This article explains all the technical requirements for uploading icons and illustrations to Iconfinder. If upload specifications are not met, upload might fail or the items might be rejected by our Content Review team.
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Before uploading, make sure to check the list of upload requirements for icons and illustrations: 

Icons are stylised and simplified graphics whose aim is to capture the essence of an object or action (it zooms in). Often using geometrical shapes, a good icon can be understood by everyone in a few seconds. Icons work very well in small sizes and are often used as UI elements.

We are looking for graphics that are "iconic" in nature. By "iconic" we mean simplified, idealized, and/or stylized images that represent an action, object, or idea. 

No silhouettes

We do not accept artwork that is simply a literal silhouette of an object without creative interpretation. 

No letterforms / numbers / fonts

We do not accept artwork that is simply a collection of letters, numbers, or keyboard characters.

Illustrations are more artistic and elaborate graphics whose aim is to enchant and bring life into a situation or action. Often using organic shapes and strokes, illustrations can be metaphorical and open to interpretation. They need to be seen in larger sizes in order to be understood. They are often used in presentations, landing pages, error pages, or even printed on books.

We require at least 10 items for each submission to be considered for inclusion in the marketplace. 

As a maximum, we allow no more than 250 items per pack. If you plan to upload more than 250 items, try to split the items into two or more packs.

The ideal pack size is between 30 and 50 items. This is large enough to offer the customer ample items around a single topic, but small enough to not devalue items.

Why the limit? We do this to keep the value of items high and to keep the marketplace competitive and fair. We want Iconfinder to be a resource of the best quality icons and illustrations available anywhere. Allowing designers to submit a single pack of say, 2,000 items priced at $5 drives down the price of items and makes it extremely hard for designers to make a living. 

We strongly recommend organising your packs into families. This way, all the icons / illustrations that share the same style but cannot be part of the same pack will be grouped. Read about how to manage packs and families.

We only accept SVG (vector) icons and illustrations. 

We are finding that customers are not downloading or buying PNG format. We will accept PNG format in special circumstances such as highly-rendered 3D icons but, in general, we no longer accept PNG format. 

When you upload SVG files, we will convert them to PNG as well as ICNS, ICO, CSH, AI and IconJar.
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It is up to you if you want to upload items with non-expanded or expanded lines. We allow both. However, we strongly recommend unexpanded lines, so that customers have the freedom to make edits.

We accept the SVG format for illustrations.

For example, the illustration below looks very nice, but it has a spray-paint effect added to it. This causes all kinds of problems when trying to edit the colours of the icon.

This is how the SVG code of the hot air balloon icon above. There code is very very long and that is a sign that the effects are taking a very large space. Normally, there are only a few lines with mathematical data (10-20 lines).

Most icons are designed in increments of 8 pixel sizes, but we have no restrictions on the sizes of the actual icons. 

To get started, check this article on Artboards and templates. You can download file templates that we have compiled for Adobe Illustrator. You can also use the guidelines about artboards. 

Items must fit within the artboard. If the artboard is too large compared to the item, the thumbnails will appear too small to be seen. If your items extend beyond the edge of the artboard, they will be cropped. Also, your artboards must be perfectly square. If the artboards are not square, our system will not be able to process them.

Icons and illustrations must have transparent backgrounds. When uploading, artboards should always be transparent so that items may be placed on any background, without a colored fill around them.

Read more about Artboards and templates.

There are a few rules on how set names should be.

Unique and memorable pack names

Your packs are not just a collection of symbols and drawings. They are a digital product and that product has a brand. Make it a memorable and unique brand by giving your packs easy-to-understand an easy-to-remember names. Also, if you have multiple packs of say, Football icons, make the names distinguishable from one another by adding - Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. How you differentiate the names is up to you, but make them different and don't just name them all "Football".

Good pack names:

Flat Christmas
Christmas elements
Merricons
Christmas accessories 

Bad pack names (generic):

Circle icons
Flat icon pack
Flat style icons
6 Rounded icons

Avoid names like “Flat icons”. This name describes a general style and this name will be chosen by many icon designers. Try to come up with unique names likes “Picons”, “Linecons” or “Cosmo”. 

"Icons" or "Icon pack" "illustration" and "illustration pack" not allowed in pack names

We do not allow the words "icons" or "icon pack", "illustration" and "illustration pack" in pack names as this is considered unnecessary information in this context.

No numbers in pack names

Do not include the number of items in your pack names. You may create your awesome Football pack to have only 20 icons to start with, but you will likely find that you want to add more icons later. It's better to just leave the count out of the pack names.

Pack name capitalization

Please do not use all capitals or all lowercase in Pack names. Pack names should use normal capitalization (first letter capitalized, other letters in the word lowercase). For example, if you have a pack named "Business concepts", do not use "BUSINESS CONCEPTS" or "business concepts" (and please no "BuSiNeSs CoNcEpTs").

Each item must be tagged, so it can be indexed and found in the search results. Generally we recommend an average of 3-4 tags per item.  If you add more than 7 tags, the item will get a lower rank in the search results. And while you can use just 1 or 2 tags on certain items that don't require more, overall a pack average should never be below 1.5 tags. Please read more about our tagging guidelines to follow the best practices and help make sure your items are properly found.

For legal reasons, we cannot sell items that represent logos or trademarks such as those belonging to social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or common banking and payment logos such as Visa, MasterCard, and/or PayPal. This restriction also includes cartoon and gaming characters which are usually trademarked. There is some gray area as to what constitutes "fair use", but we are strong supporters of intellectual property rights and copyrights. We wouldn't want our copyrights violated, and we won't knowingly violate someone else's. You are not allowed to sell someone else's intellectual property for personal profit. 

Items representing trademarked elements can be uploaded to Iconfinder, but must be offered for free. If you have an awesome pack of social media icons, we'll be happy to include them in the marketplace as a free download. 

Apart from these technical requirements, our review team also follows other Criteria for approving icons and illustrations. Check them out before uploading your artwork to Iconfinder.