Built by an HMI technician, for everyone who draws HMI screens.

Every project I kicked off, the same fight: "where do we get the symbols from?"

Either I paid for an old desktop-only symbol library that broke ISA-101 on the first screen, or I redrew the same motor / valve / tank from scratch on every new HMI brand. Either path cost real hours and produced inconsistent operator displays.

So I built the tool I wanted to use myself, and then opened it up. HMI Library today is three things: a free online Symbol Builder, a community library where engineers publish the symbols they draw under CC BY 4.0, and a small official library of generic HMI iconography (arrows, indicators, alarm and state badges, instrument bubbles, connection lines, navigation icons). Plus a forum for the questions that never fit in a manual.

What I believe

• Operator-first. Calm color, clear hierarchy, situation awareness. ISA-101 isn't a checkbox here; it is the design philosophy behind every icon in the official library and the automatic check every published community symbol goes through.
• Vendor-neutral by default. Standard PNG and SVG you can drop into any HMI / SCADA: Weintek, WinCC, FactoryTalk, Ignition, Citect, AVEVA. The vendor-native export formats on the Studio plan are a convenience layer, never lock-in.
• Equipment symbols belong to the people who draw them. I do not generate motors, valves or pumps by the hundred and call it a catalog. The community draws equipment in the Symbol Builder, publishes it under CC BY 4.0 and gets credited; the official library stays small and generic.
• Honest pricing. Free plan: the full builder, unlimited publishing and 5 downloads a month. Starter (5 €/month) gives 50 downloads a month, Studio (19.99 €/month) unlimited. Creators never pay to export what they publish. Prices are on the home page; that is what you pay. 14-day no-questions refund on the first paid period, cancel any time.

How it works

HMI Library is a one-person operation plus the engineers and technicians who publish in it. I have shipped operator screens for waste-compaction lines, water treatment, filling and packaging machines. I know what an operator screen looks like at 3 a.m. when something is going wrong, and that moment, not the demo screenshot, is what the builder and the icon library are designed for.

The standards applied are ISA-101.01 (display design, color reserved for state), ISA-5.1 (instrument tags and bubbles), ISO 7010 (safety pictograms) and ASME Y32.11 (P&ID geometry). Community symbols get an automatic ISA-101 check when published (palette, stroke, structure) and carry an "ISA-101 compliant" mark if they pass; the community guidelines explain what to publish and how attribution works. Everything else, moderation included, is me and my inbox.

Who's behind it

Pau Serrano García — automation and electrical technician from Lleida (Spain), working as a sole trader. I run automation, electrical and maintenance work for companies around my area: I program PLCs and build the operator screens that go with them — waste-compaction lines, water treatment, filling and packaging machines — and I got tired of redrawing the same symbols on every HMI brand. HMI Library is the tool I wanted for myself: a Symbol Builder, a small library of generic HMI icons, and now a community where engineers share their own symbols and help each other in the forum.

LinkedIn · hello@hmilibrary.com · Registered in Spain, EU VAT-compliant invoicing (B2B reverse charge supported). Data hosted in the EU, payments via Stripe Ireland. More on data & security →

Get in touch

Email hello@hmilibrary.com for anything — pre-sales questions, custom symbol work (Enterprise plan), partnership / OEM enquiries, a takedown request, or just to tell me what's broken on the site. For HMI design questions the forum is usually faster, and the answer helps the next engineer too.

I answer every email personally. No tier-1 support outsourced to a chatbot.