SVG icons are ideal for modern interfaces: they are scalable, lightweight, and easy to style with CSS.
But in real projects, you still often need PNG files.
Maybe you are preparing app store assets, writing documentation, creating a presentation, building a mockup, sending assets to a client, or integrating icons into a tool that does not support SVG well.
In those cases, exporting a PNG from an SVG icon page can save a lot of time.
Instead of downloading the SVG, opening it in a design tool, resizing it manually, adjusting the background, exporting it, and repeating the process later, you can generate the PNG directly from the icon page.
This article explains when this workflow is useful and how to use it effectively.
Why export SVG icons as PNG?
SVG should usually be your first choice for user interfaces.
It is resolution-independent, easy to recolor, small in file size, and perfect for responsive layouts.
However, PNG is still useful in many practical situations:
- Documentation screenshots
- README images
- App store graphics
- Email templates
- Social media previews
- Client handoff files
- Desktop software assets
- Legacy systems that require bitmap images
- Design previews where a fixed size is required
A PNG is also predictable. It has a fixed size, fixed pixels, and a final rendered appearance.
That makes it useful when you do not want the consuming environment to reinterpret the SVG.
The usual problem with PNG icon exports
The traditional workflow often looks like this:
- Find an SVG icon
- Download the SVG file
- Open it in Figma, Illustrator, Inkscape, or another tool
- Resize the canvas
- Adjust padding
- Choose a background
- Recolor the icon if needed
- Export as PNG
- Rename the file
- Repeat when you need another size
This is fine once.
It becomes annoying when you need several versions of the same icon, for example:
text
icon-64.png
icon-128.png
icon-256.png
icon-512.png
