Searching on the web for Clipart has almost always been a frustrating experience – there are many collections that call themselves “free”, but it’s hard to find out exactly who owns the rights to the image, and what their terms of use are.  Others require you to buy a CD, or subscribe to a service.  It is sometimes possible to find artwork on Flickr, but then there is the delay while I contact the artist and request permission to use it in my project.  The other trouble with most clipart that I find online is that it is in a bitmap format, usually png or gif – so editing it is like editing a photo.  Image quality degrades it it is scaled up, and it’s generally more difficult to work with.

I was very pleased when I came across the Open Clip Art Library.  This is a collection of public domain vector graphics.  Most files are available in both as a preview PNG (bitmap) and SVG(vector) format.  It is easily searchable with tags or by artist.  There are presently 9500 images available.  So far I have been able to find anything I needed there.

For times when the vector image needs a little editing, Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.  This does everything I need it to, and then some.  Opening an SVG file, removing some elements, resizing and recoloring others, then saving it as a bitmap is quick and easy to do.  The Inkscape site has a number or tutorials if you are interrested in learning to draw your own images, or apply advanced effects.

The combination of Inkscape and the Open Clip Art Library has turned preparing icon graphics from a tedious chose to a pleasant experience.  For someone like me who has always been less interested in the GUI part of an application, this is a very welcome change from other ways of doing it.