Why "don't be obsequious" should now be a standing instruction in AI prompts
  • Josh's advice for anyone starting out in icon design today
  • What's next for the Uni calendar, and a wishlist for a fully custom, build-your-own version

**
Timestamps**

00:00 – Reaching the edge of current tools and processes 

00:00 – Intro: what this episode covers 01:00 – The joy of physical, tangible design work 

02:00 – Jory's father's legacy in Vermont signage 

04:00 – How the Mosaic icon pack might get used and remixed 

05:00 – Generalist vs. specialist: where Josh lands 

07:00 – Bringing different people and disciplines together 

08:00 – VC pressure and the "scale infinitely" mindset 09:00 – Software with a beginning, middle, and end 

11:00 – Gowalla, Path, and products as a moment in time 

13:00 – Building an intentional, sustainable studio model 

14:00 – The early App Store's one-off apps 

17:00 – Font Awesome's internal AI experiment weekend 

19:00 – Taste and discernment as the new bottleneck 

20:00 – Prompting AI to not be obsequious 

21:00 – Advice for getting into icon design today 

23:00 – Breaking the rules you don't know exist yet  – The Mosaic pack vs. the Uni calendar rules 24:00 – A wishlist: fully custom, build-your-own calendars 

25:00 – Where to find Josh, and what's next for him

**
Credits**

**
Links**

**
Hashtags**

#PodcastAwesome #IconDesign #FontAwesome #DesignPodcast #AIandDesign #ProductDesign #BrandDesign #TechPodcast #CreativeIndustry #DesignCareers

Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Podcast Awesome
Font Awesome Changelog

Bulk Icon Import

Paste a list of icon names to add them all to a Kit at once, with typos flagged before you import.

Bringing an existing icon list to a Kit used to mean adding icons one at a time. Now hit Import Icons on your Kit, paste the list (one name per line, and don't sweat stray fa- prefixes or quotes), preview the matches, fix any typos we flag, and add the whole batch in one go. One paste instead of 750 clicks. Your mouse thanks you.

In reply to Bluesky post

Josh's framing on AI: "Designers are realizing they're not totally at the mercy of someone more technical than them. The cost of experimentation is a lot lower."

He's not wide-eyed about it, just noticing that maybe tinkerer culture is back. Which feels right.

In reply to Mastodon post

The Mosaic icon style traces back to Josh's Uni Calendar letterpress project. It’s geometric, mid-century-ish, built on reusable shapes. A made-for-print aesthetic that got adapted for screen. Jory has all of them. Because of course he does.

In reply to Mastodon post

Josh on the design monoculture question: "Things have become homogenous for a while. I feel like we're in a place where maybe it'll break back out a little bit."

He traces this partly to AI lowering the cost of experimentation. Not in a hype way, but more like a tinkerer noticing the tools have changed.

We asked Josh Williams onto the podcast, and the man opened by talking about ResEdit. Naturally.

Josh designed Mosaic, our new icon pack for Font Awesome Pro. He also once nearly got fired as a teenager for going two layers deep into Mac OS 7 system resources to edit the trash can icon. We're not saying those things are connected, but … you know.

Part 1 is out now!
Watch → https://youtu.be/vpgC_N2s49I?si=sdE-BHE3wk9Uc3pQ
Listen → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2092855/episodes/19424515

Podcast Awesome

Icon Design, Creative Freedom, and the Return of Visual Personality — with Josh Williams [Part 1]

Josh Williams has been designing icons since before it was a “real” job.

These days, Josh is one of the most respected icon and identity designers working in the field. He helped shape the Font Awesome and Web Awesome logos, and he just designed Mosaic — a brand-new icon pack for Font Awesome Pro with roots in his long-running Uni Calendar letterpress project and a style that's unlike anything we've shipped before.

In Part 1, we talk about where Mosaic came from, what it looks like when a designer actually gets creative freedom, why the web went homogenous, and whether it's finally starting to break back out. Also: Kaleidoscope themes, MySpace CSS exploits, and a cease-and-desist that made at least one person internet famous.

