Traditional Scrapbooking: Most people know about this one. Scrapbooking had nothing to do with photos originally. You cut out any image or text you liked and pasted them into a book. The scrapbooks I remember seeing as a child had to do with special things like trips, holidays, and song lyrics. They recorded events and occasions and had pasted into them mementos like postcards, ticket stubs and related imagery from magazines and brochures etc. This is the most basic and easiest way to use clipart.

Digital scrapbooking is a great example of how people are using very sophisticated clipart in very sophisticated ways. The images are termed ‘scrapbook graphics’ or ‘digital designs’ and are abundant, often free and of high quality.

It is easy for people to overlook the definition and not even realize that what they are really working with is – clipart. Why would there be this differentiation?

First of all, the images are usually in PNG format, which means that the outer lines (shape) of the image are on a transparent background. Traditional clipart was mostly available in a rectangular or square-ish format.

Secondly, images in scrapbooking are often layered and the compositions are often complex and detailed.

Thirdly, shadows and shading can make the images and finished digital scrapbook pages look very realistic. These compositions make the viewer try to ‘touch’ the elements.

Clipart for digital scrapbooking comes under varying definitions. There are two main kinds:
1. Background papers
2. Elements

Background papers are mostly JPEGs to save on file size. They are mostly 12 inches by 12 inches. 8 inch by 8 inch papers are accepted as a good size for people who print their pages at home and 6 inch by 4 inch papers is the size for making Brag Book pages – which, when trimmed fit perfectly into ready made pocket or purse sized mini albums.

Elements is a huge clipart section and is further categorized in subjects much the same as clipart categories. This is often further refined into specific traditional scrapbooking categories like: brads and ribbons.

All digital scrapbooking clipart intended for print have large file sizes. With the advent of online album software more people are shifting to only producing digital pages. This kind of scrapbooking requires knowledge of an image editing and layout program.