How to use WordPress Dashicons  

Key highlights 

• Dashicons are scalable vector icons built into WordPress, enhancing both frontend and backend interfaces with consistent, lightweight visuals. 
• They offer performance optimization, ease of use, cross-compatibility and customization flexibility without additional plugins. 
• Dashicons can be integrated into WordPress themes via simple CSS and PHP snippets for both frontend displays and backend dashboards. 
• Users can design custom icons, convert them to web fonts and integrate them seamlessly into WordPress. 
• Incorporating ARIA labels, ensuring contrast and maintaining keyboard accessibility enhances Dashicons’ usability for all users. 
• Dashicons improve user engagement and can be optimized for SEO through alt tags, structured data and proper indexing. 

Introduction 

There are a number of tools that can make your WordPress site shine. Dashicons are one of them. They are an essential tool for developers and designers looking to add scalable vector icons to their WordPress sites. Whether you’re customizing the backend dashboard or enhancing the frontend user interface, Dashicons provide a consistent and visually appealing way to display icons across your site. 

This guide will help you master the integration of Dashicons to make your WordPress site stand out.   

What are WordPress Dashicons? 

WordPress Dashicons are a set of vector icons that come pre-installed with WordPress. They are the official icon font for WordPress, primarily designed to offer visual indicators within the WordPress Admin dashboard and interface. These icons function to help enhance user experience by making the interface easier to navigate, more visually appealing and more intuitive. 

Dashicons are designed to be both lightweight and scalable, ensuring they appear sharp and distinct across various screen sizes and resolutions. One of the main benefits of using Dashicons is that they allow for a consistent user interface across WordPress themes and plugins. This keeps the user experience uniform and easy to understand. 

Benefits of using WordPress Dashicons 

Let’s look at the benefits of using WordPress Dashicons: 

1. Consistency: Dashicons offer a consistent set of icons that align with WordPress’s design language, ensuring your site maintains a unified look and feel. 
2. Performance: Since Dashicons are a font-based solution, they load faster than image-based icons and don’t require additional HTTP requests, which helps optimize site performance. 
3. Scalability: Being vector-based, Dashicons scale smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, providing high-quality visuals on all devices. 
4. Ease of use: You don’t need to worry about file sizes or complex code. Dashicons can be easily integrated into your themes, plugins or custom projects with just a few lines of CSS. 
5. Customization: With Dashicons, you have the flexibility to adjust the size, color and positioning of icons through CSS. This gives you full control over their appearance without needing complex design software. 
6. Cross-compatibility: Dashicons are natively supported in WordPress, so you don’t need to install any additional libraries or plugins to start using them. This makes them a reliable and hassle-free option for WordPress developers. 

How to implement WordPress Dashicons? 

Implementing WordPress Dashicons is straightforward, whether you’re working on the frontend of your site or customizing the backend dashboard. Here’s a step-by-step guide for both. 

Frontend use cases 

Dashicons can be used in your posts, pages or custom post types to add font icons. Here’s how you can display Dashicons in the WordPress frontend:  

1. Load Dashicons in your theme: First, ensure that Dashicons are loaded into your theme. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file: 

php  
 
function load_dashicons() { wp_enqueue_style('dashicons'); } add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'load_dashicons'); 

2. Display an icon: To display a Dashicon, use the following HTML code in your posts, pages or custom post types: 

html  
 
<span class="dashicons dashicons-heart"></span> 

Replace ‘heart’ with the specific Dashicon class name you want to use. A full list of Dashicons can be found in the WordPress Dashicon library. 

3. Style the icons: You can style the icons using CSS.  

For example: 

css 
 
.dashicons { font-size: 24px; color: #ff0000; /* red color */ } 

Backend use cases 

Customizing the WordPress dashboard with the Dashicons project can make the admin panel more visually organized. Here’s how to add Dashicons to the backend: 

1. Add Dashicons to menu items: You can use a menu icon to represent a menu item in the WordPress dashboard. For example, when adding custom admin menu items, use Dashicons for icons: 

php 
 
function custom_admin_menu() { add_menu_page( 'Custom Page', 'Custom Page', 'manage_options', 'custom-page', 'custom_page_content', 'dashicons-admin-site', 6 ); } add_action('admin_menu', 'custom_admin_menu'); 

The ‘dashicons-admin-site’ class will display the appropriate icon for the menu. 

2. Custom icons in widgets: You can also add Dashicons to custom widgets within the WordPress admin. This makes it easier for users to identify widgets based on their function. 

Creating custom Dashicons in WordPress 

While WordPress provides a solid set of pre-designed Dashicons, there may be times when you want to create custom icons that match your site’s branding or specific design needs. Fortunately, creating and using custom Dashicons in WordPress is straightforward. 

Steps to create custom Dashicons: 

1. Design your icon: 

First, design your icon using a vector-based tool like Adobe Illustrator or Figma. The icon should be simple, clean and scalable. Save it as an SVG file for optimal quality and flexibility. 

