What is Power BI Icon Set?
The Power BI Icon Set is a collection of predefined icons that can be used within Power BI reports and dashboards. These icons represent various concepts, objects, or actions and can help enhance the visual appeal and communication of data in Power BI.
Power BI provides a wide range of icons in different categories, such as data, business, technology, people, and more. These icons can be used to represent different data points, and categories, or to provide additional context to the information being presented in a report.

Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- The Power BI Icon Set is a collection of predefined icons that can be used in Power BI reports and dashboards.
- Power BI does not have a specific “Field Icon Set,” but it provides icons, including “Data Icons,” that can represent fields or data points.
- You can apply an icon set in Power BI by configuring the formatting options for a visual or field and selecting the desired icons and thresholds.
- Custom icons can be used in Power BI by adding custom images as backgrounds or images within visuals.
- Stay updated with the latest Power BI updates and documentation to learn about new features and enhancements related to icons.
History of Power BI Field Icon Set
Power BI does not have a specific Field Icon Set built-in. However, it provides a set of icons known as “Data Icons” that can be used to represent fields or data points within reports. These icons include symbols like arrows, circles, squares, and other shapes that can be used to differentiate and represent different data fields visually.
It’s worth noting that Power BI is regularly updated, and new features and enhancements are introduced over time. Microsoft released this feature in July 2019 in Power BI. Since then, Microsoft has been regularly releasing updates to the Power BI tool, introducing new Power BI features and improvements.
In the subsequent section, we will see how you can apply the Power BI Icon Set to the reports and dashboards.
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How to Apply Icon Set in Power Bi?
To apply a Power BI Icon set, you can follow these general steps.
- Open your existing Power BI report or dashboard or create a new one in Power BI Desktop.
You can add a table visual to your report for new reports by selecting the Table from the Visualizations pane. Configure the table by adding the appropriate fields to the rows and columns sections of the table visual.

- Select the visual or the field for which you want to apply the icon set.
- In the Visualizations pane, click on the drop-down arrow next to the field for which you want to apply the icon set, select Conditional formatting, and then choose the Icons option from the menu.
Visualization – Fields Value – Drop Down Arrow – Conditional Formatting – Icons

Once the Format window opens, specify the settings related to the icons, such as Format Style, Fields, Field values, Icon layout, Icon alignment, and any rules for Icon display. You can also choose the desired Icons to be displayed from the Icon Set under the Style header.

- Preview and adjust the icon set as needed until you achieve the desired visual representation.
- Save and publish your Power BI report or dashboard to make the icon set visible to others.
It will create a Power BI report with the Power BI Icons in table format. The Power BI icons in the table provide an easy way of visualizing and distinguishing the dataset. The Power BI Icons in table we have applied here are the standard Power BI Icon Set that comes by default with Power BI Desktop.
Note that Power BI provides a set of built-in icons that can be used within your reports and dashboards. The Power BI does not offer a direct option for the Power BI Icons download or access the Power BI Icons library. You can only use the icons available within Power BI Icon Set.
Similarly, there is no in-built option for customizing the Power BI icons. However, there are ways you can use custom Power BI icons in your reports. You can use custom images as icons by adding them as a background image for a shape or as an image within a visual. It allows you to create your custom icon visuals using external image files.
To use custom Power BI icons:
- Prepare the custom icon image(s) in a compatible format, such as PNG, JSON, etc.
- In Power BI Desktop, navigate to the View tab, and select Browse for themes under Themes.

- Choose the customer icon image file and import it to Power BI Desktop.
- Once successfully imported, navigate to Conditional formatting – Icons window and under the Style header, you can see the imported icon.

The specific steps and options for applying an icon set may vary depending on the version of Power BI you are using and the visual or field you are working with.
Examples
Now, we will go through some of the examples of using the Power BI Icon Set function for data analysis and visualization.
Example #1
In this example, we will use the Power BI Icon Set on NIFTY (market index introduced by the National Stock Exchange, India) Benchmark returns using the Mutual Fund Benchmark Monitor R dataset to apply Conditional formatting. To use the Power BI icon Set, follow the steps highlighted below.
Step 1: Import the Mutual Fund Benchmark Monitor R dataset into Power BI, select the fields from the dataset, and drag them to the report canvas to create a table using the data connection.

