Is there such a thing as FREE Clipart?

[DonBo]

I need good quality clipart from time to time, pdf, eps., vector formats. Everyone wants to charge big money per piece or sign you up for a year to get the good stuff.

Any ideas?

[pureinsanity]

There is a lot out there, however probably can't name the websites on here as its against the rules. Look for photoshop brushes too. A lot of times there are free brush sets that might get you what you need.

[upnorth]

Try Googling free clipart. The problem with free clip art is the ads and it may not be the best stuff out there.

[nofishfisherman]

The graphic designer in me cringes at the thought of clip art. But to answer your question there should be plenty of free stuff online but it just depends on what kind of quality you want. Most free stuff is likely going to be low quality jpegs probably no better than 72dpi. That will work for web applications but not for print.

What type of images are you looking for and what are you using it for?

I know Microsoft has an online clip art collection you could check out. That might work for you.

Other than that if you don't mind paying a little for the image you might want to try out istock. just google it and you'll find it. I use it mainly for stock photography but they do have illustrations as well and I've found them to be the least expensive for high quality images.

[DonBo]

I'm mostly just looking for silhouette type eps vector files. I'm a sign maker and I need the eps or pdf because I cut vinyl on a plotter and those are the file types I can convert to the outlines I need. Jpeg or tiff or similar just won't do.

Believe me, I've googled free clipart from here to there and just can not find what I'm looking for without paying big bucks, bucks that I have to pass along to my customers. Customers who won't pay the prices I need to charge for the finished project.

Right now I'm looking for ATV's, boats, motorcycles and RV artwork.

Any ideas or websites you can't post here could be emailed or pm'd to me. Thanks for your help.

[upnorth]

Don a quick google search pulled up a few converters. Throw this into google and it will bring up few options to try. "convert jpeg to pdf"

[DonBo]

upnorth, thanks for the suggestion, but all I get then is pixilated outlines, sorry, just not gonna cut it.

[nofishfisherman]

Zamzar is a file converter HSOforum that I've used in the past. Its free and it works pretty well and you can convert many different file types.

Problem is you need a decent quality image to start with.

If you are a sign maker and you need clip art it might be a cost of doing business to purchase and maintain a library of clip art on your own. I know if it were me thats what I'd do since I know I'd need it. Over time you'll probably use the same files over and over again so its probably worth the costs. Sometimes when running a business you need to invest in things that help you serve your customers better.

What kind of prices are you finding that you think are too high?

I found this one on istock of a bunch of different boats, its a vector file and you basically get 9 images for the price of 1.

On iStock you buy credits to purchase images, if you bought just enough to purchase this image it would be $18 (really only $2/boat), if you buy credits in bulk it would cut the cost per image a lot.

You can also find and purchase entire libraries of images on a disc. You'll get more images for less money but you may find many images are things you won't use.

[delcecchi]

You might try Dover. They sell many books of clip art and some of them also include CDs. Or you can scan hard copy to get what you want. doverpublications will also send a monthly sampler of free clip art, although the likelyhood of it being useful to you is small.

They do have a large amount of stuff for purchase at a reasonable price.

[pureinsanity]

Donbo, find the image you would like on a good image search and recreate your own. If you are only making silhouettes, it shouldn't take you long to trace an outline in illustrator.

You could find an easy badly pixelated image and trace it with illustrator to have your own vector based silhouette

For instance, Google image search anything, lets say pheasant silhouette.

I came up with many options.

Open this image up in illustrator, set it as your background, create a new layer and start tracing. You made yourself your own vector art then. You can also change it if you don't like something about it and then say its your own.

There should not be any legal stipulations if you create your own and make certain changes to it.

[nofishfisherman]

If you are good with illustrator that is for sure an option. As a designer i won't use someone elses clip art and trace it, its just too close to copyright issues for my liking. But I will use a photograph as source material and create my own vector image based on the photo.

The pen tool takes some practice but it works well for this type of thing.

[pureinsanity]

That will work too! I believe as long as something is changed at least 10% it can be similar with out being a legal issue. I am probably wrong though.

[nofishfisherman]

That will work too! I believe as long as something is changed at least 10% it can be similar with out being a legal issue. I am probably wrong though.

Yeah you are right that if you change it a little then technically you'd probably be safe. Its just a sticky issue that I'd rather not mess with if I can help it, I mean how do you really define 10%, my answer may be different then a lawyers. I've always been on the cautious side since I don't want to do work for a client that might run into copyright issues at some point.

[pureinsanity]

A friend of mine developed Nascar cribbage boards. He was running them and nascar got word and contacted him. All head had to do was change the color on a few things and the 10% was changed. The problem he ran into was names. Using the nascar logo, and the track names. In the long run he just gave into nascar and they took 75% of the profit for his good idea....

So in your sense you are right, just use a real image and start making your own vector art. after a couple of hours playing around you will figure it out and have many in no time.

[nofishfisherman]

That cribage board is a cool idea. But if he was using the NASCAR logo along with track names that are probably trademarked then I can see why they'd be a little upset. I have been the defacto brand manager at a few companies I've worked at as an inhouse designer. I wouldn't have allowed our company logo or other trademarked material to be used by someone without permission like that. Essentially he was using the NASCAR brand to sell his product which is pretty much a slam dunk case of trademark infringment.

I think he's still got a good idea there though. He could probably just create them and market them as a generic race track of some sort. Probably not as big of a money maker without the NASCAR branding but still cool none the less.

[pureinsanity]

Well the company went under now, lol.

After Nascar got a hold of them and took a majority of the profits on ones sold they were not making any money, hardly breaking even.