Design made simple; with clip art, anybody can become an artist - includes buyer's guide of clip art software packages and related articles on illustration, paint and image-editing software and clip art for logos and newsletters

Home Office Computing, Oct, 1993 by Steve Morgenstern

TOOLS FOR TINKERING

You don't need a graphics program to use clip art. Just find an image in a format your application program will accept and import it into your document. But you'll get a lot more mileage out of clip art if you can jigger with it a bit.

A walk through our step-by-step graphics construction projects will highlight how you can use clip art--in combination with simple graphics manipulation and a dose of imagination--to create attractive, custom-tailored illustrations. The tips you'll see put into action here-- removing extraneous sections of clip art, combining various images into a single graphic, and more--are all steps that you can apply in your own projects. And you don't have to be an artist to do it...

Contributing editor STEVE MORGENSTERN wrote No-Sweat Desktop Publishing. To order his book, call (800) 325-6149.

Whether you need standard business images or clip art that's a little more diverse--from textured formats to Egyptian hieroglyphics--you're sure to find them among this compilation of our favorite clip art libraries.

Artbeats

For: DOS, Windows, Mac

Format: EPS (color)

Publisher: .Artbeats; (503) 8634429, (800) 444-9392

Full-page textures make this a special graphics resource. Collections include three spacey Dimensions sets, two sets of Natural Images, and others. These are available in individual packages of 10 collections on disk ($100 each) or as a complete collection on disk or CD-ROM ($500 for either format). You'll find these work well as full-page backgrounds or as patterns to fill objects.

ClickArt

For: DOS, Windows, Mac Formats: CGM, PICT (black and white), EPS (color)

Publisher: T/Maker; (415) 9620195, (800) 395-0195

The ClickArt collection includes seven black-and-white collections ($60 each) and seven EPS color collections ($100 each). Some of the bitmapped images look dated. but the EPS collections are consistently attractive, highly detailed, and stylish. The new Artistry & Borders package (part of the EPS collection) is a particular favorite. It has the pizzazz often missing from clip art collections.

Clip-Art Connection

For: Windows

Formats: CGM, EPS, PCX, TIFF (black and white, color) Publisher: Connect Software; (206) 881-8251, (800) 234-9497

For a $35 annual membership, this well-designed online service for PC users makes it easy to order clip art from 19 respected vendors, either as individual images to be downloaded immediately or as collections to be shipped to your office. Per-image prices for individual graphics are high (about $7 each) compared with the price for a collection, but the convenience and breadth of selection provided by this 24-hour-a-day resource is hard to beat,

Cliptures

For: DOS, Windows, Mac

Format: EPS (black and white)

MacGallery, MacGallery H

For: Mac

Forrnat: MacPaint (black and white)

Publisher: Dream Maker Software; (303) 762-1001, (800) 876-5665

The Cliptures's volumes of crisp, professional, and not highly stylized images are notable for a businesslike restraint that should appeal to anyone who wants to convey a serious image. Subject areas include business images, borders, flags, and sports ($129 each). Also available is the MacGallery series of bitmapped an highlights ($50) that boasts more than 400 fun-loving graphics.