Guest Author - Adele Sweeney

The Electronic Clip Art Series from Dover Publications provides themed collections of high resolution clip art on CD-ROM, with an accompanying book for reference. Suitable for both Mac and PC, these sets are hard copy retail products available to buy from major online and offline stores, plus don't forget to check out eBay for a bargain!. However, free samples are available for download - see below.

The Dover Clip Art Range

There are lots of CD-ROMS to choose from! As well as the usual themes of Christmas, floral, butterflies etc, there are more obscure collections such as American Indian, African and Islamic clip art designs.

You will also find collections dedicated to borders, alphabets and decorative ornaments as well as unusual clip art photographs - including Nasa Space Photos!

Copyright and Usage Policy

Dover's clip art collections are intended to be a 'design resource' for people to work with and create projects from, whether you are a professional designer or amateur crafter.

Although the images Dover use are based on public domain works, they have been edited by Dover and are therefore still protected by copyright. You can therefore use the clip art images in whatever way you can think of, as long as you abide by the terms of use. You will find an explanation on what you can and cannot do on the inside cover and on the CD.

You are even allowed to use the clip art for commercial use but you may be restricted to a limited amount of copies featuring any one design. If you are unsure, or want to produce larger quantities, written permission can be requested by contacting Dover direct.

Free Downloadable Clip Art Samples

One of the great things about Dover Publications is their weekly free samples!

Once you sign up, you will get an email jam packed with free samples - and even the samples that are not strictly clip art, such as their full colour sticker sheets or black and white colouring pages, can always be turned into clip art with a little image editing.

Software such as Paint Shop Pro or Paint.net will allow you to edit any chosen image, for example, cutting out the background to isolate individual elements or 'colour in' with paint and effects.

Simply save your edited work in an appropriate file format (e.g. .jpg, .gif or .png) and you can use your custom clip art however you like! However, always double check terms of use for information on derivative works and any distribution restrictions.