Clip art and photos

  WPClipart is a collection of high-quality public domain images specifically tailored for use in word processors and optimized for printing on home/small office inkjet printers. There are thousands of color graphic clips as well as illustrations, photographs and black and white line art.

Nearly all are available in lossless, PNG format. The wpclipart server is also able to convert any image (up to 600 pixels in width or height) to a JPG. Larger images usually have a JPG version of the same size on the server. Transparent versions of PNG images are also being created and there is now an online editor.

Most graphics can now be edited on wpclipart to resize, crop, rotate and/or adjust brightness and contrast. This enables changes to be made, the URL copied and inserted into a Google Doc or, if desired, the edited image can be downloaded.

As of Monday, 08/30/2010, I have gathered, edited and/or created, indexed and uploaded 39,494 images.

Clip of the Day (click the image to see full-size version)

Passionflower

The state wildflower of Tennessee, Passiflora incarnata. Known to the Cherokee Indians as Ocoee. Also known as the Passionfruit, Apricot Vine or the Maypop. (Its yellow fruit is edible and has a flavor of apricots, also pops loudly when crushed.)

Common name (Passion Flower) came from early American misionaries (16th century) who used the flower as a teaching aid with regards to Christ's crucifixion (Passion) -- the filiments of the corona represented the crown of thorns, petals and sepals representing the apostles. The five stamen with antlers match the five sacred wounds and the three stigma the nails. Even the vine tendrils represent the whips used to scourge Christ.

Anyway, gonna try eating the fruit when I find some ripe...   Picture was taken August 28th, 2010 in Erwin, Tennessee, and is one of the pictures I donated to the Public Domain in the Tennessee flora section of plants.

Finding Images

• Browse

  View the thumbnail pages of images from the "index" page in each folder. There are 48 top-level folders, and they contain thumbnail images and usually several subfolders.



• Search

  Is conducted via Google-search, ON-SITE only. (No need to worry about untoward results when the kids search for something here.) I also played around with returning both context (text) results along with a section of thumbnails, but this led to some confusion (and extra ads.) Since the site has thumbnail pages for everything as well as updated sitemaps for Google to find all the images, the text-based page search seems to lead to what is sought more rapidly than anything.
  
  You can also add WPClipart as a seach provider to your browser. The small image below shows what it looks like if you were to use it to search for "cat cartoon". Enables you to open your browser and search wpclipart, without even visiting the site!
  
  Click below to add wpclipart search to Internet Explorer or Firefox.
  
  
  
  Add wpclipart search to browser

Use with Google Docs

Easy to use wpclipart with Google Docs, see the example I Published to a web page that shows how to insert images without even downloading them.
"Google Docs and WPClipart"

Integrate WPClipart into OpenOffice

Whether you Download the Windows installer version or the simple compressed package of wpclipart, it is easy to integrate all the images into OpenOffice. Do this as so:

1. Start OpenOffice.org
2. Click Tools->Options
3. Click ->paths
4. Click Graphics
5. Click Edit
6. Select the path to WPClipart files
7. OK

When you go to "Insert > Picture", WPClipart directory will show up. Be sure to check the bottom button for PREVIEW, which makes browsing for the images much easier. (I actually find the wpclipart viewer/editor easier to use, but many folks use just the clipart...)

Purpose:

 WPClipart is a fast, clean and safe site for children and others to find good-quality, printable images that have no copyright restrictions. All the images are in the Public Domain. Ads on pages are minimal to make the site as fast as possible.

While there are literally thousands of "fun" images -- I take great pains to find, edit and retouch images of historical and/or general educational value. (Legal and Sources page) Browse though American History, flags, geography (maps) and other sections to see what I mean...

While I realize folks trying to be courteous will generally want to ask first, I get several requests a day and responding to each becomes time consuming. I would feel badly if I were to ignore someone's email... so please, feel free to use the images with my unwritten blessing : ) The only REQUEST I make is that you do not use large numbers of the images in another ONLINE gallery or application -- therefore competing with wpclipart in image searches. If you have any questions you are welcome to email me. But please take a peek at the "legal" and/or the "legal FAQ" pages first... one of them may have the answer to your question.

Image file formats

PNG was chosen as the default format because it is lossless but compressed -- meaning it retains a higher image quality than JPG, makes a much smaller file size than a .tiff, is better supported and versatile than an SVG (especially to convert to/from), and finally, GIF images simply have too limited a color palette.

Despite false information spread by some overzelous SVG supporters, PNG is lossless. From the PNG site at: libpng.org, "Since PNG's compression is fully lossless... restoring and re-saving an image will not degrade its quality..."

