Damon Norko – SLM 521

Elective #1 – Clip Art Project

 

Introduction

 

I really got into clip art while constructing my Web Drop In #3, which was about ancient Egypt.  I used mostly items clipped from MS’s “Office Online” section of the MS Word program itself; an overview is below.  I am also working on book-reading trading card game called Bookworm Heroes which requires a bunch of free, non-copyrighted clip-art. 

 

Hence this elective caught my eye as something very beneficial to research.

 

I approached this project by putting “free” and “non-copyrighted” as the first objectives, followed by “ease of using” and “quality/selection”.  As a control factor I researched four categories on the sites, and clipped a sample image from each of the following categories:

 

Parents -- students -- kids/computers -- books

 

Microsoft.com   “Office Online”

 

I may be going out on a limb by saying that this site sets the standard for well-organized, freely-accessed clip-art.  That said, even this fine database has its limitations and I have not always found what I needed.  But it is a great place to begin one’s search for a clip of a particular subject …

 

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us

 

 

        

 

       Notes:

 

1)     Here we find a great selection of images – plus photos, animations and more.

2)     This site has an excellent search engine though it took me a long time to look through all the images and select just the ones I wanted

3)     These are apparently not copyrighted, as you link through the MS word program itself, and apparently since you have paid for that, the database comes along.  Just to make sure I searched the site for copyright information and didn’t find any.

4)  Most of the images are alterable, for instance I was trying to find a desert       sandstorm for my Egyptian project. 

 

 

      I found this:

Which wasn’t too desert-y looking, but I

                                  was able to turn it into:

 

                                                            Which was.

 

 

 

Discovery.com

 

I fought this to be a friendly site with some different, often amusing clips …

 

http://school.discovery.com/clipart    

 

(none)       silhouette of girl at computer     

 

Notes:

 

1)     Discovery allows you to use up to 10 clips for free, and they also have a database CD on sale for $29.95.  As per license, you must credit them if you put one on a website.

2)     One drawback is that there is no search capability – you must use their categories they have. 

3)     One advantage is that there are no annoying pop-ups here – as on many of the other sites I checked out.

 

 

BarrysClipart.com

 

http://www.barrysclipart.com/index.php

 

Now this is an excellent site that came up early on all three search engines (AOL, yahoo, Google) that I used.  Statistics are kept on each clip – you can tell how many times a certain clip has been viewed, the date it was posted, its size and so on. 

 (none)  students1.jpg(none)        books5.jpg

 

 

Notes

 

1)     The clips were excellent, easy to access and NO POPUPS, though some ads.

2)     Drawback:  I wasn’t happy with their search program; it took me way too long to find the images above, also, the other control images (parents, kids/computer) may indeed be present, but took far too long to search through the data base.

3)     Overall, good site – clean and easy, with some links to other sites.  Especially good with computer images.

 

Clipartconnection.com

 

http://www.clipartconnection.com/index.php

 

This site came recommended from Barry’s … and is very similar.  The only difference I could detect was that there were more images … and more ads!  Not pop-ups, but basic “link-boxes.”

(none)        schoolchildren.jpg          student41.jpg            schoolset2.jpg

 

Notes

 

1)  Again, good clips, easy to access.

2)  The main drawback was with search engine – you couldn’t get very far with “parents”     for instance – though, by contrast, the MS site does have an adequate entry in this category.

3)  Still, a good site to troll for clips!

 

 

Awesome clipart for educators

 

http://www.awesomeclipartforeducators.com

 

Here is a lightly-advertised but wholly appropriate free site for either teachers or students. The collection is limited but well-organized with an item-by-tem word list.  When you reach the main site, you are asked if you are a “teacher” or a “student” – and directed thusly.  There was a reference to a “survey” but it must be turned off for now, as I didn’t have to take it.

 

     

        

                 

 

            Notes

 

1)     This site has the advantage of being truly free and intended for our usage.

2)     Limited selection – not too flashy -- no search capability at all

3)     Some advertisements in the form of streaming video – wholesome stuff, like online courses and K-12 magazines, but still ….

4)     A recommended site for “playing it safe” with copyrights etc.

 

 

          Flamingtext.com

 

            http://www.flamingtext.com/ca.html

 

          (none)           (none)           (none)           (none) 

 

I visited a gateway site, clipart.com, and found a useful list of other sites with clipart.  They had the sites rated – and this one, flamingtext.com, had the highest rating.

 

              This is one reason –

                                                                    you can flame up your name for free! 

 

                                   

 

            Or carve it in stone … now this is wayyyy cool!

 

          Notes

 

1)     There are a considerable number of pop-ups at this location.

2)     The art is assuredly free – they are trying to sell another CD with more images and a “Clip-art creator”.

3)     You can do a lot of word art like the flaming name above.

4)     There is not much in the way of “traditional” clip art – but many links to other sites with databases.

5)     This is mainly a “text” site but has many ways to dress up your web pages such as buttons (60K choices of styles) and many other font tricks. 

 

 

Conclusion

 

While there are a lot of clip art sites out there, most are burdened with pop-ups and other schemes such as charging per clip.  In a perfect world, I’d simply pony up the $$ and pay for the best, but there is much available for free.  These few identified are only the “tip of the iceberg”.  But they will provide me with more than enough to get started on my web projects.