🗒️ What We Cover
🗑️ How Josh nearly bricked a Mac trying to edit the trash can icon
🌈 Kaleidoscope themes, Winamp skins, and the era of tinkering
✨ The MySpace CSS underground (yes, it was a thing)
🖨️ The Uni Calendar letterpress project and how it became Mosaic
🕊️ What "creative freedom" actually feels like when someone hands it to you
🌐 Why everything on the web started looking the same and why it might not stay that way
🤖 AI, low-cost experimentation, and the return of design personality
📸 What Josh is doing next (hint: it involves Keegan Jones and Instagram)

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Cold open: demystification
01:00 – Intro
02:00 – Meeting Josh / fanboy moment
03:00 – Logo collaboration: Web Awesome and Font Awesome marks
04:00 – Announcing Mosaic
06:00 – Uni Calendar roots and the style thread
09:00 – The ResEdit / trash can story
13:00 – Kaleidoscope themes era
14:00 – MySpace CSS and early community
17:00 – Tinkerer culture and design demystification
18:00 – How homogenous web cycles work
21:00 – AI and low-cost experimentation
23:00 – What Josh is doing next

✨ Check out the Mosaic icon pack: https://fontawesome.com/icons

🔗 Credits
Hosted, produced, and edited by Matt Johnson
Co-host Jory Raphael
Featuring Josh Williams
Theme song by Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials by Zach Malm
Video editing by Isaac Chase

Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

Font Awesome Changelog

Icon Animations and Padding

The icon detail page adds flip, buzz, float, jello, swing, and wag animations, plus square and roomy padding controls.

The icon detail page picked up a batch of new animations, including flip, buzz, float, jello, swing, and wag (tail not included). There are also new padding controls for square and roomy canvases, because even icons appreciate a little personal space. Every option applies live to the preview and drops straight into your code snippet. Try them from any icon in icon search.

Font Awesome Changelog

7.3.0

Three new Pro+ packs (Pixel, Mosaic, and Vellum), Slab Duo styles, and six new animations.

Added

  • Three new Pro+ icon packs!
    • Pixel: It's hip to be square. Before high density displays, the mighty pixel was king. FA Pixel takes you back to the halcyon days of yore, when quarters held your place at the arcade and computers only had 128kb of memory. If you're prepping your next plumbing adventure or space invasion, Pixel is ready to byte.
    • Mosaic: All the pieces are coming together. Icons are little art pieces constructed from many elements, and FA Mosaic is no different. Master craftsman Josh Williams breaks the mold with this pack, blending solid forms, swoopy curves, and fun little sprinkles he lovingly calls "quirks."
    • Vellum: Layers of depth. Here at Font Awesome, we like our icons like we like our jokes: layered. Guest designer Brian Brasher guides you amongst these overlapped slabs of significance for a pack with real dimension.
    • Each pack is available with a Pro+ subscription.
  • New Slab styles!
    • Our sturdy, blocky Slab pack gets two new family styles: Slab Duo and Slab Press Duo. Add some depth and a second layer of color to icons that feel bold and ready for action.
  • New animations!
    • Inspired by Disney's 12 Principles of Animation, we added six new animation utilities so your icons don't just move, they have personality: fa-buzz, fa-wag, fa-float, fa-swing, fa-spin-snap (with fa-spin-snap-4 and fa-spin-snap-8 variants), and fa-jello.
    • Each new animation follows our existing custom property naming convention and works out of the box without setting any properties.
    • All animations continue to respect the prefers-reduced-motion setting.
    • See them all in action in the animation documentation.
  • New canvas sizing classes!
    • Two new opt-in utility classes let you drop any icon onto a predictable, square canvas, perfect for icon-only buttons and design-system layouts.
    • fa-canvas-square adds vertical padding so an icon fills a square canvas (20×20 at 1em).
    • fa-canvas-roomy adds a bit more padding for layouts that want extra breathing room (24×24 at 1em).
    • Both use em units, so the canvas scales right along with your icon size.
  • New Icons!

    A few fresh additions to the family: envelope-heart, file-md, file-txt, and meerkat.

  • New Brands!

    Added a batch of the most-requested brand icons: a11y-project, build-awesome, square-build-awesome-stroke, codeberg, copilot, devpost, dolibarr, internet-archive, lets-encrypt, matrix, mattermost, nextcloud, obs-studio, roblox-creator-studio, ror, storybook, substack, tesla, visual-studio, xrp, xrpl, and youtube-shorts.

