You can’t beat openclipart.org as a source of high-quality, copyright-friendly clip art. The day I composed this post, the site had 58,660 clip art items for download! By now, there are many more images to choose from.
I’ve changed the Free Clip Art link under FREE STUFF in the sidebar to point to this site, in addition to the link at the foot of this post.
Public Domain License
All art on the site is offered under a Public Domain license. That means you can use, modify, and distribute this art without worrying about attribution. You even can use the art for commercial purposes, which means you can include it in designs for sale items at your next fundraiser! For other ideas, click the link at the foot of the page detailing the many ways you are encouraged to use the clip art from this site.
I think it’s nice to mention where you got the art, though, just to say thanks and let other people in on the existence of this valuable resource.
Stored As Vector, Downloaded As PNG
All images are high quality, because they are stored on the site in vector format. That means they don’t lose quality when enlarged or reduced. You can download any image in the resolution you need, even larger than the default size, and it will look just as good as the example on the site. But you aren’t limited to downloading the original vector file format!
There are buttons to download small, medium, or large .png files. The largest dimensions of these images will be 300, 800, 0r 2400 pixels respectively. You also can enter a size in pixels to specify the widest dimension of the image to create a custom size. For portrait mode, that’s the height, while for landscape mode images it’s the width. Those options can save you lots of time, because the clip art will not need re-sizing.
In addition, you can download each item as a vector file (.svg) or as a graphic pdf. Just about any multimedia application can use .png, but you will need a vector drawing program to open the .svg file. Since you would still have to convert the vector file to .png or .jpeg to use it in most applications, a good plan is to download a .png file, but go back to the vector file online if you need another size.
It Keeps Getting Bigger
Best of all, this archive is growing rapidly. All these images were contributed by artists, some of whom have done variations on images they downloaded. For example, I needed to create an illustration for my post about feedback sounds. I wanted to have a child at a computer, back view. I found a rough line sketch of a man or boy in that position, and used it to speed up my drawing task.
My finished image was of a younger boy in a tee shirt instead of long-sleeve buttoned shirt, and it was in color. There is a button on each image’s main page where you can upload a remix. I used that button on the main page for the sketch to upload my version. Now a thumbnail of my image displays on the same page as the original sketch as well as on its own page, making it easy to find if someone else wants an image of a boy at a computer.
You can download images without having to set up a free account on openclipart. You do need to register to upload images, which then become Public Domain. If you change up one of the images from the site, it might be fun to upload it as a remix!
Find Just What You Need
The number of contributing artists also is increasing rapidly, 40 new contributors in the last month. Not only are there more and more images, there are many different styles and a wide variety of subjects. Styles range from near photographic through cartoons to pictograms. There is an Artists tab to display all the items uploaded by a specific artist. That’s a good way to find a group of images in a particular style.
To find an image of a particular subject, you must use the search box. The images aren’t arranged in categories. However, the search function works very well, and you’ll usually get several pages full of thumbnails. Click on a thumbnail to open the main page, and you will find many size and format options in downloading that image, plus access to related images.
Besides individual images, there are collections of images to download on topics such as coloring books, famous people, sports, and various holidays. A special tab labeled World News showcases images related to current events. You can download an archive of ALL the art currently on the site, but that’s a more than one gigabyte download! You even can submit a request for a particular image if you can’t find it already on the site.
This is definitely your go-to site if you need a group of images for any classroom project.
Applications needed:Web Browser.
Subject area: Resources.
Level: Author.
Online Links-Resources
Openclipart link Click Here. An extensive archive of public domain clip art stored as vector images so that they can be downloaded in any size as quality PNG clip art images.
Clip art may be used for… link Click Here. A chart [that] explains clearly common uses we allow, which is all uses.
