Openclipart

Last updated
Openclipart
Openclipart-logo-2020.svg
Type of site
 Media repository
OwnerFabricatorz Foundation
Created byJon Phillips, Bryce Harrington
URL openclipart.org
RegistrationRequired for posting & uploading
Users 193,352 [1]
Launched3 May 2004;21 years ago (3 May 2004) [2]
Current statusActive
Content license
 CC Zero 1.0
Unless noted, content is waived of all copyright and related or neighboring rights under this license.

Openclipart, originally founded as Open Clip Art Project, then The Open Clip Art Library, is an online media repository of free-content vector clip art. The project hosts over 182,641 free graphics made by and shared by over 8,185 artists. [2] [1]

Contents

History

Examples of clip art from Openclipart Cliparts (examples).png
Examples of clip art from Openclipart

The Open Clip Art library (OCAL) was established in early 2004 by Jon Phillips and Bryce Harrington, who had worked together to develop the open-source vector graphics suites Sodipodi and its successor, Inkscape. [3] [4] The OCAL project initially grew out of a project started by Christian Schaller (Uraeus), who, on October 26, 2003, issued a challenge on the Gnome Desktop website for Sodipodi users to create a collection of flags in SVG format. [5] The flag project progressed very well, resulting in a collection of over 90 flags made publicly available in SVG format, [6] and broadened the project's goals to include generic clipart. By December 2003, the size of the clipart in Inkscape's primary repository became an issue and the concept to split the project out into a separate website emerged. [7]

By April 2004, the project became known as Openclipart and was founded on May 3, 2004 with its first community meeting where Openclipart was established with the stated aim of making all its contributed images freely available in the public domain. [2] [8] [9]

In the early stages of the Openclipart project, the website lacked thumbnails and was difficult to browse. [10] Downloadable Openclipart packages were released to help propagate the images in the library, and were available directly from the Openclipart website: as an add-on for various Linux distributions such as Fedora, and as an NSIS installer for Windows. [11] Each package included most of the clipart to date, and they were manually sorted into categories. [11] [12] The Openclipart package version 0.20 was released in 2010. [13] The Openclipart packages received a few more incremental updates during 2010, mostly for seasonal clipart. [14] [15]

In October 2009, Openclipart was included on the cover discs in Linux Format issues 123 and later in June 2010 issue 132 as a package of browseable SVG files from the Openclipart collection. [16] [17]

In March 2009, some Linux distributions, including Mandriva and Ubuntu, included the Openclipart collection releases packaged as SVG, PNG or OpenDocument-format files. [18]

Bassel Khartabil joins Openclipart

On June 23, 2008, Bassel Khartabil joined Openclipart with an offer to help the project as a professional developer. At the time, he went by the name Bassel Safadi. Bassel introduced the project to his CMS, Aiki Framework. [19] [20]

Openclipart 2.0

In February 2010, Openclipart converted to use Bassel's Aiki Framework and was announced as Openclipart 2.0 and released in March 2010. [21] The site introduced a change from the old ccHost software to the new AGPL-based Aiki Framework, [22] a content management system modified for Openclipart. The new site allowed anyone to easily browse and add to the Openclipart collection. Jon Phillips, Andy Fitzsimon, Bassel Safadi and Brad Phillips added image thumbnails and improved search functions which made Openclipart more user-friendly. The site received over 5,000 unique visitors and 50,000 page views daily. [23] [24]

Openclipart Rebrand

On April 15, 2013, Openclipart launched a new logo and updated their website design with a "scissors" logo. [25]

On March 12, 2014, Openclipart announced that Inkpad, an open-source drawing app for iPads, had released library integration to make the entire collection available to its users. [26]

Lockdown and DDoS Attack

On April 19, 2019, the site was taken offline by what was initially reported as a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack), [27] [28] though Jon Phillips, one of the site's founders, appeared to be a victim of identity theft. [29] [30]

On May 3, 2019, a plan for bringing the site back online was announced to roll out common features with a new codebase. [27]

Openclipart hosted by Fabricatorz Foundation

On December 25, 2019, a statement was released that the site was being "gifted to the community" to be hosted with Fabricatorz Foundation and that new files could once again be uploaded to the library. [31] [32] In May 2020, the site's search feature was restored. [33]

2024

In August 2024, Openclipart announced performance improvements to the site. [34]

