Clipart has been with us since the early 1980’s and is readily available online. Probably still the most common place to get clip art is from the Microsoft clip art gallery. This is certainly not the only clipart available though.
It only takes a quick search to find whatever you are looking for from Christmas clipart to free Christian clip art to adult rated clip art. There is clipart ready for you to put to almost any use you wish to.
Some of the most common things people want clip art for are assignments, greeting cards, and personal stationary and website images. Black and white clipart is particularly popular for personal stationary and business cards where people don’t want to fork out money for color printing. Kids domain is a great favourite for children to find clip art for any almost school project imaginable. As a kids site parents can let their children search freely knowing they are not going to run into anything objectionable.
While nearly all clip art sites, including the Microsoft clipart gallery claim to be free, there are variations on that ‘freedom’. Whichever site you go to be sure to check in the FAQ section, help section or anywhere else you can find it, exactly what the terms of use are. It is not worth going through a copyright court case just because you didn’t know. As an example, while most free clipart sites allow you use their art on your private website, they do not allow commercial use. If you have adsense ads, or any form of advertising on your site it is considered a commercial site and you are in breach of copyright if you place clipart there.
Certainly the line between personal and commercial use is a fine one. The Microsoft clip art gallery for instance states that you are able to use their clip art for church notices but not as a logo or as book illustrations. Altering the clip art by adding or removing parts of it does not exempt you either.
Clipart can certainly be fun to play around with and add great visuals to your projects but do stay aware. Do your homework and check exactly what you can use a particular sites free cliparts for. If you are not sure send them an email. It is better to be safe than sorry.
