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Illustrations/clip art stock images

Illustrations and clip-art stock photos and royalty-free images

Clip-art has been a mainstay of publishing, crafting, and design since before the dawn of the digital age. Standalone illustrations, icons, line drawings, and cartoons are a great way to add some color and life to your projects, big or small. With thousands of royalty-free clip-art images from contributors around the world in our library, Shutterstock has an illustration for every occasion. Simply scroll down to begin exploring our curated collection of clip-art images.

Using clip-art for website design

  • Clip-art is perfect for website design. Because clip-art images are usually standalone, it’s easy to drag them into your website’s header image, into your background, or even into the body text to break things up visually. Many website editors will allow you to do this simply by uploading your clip-art image of choice into the design interface.

  • If you need to create custom clip-art images on your own, you can head over to Shutterstock Editor, where you can upload and customize your images however you would like!

  • Be consistent with the style of clip-art you use on your website. For example, if you go with a cartoon, use all cartoons to keep the browsing experience smooth.

Using clip-art for website design

Best-selling clip-art illustrations

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Choosing engaging illustrations and clip-art

Cute clip-art, black and white clip-art, or even clip-art borders — it takes all kinds of illustrations to bring your school, family, wedding, holiday, or business designs to life. That’s where clip-art comes in. Most clip-art images are self-contained, so you can easily cut and paste them into any project. Food, flowers, seasonal images, cartoons, and symbols are all common clip-art images, and they range in style from simple line drawings to full-color illustrations. The beauty of clip art is that it merges seamlessly into all sorts of designs, from flyers and invitations to bulletins and announcements.

Questions about clip-art images


What is a clip art picture?

A clip-art picture is a standalone illustration, cartoon, symbol, or image that contains all of its own design elements. It’s not usually embedded into a background, and it rarely relies on more than a few design elements. It’s easy to cut and paste clip-art anywhere you need it. Clip-art can be black and white, single-color, or full-color, and it ranges from simple line drawings to fully colored and textured illustrations. Clip-art is designed to fit into larger designs or documents to bring some creative energy when it’s necessary in a layout.


What are the best clip-art sites?

Shutterstock offers a collection of thousands of vectors, illustrations, line drawings, and icons from designers all over the world. The diversity of the contributor base and the size of the collection mean that we have styles and approaches to clip-art that can match any project. Clip-art is also available for download from other websites on the web, but never download a file from a site you’re not familiar with. Before you use a piece of art that you find, make sure that you’re doing business with a royalty free image site, which grants you the right to use the image.


How to download free clip art?

Downloading free clip art is easy. Head over to our free collection of illustrations and clip-art images, and try your hand at integrating clip-art into your projects. If you need to download a clip-art image from our library, simply click on the image you want, then click “download for free” to start your free trial of Shutterstock. You’ll be able to download the file in whatever size you need, and by downloading from Shutterstock, you’ll have the right to use the image however you like!


What are examples of great clip art?

Each artist takes a different approach to their designs, so the image that appeals to you most will be the best one for your project. Great clip-art brings some life to your project by showcasing an image, an idea, an activity, or a character that helps you deliver your message. Whether you’re using black and white clip-art, full-color clip-art, cartoons, images, symbols, or line drawings, if it matches your tone, then it’s perfect for your project! Generally, it’s best to stick with one style per project, but variety is the spice of life, so change things up the next time around.


What is the difference between an image and clip art?

All clip-art qualifies as an image, but not all images qualify as clip-art. Typically, photographs, for example, are not clip-art. Clip-art images are standalone, meaning they’re not dependent on background or other design elements we typically think of when thinking of a “picture.” A clip-art image is self-contained, often on a transparent background, so you can easily copy and paste it into your project without worrying about edges or overlapping images that you want to remove. Clip-art is typically simpler and more stylistic than traditional images or designs.

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