Clip art is a term that encompasses a very wide variety of images that can be used in a wide variety of ways. As technology progressed, illustrations and clip art, were scanned and used in computer applications.
This term is derived from the time when advertisers and artists would cutout images to add to their work. They would then piece them together to create an artwork or show a client an example of an ad. Today, these image are used in digital applications and can be added into documents and used in many ways to create graphic art images and photos for computer based art.
There are literally millions of illustrations, images and artworks floating around on the internet and sold on CD’s to choose from. Knowing what you want for your image is the first step, knowing where to get it, is the next. There are so many sites to go to or you could even make your own images with the help of a scanner and simple graphics alteration software.
One category to be aware of when searching for your image is referred to as vector. This is a huge category that is defined by smooth lines, curves and very crisp images. The largest portion of these images are formulated with the vector programming. This is a great choice for graphic clip art.
The term vector refers to a type of programming that is mathematical in its formulation which creates crisp images that look like it has been captured in a moment of movement. For example, flames erupting from a moving vehicle.
This is in opposition to the pixelated formulations of a raster program. This programming is very different from vector, as this application is used with pixels. Both applications are used for different purposes and what you want to accomplish with your computer images. The vector formulation however, works very well with images and photos and clip art for web use.