Changed

  • Better motion for existing animations. We refined the keyframes for six of our existing animation utilities for motion that feels more alive: fa-bounce, fa-beat, fa-beat-fade, fa-fade, fa-flip, and fa-shake. Same class names, same custom properties, just better motion.
  • Brand refreshes. Updated a few brand icons to match their latest logos: github for GitHub's 2026 brand refresh, android to match current brand standards, and threads for Threads' updated logo.

Fixed

  • The Etch circle-question icon wasn't quite right. It is now.
  • The solid and regular styles of fingerprint were identical. They're now their own unique selves.
  • Cleaned up some inconsistencies between the solid box icons.
  • Fixed a vertical misalignment on the solid battery-empty icon.
  • The Duotone Thin game-board-simple icon had a secondary tone spilling outside the lines. We tidied it up.
  • The Duotone Light opossum icon wasn't actually duotone. Our 'possum now has two tones, as nature intended.
  • The Duotone toolbox icon was showing just the line art for its fill. The fill is back where it belongs.

@11ty/gray-matter@2.1.0

Parse front-matter from a string or file. Fast, reliable and easy to use. Parses YAML front matter by default, but also has support for YAML, JSON, TOML Front-Matter, with options to set custom delimiters. Used by metalsmith, assemble, verb and many other

zachleat
Podcast Awesome

Laura Bohill: A Dream Project, a Design Crisis, and the Chisel Icon Pack

Episode Summary

What happens when you give a world-class icon designer a dream brief with almost no boundaries? A brief existential crisis, and eventually a beautiful type-inspired icon packs for Font Awesome 7. 😅

In this episode, Matt and Jory chat with icon designer Laura Bohill about the making of Chisel — the wonderfully chunky icon pack she designed for Font Awesome 7. They get into the weird magic of creative constraints, why icon design is really just tiny-illustration puzzle solving, and how type, branding, and metaphor all shape great icon systems.

They also talk about freelance life, protecting your creative brain, why not every design problem should follow you into your evenings, and how sometimes the best ideas show up only after you’ve stepped away from the screen. It’s thoughtful, funny, nerdy, and full of delightful icon design rabbit trails. 

What We Cover in This Episode

  •  ✨ How Laura went from “dream project” to “I am spiritually untethered” 
  •  ✏️ How a book cover typeface sparked the visual idea behind the Chisel icon pack 
  •  🧩 Why icon design is basically a never-ending series of tiny, beautiful puzzles 
  •  🧠 Why creative boundaries and time away from work matter more than hustle culture admits 
  •  🖼️ How Laura balances clarity vs. creativity in icon design systems 
  •  🏰 Why designing icons for Historic England meant trading “upload” icons for castles and country houses 
  •  🛠️ Laura’s journey from Illustrator to Figma, with a little help from Noah 
  •  🌍 Why icon designers might secretly be some of the most-seen artists on the internet 

Timestamps

00:00 — Dream project meets existential crisis
00:04:00 — How an open-ended brief led to Chisel’s distinctive style
00:09:30 — Why Laura doesn’t usually do self-directed design projects
00:12:00 — How she found icon design through illustration and freelance work
00:16:00 — Freelance life, boundaries, and protecting creative energy
00:20:00 — How type design influences icon systems
00:30:00 — Why icon design is really a puzzle-solving practice
00:36:00 — Balancing clarity and creativity in icon systems
00:40:30 — Historic England, castles, and designing beyond typical UI icons
00:45:00 — Laura’s Figma origin story and Noah’s helpful onboarding
00:48:00 — Why icon designers are quietly famous
00:50:00 — Find Laura online and final thoughts

Links & Resources

  • Laura Bohill / Laura Bee
    Find Laura Laura Bee online 😄 
  • Font Awesome 7
    Explore Font Awesome 7 and its small batch icon packs, including Chisel
  • Chisel icon pack
    Laura’s custom icon pack for Font Awesome 7, inspired by stroke contrast in typography 
  • YouTube version of this episode
    Watch the visual demo version to see the Chisel icons on screen while the team talks through the design 
  • Figma
    Making the leap from Illustrator to Figma
  • Historic England
    Laura’s recent icon system project featuring castles, parks, and places of worship

Credits
Hosted by Matt Johnson
Featuring: Laura Bohill, and Jory Raphael
Produced and edited by Matt Johnson
Theme song: Ronnie Martin
Music interstitials:  Zach Malm
Additional video editing: Isaac Chase

Stay up to date on all the Font Awesomeness!

