Icons are crucial for improving the user experience of your modern web application. Icons, which not only make the interface more intuitive but also add to its visual appeal that can uplift the entire design. Lucide icon library has been the talk of town in web development community, and we will dissect every part of it today on this blog post. A deep dive on what it provides, some benefits and how you can take advantage of this platform. When done, I hope to have convinced you of the simple fact that Lucide is THE icon set for modern web development

What the heck is Lucide?

Lucide stands out as a modern web element, icon-based UI component library crafted for the contemporary needs of web developers. Well, this one offers a plethora of good-looking and widely configurable collection of icons that makes it an amazing choice in top projects. In the end, Lucide is a fork of Feather Icons that carries over simplicity and elegance from its predecessor while expanding with new capabilities focused on catering to modern requirements for developers.

Why Use it?

1. Comprehensive Icon Set: The complete icon set of Lucide can be found here Regardless, Lucide provides you with icons for the navigation(with different sizes), social media(platforms logos) and file types etc as well. We add new icons weekly, while our library keeps growing to meet UX & UI trends.
2. Highly customizable: One of the standout features of Lucide is its high level of customizability. You can easily change the size, stroke width, color, and other attributes of the icons to match your design needs. This feature of lucide allows you to create a cohesive and consistent look across your entire application.
3. Lightweight and Fast: Lucide is really lightweight and fast. The icons of lucide are built using SVG, which makes sure that they load quickly and look crisp on all screen sizes and resolutions. This performance optimization is very important for maintaining a smooth user experience and Search Engine Optimization(SEO), especially in applications with heavy icon usage.
4. Easy Integration: Integrating Lucide into your project is a breeze. Whether you’re using React, Vue, Angular, or plain HTML/CSS, Lucide provides simple integration options. The library is well-documented, making it trouble-free to get started and find the icons of your need.
5. Open Source and Actively Maintained: Lucide is an open-source project, which means it benefits from the contributions and feedback of a vibrant developer community. The library is actively maintained. It ensures that it stays up-to-date with the latest web development standards, practices and new design trends.

Getting Started with Lucide

Let’s learn the steps to get started with Lucide in a React or Next project.

Installation:

You can install Lucide using npm or yarn. Run the following command in your working project directory:

npm install lucide-react

or

yarn add lucide-react

Usage

After Installing , you can start using Lucide icons in your React components. Here’s a simple example:

import React from 'react';
import { Home, Settings } from 'lucide-react';

  export default function LucideDemo ()  {
  return (
    <div>
      <Home size={48} color="#000" />
      <Settings size={48} color="#000" />
    </div>
  );
};

In the example above, we’re importing the LucideHome and LucideSettings icons from lucide-react and using them in a simple react component. The size and color props allow us to customize the visual appearance of the icons

How to customize Lucide Icons?

Lucide icons are highly customizable. The examples below explains how you can modify the stroke width and color.

<Settings size={48} color="teal" strokeWidth={2} />

You can also style with Tailwind CSS or custom CSS

<Home className="w-12 h-12 text-teal-900 stroke-2" />

Advanced Usage:

Using with Other Frameworks:

If you’re using a different framework, Lucide has you covered. The library provides bindings for Vue, Angular, Solid, Svelte, Prereact and other popular frameworks as well. Check the Official Documentation for detailed instructions on how you can integrate Lucide with your preferred framework.
Icon Packs:
Lucide also supports icon packs, which allows you to extend the library with additional icons. This feature is particularly useful if you have custom icons like font-awesome, that you want to use alongside the standard Lucide icons.

Accessibility:

Ensuring that your application is accessible to all users is crucial. You can accessibility to your icons in lucide. You can add aria-label attributes like other html tags to your icons to provide descriptive labels for screen readers:

<Home aria-label="Home" />

Conclusion

Lucide is a powerful and flexible icon library that can enhance the visual appeal and usability of your web applications made with any framework. With its comprehensive icon set, high customizability, lightweight design, and ease of integration, Lucide stands out as a top choice for modern web development. No matter if you’re crafting a small personal project or a large enterprise application, Lucide provides the tools you need to create beautiful and user-friendly interfaces.
Give Lucide a try in your next project, and experience the benefits of a well-crafted comprehensive icon library. Your users will appreciate the polished look and feel of your web application, and you’ll enjoy its simplicity and efficiency