Open Clip Art Library Editor's Review

Get clip art for your projects with this easy to access, multiplatform library.

Finding the right piece of clip art for your video or still photo project or even a presentation for work or school can be difficult at times. In many cases even if you find the right clip, there are copyright considerations that come to play when you actually try to download and use a clean, unwatermarked version. It can often get very messy...and expensive. That's one of the reasons why I like Open Clip Art Library. It’s a multiplatform clipart library.

The Open Clip Art Library project aims to create an archive of clip art that can be used for any reason, free of charge. All graphics submitted to the project should have been waived of all rights, including copyright, according to the CC0 Public Domain Dedication.

The project was started in early 2004 and all images are donated to the public domain by their contributors. They are stored in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, often with thumbnails in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format.  The release of Open Clip Art Library 2.0 introduces a new content management system made for Open Clip Art Library 2.0 that allows anyone to edit the website easily.

Pro’s: Thousands of free clip art images, Free

Con’s: Distribution is hard to locate, library is large and may take time to search through for the exact image you want.

Conclusion: The best way to find a recent distribution of the OCAL is through Soft32's product URL.  I had a hard time locating the most current distribution on OCAL's website.  After the library is installed, it's easy to use the images any way you want. You'll likely spend hours trying to find the right one for your needs, the library is THAT vast.  This is a great resource and one that just about everyone should have.