Openclipart

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Free use clip art repository

title: "Openclipart" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["free-image-galleries", "open-content-projects", "scalable-vector-graphics", "internet-properties-established-in-2004", "2004-establishments-in-the-united-states", "creative-commons-licensed-websites", "public-domain"] description: "Free use clip art repository" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openclipart" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Free use clip art repository ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox website"]

Field	Value
name	Openclipart
logo	Openclipart-logo-2020.svg
logo_size	120px
caption	Openclipart is a community of artists making the free original clipart for any use.
url
commercial	no
type	Media repository
registration	Required for posting and uploading
num_users	193,352
content_license	CC Zero 1.0
Unless noted, content is waived of all copyright and related or neighboring rights under this license.
owner	Fabricatorz Foundation
author	Jon Phillips, Bryce Harrington
launch_date
current_status	Active
::

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.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Cliparts_(examples).png" caption="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. 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. The flag project progressed very well, resulting in a collection of over 90 flags made publicly available in SVG format, 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.

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.

In the early stages of the Openclipart project, the website lacked thumbnails and was difficult to browse. 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. Each package included most of the clipart to date, and they were manually sorted into categories. The Openclipart package version 0.20 was released in 2010. The Openclipart packages received a few more incremental updates during 2010, mostly for seasonal clipart.

On June 23, 2008, developer Bassel Khartabil joined Openclipart with an offer to help the project as a professional developer, and introduced the project to his CMS, Aiki Framework.

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.

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

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. The site introduced a change from the old ccHost software to the new AGPL-based Aiki Framework, 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.

Openclipart rebrand

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

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.

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, though Jon Phillips, one of the site's founders, appeared to be a victim of identity theft.

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

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. In May 2020, the site's search feature was restored.

2024

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

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

2025

In September 2025, Openclipart released emails about the late Bassel Khartabil and how he entered the project before the Arab Spring. These emails likely are the first public record of Bassel Khartabil as well. Later that month, Openclipart announced official statistics that Openclipart has 193,352 and intends to talk to every past user to get feedback about the future of the project. And, then further Openclipart went onto detail that the project has added a new Openclipart Membership Program and added features to make sharing Openclipart even easier.

In November 2025, Openclipart made an update with the addition of a new "Upload Remix" feature and a new way to discover clipart, the "Random Search Button".

References

(2025-09-16). "Openclipart as of 2025-09-16". Openclipart.
Phillips, Jon. (2004-11-04). "Open Clip Art Project - First Meeting".
Phillips, Jon. (15 Mar 2004). ""[Clipart] hello"". Clipart Mailing List on Freedesktop.org.
Harrington, Bryce. (2017-05-01). "[Clipart] Thoughts on what Clipart needs for Project Management".
(26 Oct 2003). "Join the SVG Flag revolution!".
Uraeus. "Show us your flag!". gnomedesktop.org.
Phillips, Jon. (5 Dec 2003). ""[Inkscape-devel] Re: Map Symbols [was Re: [Sodipodi-list] Getting lines straight]"". Inkscape Mailing List.
Phillips, Jon. (2017-05-23). "[Clipart] Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library - OOoCon2004 Paper Abstract".
Jon Phillips. (11 April 2004). "Open Clip Art Project - FAQ".
JonPhillips. (29 April 2004). "Open Clip Art Project roadmap".
"Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library".
"Case Studies/Open clip art library".
(2010-02-11). "Roadmap".
"downloads".
(2010-12-18). "Past milestones".
Safadi, Bassel. (23 Jun 2008). ""[Clipart] php dev"". Freedesktop.org Clipart Mailing List.
Phillips, Jon. (25 Jun 2008). ""[Clipart] php dev"". Clipart Mailing List on Freedesktop.org.
(9 Sep 2025). "Bassel's First Contact with Openclipart". Openclipart.
(October 2009). "Cool Linux projects".
(June 2010). "Try any distro!".
[http://packages.ubuntu.com/hardy/openclipart Ubuntu openclipart Packages]
Safadi, Bassel. (2017-02-24). "[Clipart] OCAL 2.0".
Phillips, Jon. (2016-10-03). "[Clipart] ocal 2.0".
brad. (2010). "Open Clip Art Library 2.0 is Here!". Fabricatorz.
(2010-03-08). "Open Clip Art Library 2.0 is Here!".
(2013-04-14). "We are a design & technology company". Fabricatorz.
"Draw with Openclipart on your Ipad". 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.".
"((Openclipart / 404 Page Not Found1))".
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 ...".
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.".
(25 Dec 2019). ""Openclipart Gifted to Community, Hosted by Fabricatorz Foundation"". Fabricatorz Foundation Website.
(25 Dec 2019). ""Openclipart Gifted to the Community"". Twitter.
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".
(3 August 2024). "Openclipart Now Snappy for Summer 2024". Openclipart.
(4 Sep 2024). "Openclipart PDF Support and Librarian Tools". Openclipart.
(19 Sep 2025). "Openclipart September 2025 Updates Thank You!". Openclipart.
(19 Nov 2025). "October November 2025 Updates Upload Remix Mango Tree". Openclipart.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::