Clip Art Press

Tips on Downloading Clip Art, Graphics, and Photos

Tips on Downloading Clip Art, Graphics, and Photos

Locating and purchasing the exact clip art, graphic or photo you need is just half the battle. The next step is to actually download it to your Mac or PC in a format that’s compatible with your system.

Most people use PC or Macs, so that’s the protocol we’re going to go through here. There are more then a few browsers to choose from however, so if you’re using one not listed here, your best bet is to click the browser’s “help” button, and the system will walk you through it.

First, it’s important to have a folder to save your images to. There are probably a few already set up under headings like “My Documents,” “My photos,” “My music,” “My downloads” and the like. Or, you can create your own folder and call it DOWNLOADS. Pay attention where this folder is created in your system – you’ll need to head back there to retrieve the files after they’re downloaded.

If you’re downloading from GraphicsFactory.com follow these steps:

1. Search graphicsfactory.com for your clip art images
   
2. Click on the small clip art image first to see the larger image
   
3. You can either click the green arrow to download the format you need or add the images to your download basket
   
4. A small menu will appear if you click the green arrow. Click on “Save Picture as.”
   
5. Browse to your DOWNLOADS folder to save your image there
   
6. Click “Save.”
   

If you’re downloading from google images follow these steps:

Internet Explorer (IE)

1. Click on the clip art first to see if a larger image is what you want
   
2. Place your cursor on the largest image available and right -click with the mouse
   
3. A small menu will appear. Click on “save picture as.”
   
4. Browse to your DOWNLOADS folder to place the image there.
   
5. Click “save.”
   
6. After it saves you can click “Open Folder” to go directly to the location you downloaded it to
   

Mac users should do this:

1. Roll the mouse over the clip art or photo you want
   
2. Click and hold the mouse button until a menu appears
   
3. A small menu will appear. Click on “save picture as.”
   
4. Make your selection from the menu
   

A note about downloading animated clip art:

You don’t have to do anything special to download animated images. Just place your cursor over the clip and follow the directions that apply to your browser. However, the animations can only be seen as they’re intended when viewed with a compatible browser or viewer. Animations will not play within PowerPoint in preview mode, you have to play the Presentation before the animation will move.

Retrieving Your Images

Retrieving saved images for later use is a little trickier. Open up whatever image editing system you have installed on your computer, and browse to the DOWNLOADS folder we talked about earlier. Click on the saved file to open. Chances are, the file will need to be cropped and sized if you intend to place it in a PowerPoint presentation, embed in a document or place on a web page. When editing your image, it’s important to remember that bigger files are more likely to gum up the works, especially for people who still use a dial-up connection (and yes there are still plenty in existence.)

It’s important to note that creators of clip art have gotten extremely savy since the advent of the Internet. After all, in 1998 how easy was it to come across a site with a picture you admire, right-click on the image, and squirrel away a copy of it for your own personal use? Nowadays technology has made that much more difficult, which is a good thing. Now sites include code that prohibit right-clicking and swiping. And clip art, graphics, and image sites will let you look at a complete thumbnail of an image, but when you click into the full-size version, you’re greeted with a giant watermark that would take hours to remove in programs like Photoshop. Once the image is purchased however, it can be downloaded watermark-free.

Happy Downloading!