How to Use Kits in Your Project | Getting Started with Font Awesome [Part 2]

Watch How to Use Kits in Your Project | Getting Started with Font Awesome [Part 2] on YouTube

Ready to add awesome icons to your project in mere seconds? Look no further, because in this quick tutorial, we'll show you how to install and use a Font Awesome Kit — the easiest way to get icons into your project with just a single line of code. Whether you're building a personal site, client project, or your next side hustle, we’ll walk you through every step.

In just a few minutes, you'll learn how to:
✅ Embed a FA Kit into your HTML
🔎 Search & find the perfect icon
📋 Copy and paste icon code like a pro
🎉 Make your UI way more fun & functional, instantly!

No fuss. No config headaches. Just super-duper icon magic.

💡 Perfect for devs, designers, and digital tinkerers looking to speed up their workflow and make their projects stand out.

🔗 BONUS: We’re using [CodePen] (https://codepen.io) for the demo so you can play along in real time!

🧰 What You’ll Learn:

How Font Awesome Kits simplify icon installation
The fastest way to get icons into your project (no downloads required!)
The difference between icon styles (solid, regular, etc.)
Pro tips to keep your HTML clean and maintainable

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 – Copy your kit into your project
00:40 – Search page & icon detail modal
01:10 – Using icons in your web projects
01:18 – Wrap-up & next steps

#FontAwesome #WebDesign #CodeTutorial #WebDevelopment #HTMLIcons #DevTips #FrontendDev #IconLibrary #WebAwesome

Subsetting Your Icons Using Kits | Getting Started with Font Awesome [Part 5]

Watch Subsetting Your Icons Using Kits | Getting Started with Font Awesome [Part 5] on YouTube

Want to keep your projects loading up fast while still using the icons you love? In this screencast, we’ll show you how to subset your Font Awesome Kit, so you’re only loading the icons you actually need.

We’ll walk through the different ways to subset your icons—from automatic options to fully custom selections—so you can cut down file size, improve performance, and keep your setup streamlined.

🧰 What You’ll Learn:
⚡ What subsetting is and why it improves performance
🤖 The different subsetting options available in Kits
🔎 How to create a custom subset by selecting specific icons
💾 See how to enable 'Custom Subsetting' in your Kit settings
🚀 How to use your subsetted Kit in your project

⏱️ Timestamps
00:00:00 – Intro: Subsetting your icons using Kits
00:00:16 – FAQ: What is a subset?
00:00:41 – FAQ: What are my options when it comes to subsetting?
00:00:57 – Adding icons to your Kit: Subsetting 'By Icon'
00:01:35 – Managing your subset in Kit settings
00:01:42 – Using a subset in your project
00:02:05 – Outro: Go make something awesome!

Now that your icons are leaner and faster, go make something awesome!

🔗 Links & Resources
🎨 Font Awesome: https://fontawesome.com/
📘 Font Awesome Docs: https://docs.fontawesome.com/web/dig-...
💡 More Doing More with Font Awesome screencasts: • [v7-7.20] Managing Domains and Pageviews i...

Upload Custom Icons and Make Font Awesome Yours | Doing More with Font Awesome [Part 7]

Watch Upload Custom Icons and Make Font Awesome Yours | Doing More with Font Awesome [Part 7] on YouTube

🎨 In this tutorial, we’ll walk you through uploading custom icons to your Font Awesome Kit. We’ll cover everything — from navigating the Custom Icons tab to troubleshooting any bumps along the way — so you can mix your unique custom icons with the official Font Awesome collection. And of course, we’ll show you how to easily add these icons to your projects using a quick code snippet. By the end, you'll have a personalized icon library that adds extra flair to your projects.✨

⏰ Timestamps:
🎉 00:00 Introduction to Custom Icons in Font Awesome
📤 00:20 Uploading Your Custom Icons
🛠️ 01:01 Handling Icon Issues and Publishing
📂 02:03 Using Custom Icons in Your Project
📥 03:17 Downloading Kits with Custom Icons
📝 04:00 Recap and Final Thoughts

#FontAwesome #CustomIcons #WebDesign #Tutorial #Icons #WebDevelopment