THEORY2. Clipart
Viewing a page or a poster that has nothing but text can be hard work. Techniques such as changing font size and colour will help make it more interesting visually.
An additional method is to use graphics or artwork to support the theme of the document. For instance a poster advertising a local music night might have a few musical note images dotted around the page.
But not everyone can produce original artwork and even if they could, the time taken might be unwarranted for the job in hand. For instance, it would not make much sense to spend two days carefully hand-drawing a poster for a small one-off event such as a local party night.
This is where 'clipart' comes in. Clipart is a collection of ready-made small artwork images that is often provided within the design package itself.
You can also purchase large libraries of clipart that are usually organised along themes such as 'transport', 'party', 'holiday' and so on.
There are also many web sites offering free collections of clipart. However, some may have copyright restrictions attached to their use.
| Advantages of clipart | Disadvantages of clipart |
|---|---|
| There is a large variety of clipart to choose from | You may not be able to find the exact image that you require |
| Saves time as graphic doesn't have to be developed from scratch | A lot of clip art images are not very high quality. This could make your document look less professional. |
| Many packages come with a library of clipart images | Another company might have already used the clipart image and be associated with it. |
| Most clipart is royalty and copyright free (although check the licence before use) | Clipart might not be royalty free, especially if it is going to be used for commercial documents |
| Don't need to purchase any special equipment e.g. a scanner | Clipart have a limited set of colours and tones so they tend to look like cartoons. This may not be the image a company wishes to portray |
| Much cheaper than having to pay anyone to produce the image | |
| Can quickly add interest to a document | |
| No artistic skills are needed to produce the image |
challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Clipart Library