Point One: Custom Post Types are Awesome
If you’re a serious WordPress developer, doubtless you’ve come to appreciate the power of Custom Post Types for allowing clients to more intuitively post content to their sites. And, with the advent of LoopBuddy from iThemes, the power of Custom Post Types has been ratcheted up a notch. Here’s a recommended reading list I did for a client that’s based on CPT and LoopBuddy. Here’s a tutorial on my site on how I created this system using LoopBuddy with Custom Post Types. Until now, something like this would have required PODS to pull off. Notice the random book widget in the sidebar and the book detail page complete with specific link to the book on Amazon all done with LoopBuddy.
Point Two: Adding Custom Post Types for Clients is Helpful
One of my favorite things to do for clients has been to break out special kinds of posts like news and events away from the blog and into their own custom post type. This way, instead of the client having to learn how to write a post and then put it in the news category, they can just post a new news item. Giving them a “News” dashboard menu item improves usability.
Point Three: Finding Decent Custom Post Type Icons is Hard
Normally, WordPress will give a new Custom Post Type the same pushpin icon that Posts uses. But most custom post type generators (I like CustomPress by WPMU) give you the option of adding your own custom icon. Putting a calendar icon for “Events” or a newspaper for “News” is a nice extra touch for the client. But finding a non-cheesy icon that feels like the other WordPress icons can be a challenge.
A while back I found a huge zip of royalty-free transparent png icons that are perfect for WordPress Menus. Click the link below and enjoy!
Download 3000 Custom Post Type Icons (ZIP)
Note: these icons are from Yusuke Kamiyamane. All rights reserved. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. I have edited each of these images, as they were originally designed to be a CSS sprite. If you use these icons, be sure to attribute them to him as he requests here. It can be as simple as adding a line in a README file.
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Nice! I’ll have to take a look… I’m sick of using a single generic icon for all custom post types!
I’m impressed. You’ve really reasid the bar with that.
Awesome, another great image resource to add to my site for others to be able to find what they need.
[...] 3000 Custom Post Type Icons [...]
Excellent resource, Nathan. Thank you.
Very kind of you Nathan. And great tutorial video about LoopBuddy and CPT.
Question: Which plugin are you using for this comments section that allows commenting via Twitter, FB, Google account?
I tried one last year from WPMU and had “issues” with it.
Hi Martin. Thanks for the kind words. I’m using Comments Plus from WPMU. I had “issues” with the other one too. This one works great.
Or you can just ask me to design one for you–I designed the original WordPress menu icons and continue to add to the menu as new features are added. I’m happy to make them for free for open-source, not-for-profit plugins, and really cheap for commercial plugins.
Hi Ben! Thanks for your comment. You do excellent work. All of us who use WordPress are grateful for your well-done icons.
FYI for readers, Ben is for real. Here is his web site: http://field2.com. Also, You can see his link from WordPress.org here in the right column.
Um awesome? This is quite the extensive list. Thanks a lot for posting this. I’m going to go back and update that standard icon for all my CPT on my websites now. Really sweet.