Step 2: Select the Format visual tab by navigating to the Visualization pane, expand the Title section and provide the header text and adjust the Heading, Font, Text Color, and Background color.

Step 3: Apply the filters in the Filters pane to filter out the NIFTY benchmark name by choosing the Advanced filtering option from the Filter type drop-down values.

Step 4: Select a Table Visualization you want to format in Power BI. Right-click on the field or select the down-arrow next to the field and choose the Conditional formatting option in the Visualization pane and select the Icons option.

Step 5: Specify the format style, the field on which the formatting is to be applied, and the font colors to be applied. Here we have defined the rules for the font colors as we have selected the Rules format for our visualization. Once you have provided the details, click on OK.
Here we have defined the rules for the icons as per the 1-year return values.
Note: You can also use custom icons instead of default style Power BI icons.

Power BI will add style icons as per the rules defined in conditional formatting.

Example #2
In this example, we will use the Power BI Icon Set using Coffee Quality Data. Coffee Quality Data contains tabular data for Arabica-type coffees along with coffee quality scores on an individual and overall basis. We will apply conditional formatting to the Overall score of coffee quality based on the average Overall coffee quality score.
To use the Power BI icon Set, follow the steps highlighted below:
Step 1: Import the Coffee Quality Data (CQI) dataset into Power BI, select the fields from the dataset, and drag them to the report canvas to create a table using the data connection.

Step 2: Select the Format Visual tab by navigating to the Visualization pane, expand the Title section and specify the header text and adjust the Heading, Font, Text Color, and Background color.

Here we have dragged the coffee variety and Overall coffee quality scores to the report canvas.

Step 3: Select the Table Visualization you want to format in Power BI. Right-click on the field or select the down arrow next to the field, choose the Conditional formatting option in the Visualization pane, and select the Icons option.
Here we have selected the Overall field to apply the icon from the Power BI Icon Set.

This will open a Background color pop-up window.
Step 4: Specify the Format style, the field on which the formatting is to be applied, and the Style icon to be applied, and then click on OK.
Here we have defined the rules for the Power BI icons as per the Overall coffee quality values. The rules are divided into three categories: the Overall coffee quality score 0 to 7, 7 to 8, and 8 to 10.

Power BI will add style icons as per the rules defined in conditional formatting.

Important Things to Note
- Using custom Power BI icons may require proper licensing or obtaining the rights to use the images.
- Power BI provides a variety of built-in icons that can be used, but as of my knowledge cut off, there is no direct option to download additional icons or access a specific icon library within Power BI.
- Custom icons can be used in Power BI by adding custom images as background images for shapes or images within visuals. However, Power BI has no built-in feature to import or use custom icons directly.
- Power BI is regularly updated, and new features and enhancements may be introduced over time. It’s recommended to refer to the official Microsoft Power BI documentation or check for updates to stay informed about the latest features and capabilities related to icons in Power BI.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
You can get the Icons by navigating to the Conditional Formatting option and choosing the Icons option.
Visualization – Fields Value – Drop Down Arrow – Conditional Formatting – Icons
For this, you must select a visual and the appropriate field for applying the conditional formatting icons. It will open a Format window to access the built-in Power BI Icon Set under the Style header.
• Select the visual to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
• In the Visualizations pane, navigate to the Conditional formatting section by selecting the field on which you want to apply conditional formatting. Choose the Icon option.
• Define the rules for the icon set by selecting the field or measure to base the icons on and specifying the thresholds or ranges.
• Choose the Power BI icon set and customize the appearance of icons, if desired.
• Preview and adjust the settings until you achieve the desired visual representation.
In Power BI, you can add custom icons by
• Creating a JSON file that has the icon codes of the styles you want to add to Power BI.
• Saving it in the .json extension. Make sure the JSON file adheres to the JSON format.
• Open Power BI, navigate to the View tab and select Browse for themes under Themes.
To remove header icons in Power BI, you can follow these steps:
• In Power BI Desktop, select the visual for which you want to remove the header icons.
• In the “Format” pane on the right-hand side, navigate to the “Title” section.
• Look for an option called “Header” or “Icon” within the “Title” section.
• Disable or toggle off the option related to header icons. It would disable the header icons should no longer be visible in the visual.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Power BI Icons. Here we learn to apply Icon sets to Power BI reports and dashboards, with examples. You can learn more from the following articles –
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