In September 2024, Openclipart added PDF support and librarian tools to support editing of the collection. [35]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Openclipart as of 2025-09-16". Openclipart. 2025-09-16. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
  2. 1 2 3 Phillips, Jon (2004-11-04). "Open Clip Art Project - First Meeting". freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on 2004-11-04. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  3. ↑ Phillips, Jon (15 Mar 2004). ""[Clipart] hello"". Clipart Mailing List on Freedesktop.org. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  4. ↑ Harrington, Bryce (2017-05-01). "[Clipart] Thoughts on what Clipart needs for Project Management". lists.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  5. ↑ Schaller, Christian (26 Oct 2003). "Join the SVG Flag revolution!". GNOME Mail Services. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
  6. ↑ Uraeus. "Show us your flag!". gnomedesktop.org. Archived from the original on May 13, 2004. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
  7. ↑ Phillips, Jon (5 Dec 2003). ""[Inkscape-devel] Re: Map Symbols [was Re: [Sodipodi-list] Getting lines straight]"". Inkscape Mailing List. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  8. ↑ Phillips, Jon (2017-05-23). "[Clipart] Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library - OOoCon2004 Paper Abstract". lists.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  9. ↑ Jon Phillips (11 April 2004). "Open Clip Art Project - FAQ". freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on 2004-10-20. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  10. ↑ JonPhillips (29 April 2004). "Open Clip Art Project roadmap". freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on 2004-10-20. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  11. 1 2 "Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library". Archived from the original on 2007-01-06. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  12. ↑ "Case Studies/Open clip art library". Creative Commons. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  13. ↑ "Roadmap". Open Clip Art Library Wiki. 2010-02-11. Archived from the original on 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  14. ↑ "downloads". Openclipart. Archived from the original on 2011-04-02. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Past milestones". Open Clip Art Library Wiki. 2010-12-18. Archived from the original on 2010-12-18. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  16. ↑ "Cool Linux projects". Linux Format. Issue 123. October 2009. Archived from the original on Sep 26, 2023.
  17. ↑ "Try any distro!". Linux Format. Issue 132. June 2010. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023.
  18. ↑ Ubuntu openclipart Packages
  19. ↑ Safadi, Bassel (23 Jun 2008). ""[Clipart] php dev"". Freedesktop.org Clipart Mailing List. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  20. ↑ Phillips, Jon (25 Jun 2008). ""[Clipart] php dev"". Clipart Mailing List on Freedesktop.org. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  21. ↑ Safadi, Bassel (2017-02-24). "[Clipart] OCAL 2.0". lists.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  22. ↑ Phillips, Jon (2016-10-03). "[Clipart] ocal 2.0". lists.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
  23. ↑ brad (2010). "Open Clip Art Library 2.0 is Here!". Fabricatorz. Archived from the original on 2012-09-21. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  24. ↑ "Open Clip Art Library 2.0 is Here!". 2010-03-08. Archived from the original on March 12, 2010. Retrieved 2014-12-08.
  25. ↑ "We are a design & technology company". Fabricatorz. 2013-04-14. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved 2014-12-08.
  26. ↑ "Draw with Openclipart on your Ipad". Openclipart. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  27. 1 2 Openclipart (May 3, 2019). "UPDATE: Our plan is to get the site back online early next week. Under DDOS attack from some unknown forces, the simplest thing to protect our beloved Openclipart is to keep offline at present. Your CLIPART is SAFE. Donation & Love Accepted". Twitter. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
  28. ↑ "Openclipart / 404 Page Not Found1". Archived from the original on 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  29. ↑ Phillips, Jon (2019-06-11). "Have you ever been the victim of identity theft? That is the world we live in now. It will increase! Recent events have forced me to cleanup my accounts everywhere ..." @rejon. Archived from the original on 2019-06-21. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  30. ↑ Openclipart (2019-06-11). "Hello, this is @rejon. The founder of Openclipart. I have taken back control of this account. I unblocked accounts that were blocked". @openclipart. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  31. ↑ ""Openclipart Gifted to Community, Hosted by Fabricatorz Foundation"". Fabricatorz Foundation Website. 25 Dec 2019. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  32. ↑ ""Openclipart Gifted to the Community"". Twitter. 25 Dec 2019. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  33. ↑ Openclipart (May 2, 2020). "Great news! The search feature on the site is now LIVE! Search clip art at openclipart.org/search/ Colorful geometric line art by GDJ". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
  34. ↑ "Openclipart Now Snappy for Summer 2024". Openclipart. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
  35. ↑ "Openclipart PDF Support and Librarian Tools". Openclipart. 4 Sep 2024. Retrieved 9 Sep 2025.
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