Design Atlas
Site
css.gg
Type
icon library
Verdict
Niche Stale
Licence
Conditional licence, mixedmixedFree to download, but not open source since version 2.1.2 (August 2024). The custom licence allows personal, non-commercial use with attribution only, bans derivative works, and needs written permission for commercial use. Versions up to 2.1.1 remain MIT
Agent channels
none
Pricing
free
Reviewed
Note
Paused since the last commit and release in August 2024.

← Atlas · Topics: icons, assets

css.gg ​

Site
css.gg
Type
icon library
Verdict
Niche Stale
Licence
Conditional licence, mixedmixedFree to download, but not open source since version 2.1.2 (August 2024). The custom licence allows personal, non-commercial use with attribution only, bans derivative works, and needs written permission for commercial use. Versions up to 2.1.1 remain MIT
Agent channels
none
Pricing
free
Reviewed
Note
Paused since the last commit and release in August 2024.

What it is ​

css.gg is a set of 704 interface icons by the designer Astrit Malsija, known for drawing each glyph with plain CSS: one element, its borders and its ::before and ::after pseudo-elements, with no images or fonts. Every icon also exists as SVG, as TSX components and in a Figma file. The repository has about 10,000 stars and the css.gg npm package gets about 23,000 downloads a month. The same author runs glyf.app, a related collection of about 6,000 glyphs that the licence also covers.

When to open it ​

Open it to study how far pure CSS drawing can go, or for a personal side project that wants tiny, themeable icons with no asset pipeline. For commercial or client work, use the MIT release 2.1.1 or pick another set.

Most useful ​

  • Copy as CSS or SVG: the site copies a single icon's CSS rule or SVG markup, and offers a ZIP of the set
  • Scale by variable: each CSS icon reads a --ggs custom property, so --ggs: 2 doubles it without touching the geometry
  • Colour from text: icons are drawn with currentColor borders and backgrounds, so they follow the surrounding text colour
  • Raycast extension and Figma file: search and copy icons without opening the site
  • Old MIT packages: css.gg@2.1.1 on npm still ships per-icon CSS, SCSS, SVG, PNG and TSX files

Using it with agents ​

There is no llms.txt, MCP server or API. The icon CSS endpoints the old docs pointed to (css.gg/<name>.css) returned 404 at review. If you use it at all, pin css.gg@2.1.1 and have the agent import only the CSS files it needs from icons/css/, since the newer packages dropped the CSS files and carry the restrictive licence. Tell the agent to check that licence before adding the package to any shipped product.

Watch out for ​

  • The licence change is easy to miss. npm shows only "SEE LICENSE", GitHub reports no standard licence, and Iconify still labels 2.1.4 as MIT
  • The licence also forbids copying the library's "functionality" or design elements elsewhere, which is unusually broad
  • The project looks paused: the last commit and release date from August 2024, and a Figma plugin announced then had not appeared at review
  • CSS-drawn icons are fixed shapes built from boxes, so fine detail and optical balance are limited compared with path-based SVG sets
  • The site is a JavaScript-only app and shows nothing without scripts

Reusable ideas ​

  • Draw simple UI glyphs from one element and two pseudo-elements when you want zero requests and full CSS control
  • Scale a whole icon through one custom property instead of recalculating each dimension
  • Let icons inherit currentColor so they theme with no extra rules
  • If you ever change licence, make it visible in package metadata so downstream tools stay accurate

Bootstrap Icons, Iconoir, Iconify, Eva Icons