If the whole pack or a specific icon has been rejected, it will be due to at least one of the following reasons:
- Limited commercial value
- Quality standards not reached
- Similar submissions
- Repetition of elements
- Outdated
- Duplicate
- Plagiarism
- Trademark/Copyright
- Ethical policies
- Invalid file
- Lack of coherence
- The icon does not represent the concept or theme
- Wrongly used typography
- Wrongly used Language / Grammar or spelling errors
- Color palette
- Unwanted elements in the artboard
- Stroke not outlined (expand stroke)
- Excess of nodes
- Deformed strokes
- Composition
- Complex concepts
- Perspective
- Lack of homogeneity
- Layers
- Correction period expired
Limited commercial value
We determine the commercial appeal of a the pack/icon taking into account the downloads and profitability data collected throughout time. Therefore, your content will be rejected if we consider it will not reach the minimum number of downloads to be profitable.
Quality standards not reached
Files that do not meet the aesthetic or technical standards established by the company will be rejected
If your content is rejected for this reason, it means that it has not the required technical or aesthetic quality. Therefore, we will not accept your content even though you improve aspects such as composition, color, insufficient technical quality levels…
Similar submissions
Different packs made by the same author with a similar appearance will be rejected.
* It is possible to submit different style icons of the same theme, but this icons should be properly modified according to these styles, which have to be clearly different from one another.
Repetition of elements
If your icons have minimal differences from other icons sent in the same submission these will be rejected.
Outdated
Icons that are out of date at the time they are received (for example, "Happy New Year 2018"). If your design refers to a holiday that has already passed, but it does not include any specific date, it will be accepted. However, we highly suggest you to send packs/icons in advance (two months before the date is the ideal timing) so that users can download your resources and you can obtain a higher profit.
Duplicate
This reason refers to duplicated or repeated icons, meaning that we will not accept resources that have been already sent, whether they were published or not.
Please note that repeatedly sending the same packs does not increase the chances of publication.
Plagiarism
All artwork you send must be original and of your own. Therefore, if you send us plagiarized resources, they will be rejected. Right after detecting that your content infringes copyright, your contributor account will be blocked permanently.
Reuse of elements: Including in your content elements from other authors, however minimal, is also considered plagiarism. We do not accept packs or icons containing elements already published by Freepik or by other contributors. We will also reject content that reuses CC0 resources.
Trademark/copyright
Icons containing registered trademarks are not allowed. Example of trademarks: Adobe, Amazon, Nintendo... However, the use of social network icons is allowed.
Ethical policies
This rejection reason refers to icons that contain or encourage inappropriate behavior. For example, violent, sexual, or pornographic content will be rejected. We do not accept icons that may, in some way, offend or affect the user’s sensibility.
Invalid file
It refers to files that, once uploaded, present loading errors.
Lack of coherence
The style of the icons does not follow the style assigned to the pack.
All icons belonging to a same pack must represent the same style.
Different styles should not be mixed in the same pack.
The icon does not represent the concept or theme
The design does not reflect the concept of the icon or has a different theme compared to the rest of the pack.
Wrongly used typography
The font is not consistent with the resource. Your files may be rejected due to the following issues:
Functionality: the font you used is not visually appealing nor harmonious with the design. Please, bear in mind that fonts must be legible and consistent with the pack’s style and functionality.
Unnecessary or redundant: If the icon does not need any typographic resources to have a meaning on its own it will be rejected.
Wrongly used Language / Grammar or spelling errors
The language used is not allowed. Please note that we only accept text properly written in English, except for relevant specific festivities, where a brief text in the local language is accepted. Make sure the text has no mistakes, it is related to the resource and it is correctly integrated into the icon. Also, make sure it does not conflict with our ethical policies.
If your designs contain spelling or grammar errors, they will also be rejected.
Color Palette
The color palette used in the composition does not match with the pack’s theme. Your content can also be rejected because the colors applied are obsolete or not harmonious.
Packs can be rejected when the chromatic harmony is disrupted by too many colors.
Unwanted elements in the artboard
There are unwanted elements in the artboard that are not part of the illustration such us: reference images, nodes, separate parts of the illustration, editable text, other icons, etc.
Please note: There is no need to add any rectangular white form as an “artboard” behind the icon.
Stroke not outlined (expand stroke)
All the strokes must be outlined.
Expand strokes, including the text that there might be.
Please note: DO NOT expand gradients.
Excess of nodes
The icon must be created with just the right amount of nodes.
Deformed strokes
The excess of nodes can lead to a deformation of the strokes. This can be avoided reducing the number of nodes to a minimum, save the file as a .svg with 3 decimals in the “more options” field. Get some tips about exporting in Illustrator here: Export to SVG
Composition
The icon does not comply with the basic composition rules. In order for a icon to have good composition, all parts must be put together coherently. Make sure they are correctly arranged in the artboard and have adequate size. Also, the icon must have symmetry in its composition.
Complex concepts
The icon must comply with universal basis of understanding and simplified concepts. Icons should not depict very complex concepts, they must be icons, not illustrations.
If you design complex images such as illustrations you can take your chance at contributor.freepik.com.
Perspective
Icons must have a frontal or side representation to provide a flat view, the only exception allowed would be when the concept can not be understand in any other way. Just in certain cases, it will be allowed to show an isometric view, but never any other unnecessary perspective.
Lack of homogeneity
The icons of a pack must follow a homogeneous guideline in relation to stroke, color, text, style, corners, etc.
Layers
Layers should appear correctly named. Only characters from A-Z and 0-9 are valid. To avoid layers with the same names, they should be numbered.
IMPORTANT! After exporting the icons, you must check that a blank layer called <title> has NOT been automatically created.
Correction period expired
Contributors have a 30 days time limit to correct those icons/packs that our team considered to have some mistakes.
Once this period expires and if the mistakes were not corrected, the team will only be able to go on with the review of those packs including more than 20 icons and provided that the packs are divisible.
When a pack has less than 20 icons without any mistakes, or it is indivisible (alphabets, sign language, sequences…) we cannot go on with its review once the correction period has expired and, therefore, the pack is rejected as a whole.