2. Convert your SVG to a font: 

To integrate your custom icon with Dashicons, you can convert your SVG file into a web font using a tool like IcoMoon or Fontello. These tools allow you to upload your SVG file and generate a custom font that can be easily used on your WordPress site. 

3. Enqueue the custom icon font: 

After converting your icon into a font, you’ll need to enqueue the font on your WordPress site. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file: 

php 
 
function enqueue_custom_dashicons() { wp_enqueue_style('custom-dashicons', get_template_directory_uri() . '/path-to-your-icon-font.css'); } add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_custom_dashicons'); 

4. Using your custom Dashicon: 

Once your custom font is enqueued, you can use it anywhere on your site just like Dashicons. Add the icon by using the appropriate HTML and class names associated with your custom icon. For example: 

html 
 
<span class="dashicons dashicons-your-custom-icon"></span> 

Searchable functionality for Dashicons 

To make it easier to find Dashicons, you can filter them by category or tag. Here’s how you can do that: 

1. Categories and tags: Dashicons are organized into categories like ‘admin,’ ‘user interface,’ and ‘media.’ By categorizing your Dashicons, you can streamline the selection process and find the perfect icon for your use case. 

For example, if you are looking for icons related to users, you can filter the Dashicons library by the ‘users’ category. 

2. Plugin support: Plugins like SearchWP, WooCommerce Product Search and Relevanssi allow you to enhance the search functionality for Dashicons. These plugins can help make Dashicons more accessible within your WordPress site by improving search speed and accuracy. 

Best practices for making Dashicons more accessible 

To ensure your website is accessible to all users, it’s important to follow best practices when using Dashicons: 

1. Use text alternatives (Aria Labels or Titles): Provide alternative text for icons, especially if they convey important information. Use ARIA labels or titles to describe the purpose of the icon: 

html 
<span class="dashicons dashicons-heart" aria-label="Favorite"></span> 

2. Ensure sufficient contrast: Icons should have enough contrast against the background to be readable for users with visual impairments. Ensure your icons stand out by choosing high-contrast colors or using a dark icon on a light background. 
3. Provide context for icon use: Don’t rely on icons alone to convey meaning. Ensure that the context around the icon (such as accompanying text or tooltips) clarifies its purpose. 
4. Keyboard accessibility: Ensure that all Dashicons can be accessed and interacted with using the keyboard alone. This is especially important for users who rely on screen readers or other assistive technologies. 
5. Test for accessibility regularly: Regularly audit your site using tools like the WAVE accessibility tool or Lighthouse to ensure Dashicons are accessible. 

Enhancing user experience with Dashicons 

Dashicons are more than just visual elements—they can significantly enhance the user experience when used properly. Here are a few ways to improve user interaction: 

1. Downloadable icon assets: For easy access, consider offering downloadable Dashicons in SVG or PNG formats. This can be helpful for users who want to use them outside of WordPress. 
2. Embeddable code snippets: Provide embeddable code snippets for your users to copy and paste easily. This makes it simple for non-technical users to incorporate Dashicons into their posts, pages or widgets. 
3. CSS class examples: Provide clear examples of how to use Dashicons in CSS. For example: 

css 
 
.my-button { background-image: url('path-to-icon/dashicons-heart.svg'); } 

Design considerations for Dashicons 

When integrating Dashicons into your WordPress site, consider the following best practices: 

1. Style guide and consistency: Dashicons should be used consistently across the site. Create a style guide to ensure the icons are implemented uniformly and enhance the overall design. 
2. Complement other design elements: Dashicons should complement other design elements such as typography and color schemes. Be sure to choose icons that fit your site’s branding and tone. 
3. Icon size and alignment: Ensure that Dashicons are properly sized and aligned with other content on the page. Avoid using excessively large or small icons that disrupt the visual flow. 

SEO considerations for Dashicons implementation 

Dashicons can also play a role in SEO. Here’s how to optimize their use: 

1. Alt tags for icons: While Dashicons are vector icons, they can still be optimized for SEO. Use alt tags or ARIA labels to describe the icons so search engines can understand their meaning. 
2. Structured data: Use structured data through schema markup to define the meaning of the icons in context. This can help search engines better index the icons as part of your content. 
3. Proper indexing: Ensure that icons are properly indexed by search engines by adding them to the relevant sections of your site and ensuring they’re not blocked by robots.txt files. 

Final thoughts

Dashicons offer a powerful and flexible way to enhance the user experience in WordPress. From improving the backend dashboard to adding sleek, scalable icons to the frontend, they can help make your site more visually appealing and easier to navigate. So, whether you’re a developer looking to implement Dashicons in a custom theme or a designer refining the user interface, Dashicons are a great tool to improve the WordPress experience. 

If you’re looking for professional support to improve the look and feel of your WordPress website, Bluehost is just the right place for you. Contact us today with your requirements and our experts will be happy to help you! 

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