Transparent images are not used by default because this can cause printing problems with some word processors (AbiWord in particular.) Also, printers do not print white (the usual transparent color) -- so transparentcy in that case would not make any difference when printed.

However, because folks often want to use these images on the Web (sometimes over backgrounds and colors), and also sometimes combine images, one image over part of another -- then preserving portions of the image that need to stay white (as opposed to transparent) becomes important. Because of this I very often have to selectively make portions of images transparent, which can be a bit time consuming. I have been working (un)steadily at it for some time now. Transparent PNG versions will be available for most all images.

JPG versions of any image up to 600 pixels in either dimension can be converted to a JPG full or 1/2 size. This conversion is done "on the fly" on the server. For larger images I actually make a JPG version then upload and link it to the image display page. For photos, especially larger ones, the PNG format creates files that are simply too large. In these cases ONLY a jpg is used.

Retouching examples

There are loads of "fun" images at WPClipart, but a big part of what is being attempted here has to do with historical/research value. Maps, geography, flags, historical figures, American History, rocks and minerals, religion, mythology -- these are not popular or fashionable image groups, but they can be quite useful in documentation, school papers and, ultimately, to enable people to get a more visceral feel for who and what the images represent.

Toward this end I have done a lot of retouching of images, at times taking some "artistic license" by manipulating the originals. I can attest that in the case of historical photos, this is never done with an eye to change any impression put forward by the original -- editing is done first and foremost to ensure that if a visitor needs to reprint the image, usually scaled down and on a modest inkjet printer, then the details of the image will still be visible.

For a few examples of historical figures see the retouched examples page

Downloading

Despite the serious advantage of using the online search function, there are times when internet access is not available. With that in mind, the collection can be downloaded as a package or in parts (each of the 48 sections.) Downloads are hosted by both ibiblio and SourceForge. See the download page for the installer as well as zipped sections of clip art.

The full download also come with a viewer/editor application I programmed in pyGTK. It is not needed to use the graphics, but it serves 3 very useful purposes:

1. Browse the collection with nice size thumbnails


2. Quick and simple edits to rotate, filter or adjust color/brightness of images


3. COPY TO CLIPBOARD function, which means that if you have a document open in Word, OpenOffice, AbiWord or others - you just PASTE and you have the image in your document. No need to navigate through menus to insert a picture and then have to search through your machine.
   With wpclipper just copy to clipboard, and back in your document paste. Sweet.

Due to the size of the collection and throughput problems on Ibiblio, downloads are sometime throttled (Ibiblio has found it necessary to meter and limit.)

More about WPClipart

For terms of use, changelogs and some background information about this site and the images, see the about page. Individual images are PD -- the site and collection are copyright of Paul Sherman.

All the photographs I take are presently done with an Olympus E-500. They are most noticeable in "plants/Pauls_Garden", but mostly I use a macro lens to digitize images from out-of-copyright books. Many of the images in fictioal characters, American History, world history, some computer parts -- my daughters eye closeup -- and images from several other sections were either digitized or created using my Olympus.

Privacy Policy

WPClipart uses advertising from Google and, on occasion, ads from Tribal Fusion. These are both high-quality advertisers without intrusive or crude materials. The ad layout is never meant to confuse (is it page content or an ad?) There is always -- only -- one ad per page.

That said, these are contexual advertisers, and as such they use anonymous cookies on the user's machine to track web visiting habits. To clarify -- although cookies are used, no personally-identifiable information is obtained or stored. Be it also known that Google analytics are NOT used on this site.

Since both these advertisers are part of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) you have the ability to OPT OUT of the use of their tracking cookies. Ads are still served, just no cookie is used, and no tracking information is collected as you visit. To opt out of Google or Tribal Fusion tracking, visit:
the NAI opt-out page

Once there, simply check the ad network(s) whose cookies you would like to stop, then click submit. Henceforth your preference not to be tracked will be honored by these agencies wherever you go, not just here at WPClipart. (See below)

"The NAI has adopted a policy that all NAI member companies set a minimum lifespan of five years for their opt out cookies." Click here for more information.

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WPClipart: clip art and photos optimized for use with word processors and tweaked to render well on common ink jet printers. Images are all in the Public Domain and may be used for commercial as well as personal projects, links are appreciated but not necessary. I ask that folks don't copy the collection to use as a competing image gallery online. See the Legal page for more information and the list of image sources. All images have been edited by me (and some created) with the GIMP on Absolute Linux. Additional resources for the GIMP which include brushes, scripts and tutorials are available at gimphelp.org