The idea behind this page on lion clipart is to take the donkey work out of finding the best and to provide a bit of a commentary. This hopefully allows visitors to cut to the chase and get what they need and want. I have built two other pages, along similar lines, on free cat clipart and free tiger clipart. This page is not about free clipart but that said I found that so called free clipart sites were not always free and when it was free it was poor and in any case some of the sites referred to her provide free clipart. But you gotta buy it if you want the best, I am afraid! In fact I think it fair to say that quality follows price, which is to be expected.
OK down to business. Here are a list of links to websites containing lion clipart that are outstanding, one way or another, good or bad. I also deal in passing with copyright and licensing issues – important things if you are looking for images on the internet.
****Sorry as time has gone by this link has died with the site I suppose – this is the best for free lion clipart that I have found (update: they don’t exist anymore at this URL – 17th Aug 2010). They cannot be used for “commercial applications” (quoted from the site of origin). Not sure what that means, exactly. It probably means it cannot be put up for resale but can be used on your website. The origin of the material (whether it is in the public domain or not) cannot be verified for this clipart. Here are 3 examples:
****iStockphoto
– this business has absorbed or merged with Stockxpert. A lot or all of the clipart from Stockxpert is here and I am in no doubt that this is the biggest range and the highest quality clipart on the internet.
The prices are massively higher than for Stockxpert (was Stockxpert under pricing all this time?). At Stockxpert one credit (£1) would have bought an image. iStockphoto say prices for x-small (284 x 423 px) are from £1 (or $1) but all the images I saw were large images for 20 credits (£20) which is prohibitively expensive for most people (the images are too large as well). The dollar images are the ones they can’t sell. This is a bit misleading really.
The above photo is not for reuse by visitors to this site and comes from iStockphoto.
They are it seems less concerned about the individual and have decided to service business instead. The market seems to be art studios etc where the images can be manipulated as the images are very large. Most individual website owners just want the image, a relatively small one. The image above cost £20! Yet, this is probably not the most expensive clipart around.
On first impressions I preferred the Stockxpert set up. But there is a lot more than just images on this site. There is video and audio too.
One thing that annoys me about this site is that it has joined the “rip-off-Britain” club. Credits cost £1. If you were an American you would pay $1. That makes the stock images very much cheaper for Americans.
I still think from a purely commercial perspective that it pays to invest a bit more in buying good images. Note also that building a website is a long term process and quality content is king.
One important point to bring up is that we all have to make sure that what we are taking from the internet be it words or images are copyright free or licensed by the author for use by us. And with iStockphoto you get that reassurance that you are legal but it is vital that the terms are complied with! Resale of the images on products for example is not allowed under the standard license. It is not nice or wise to fudge copyright issues and use photos that you think might be copyright free (in the public domain) when they might well not be. Better to do it 100% correctly.
The lion clipart below comes from Webweaver – link no longer works at May 2013. It is free. There is a limited selection and it is of average quality. The pictures below are not for reuse from this page. All clipart lion or otherwise cannot be resold or reused. The licenses always allow use by the downloader but not others.
Classroom Clipart provides free lion clipart but it is dull compared to the iStockphoto images – sorry. You get what you pay for in this world. One point worth making; free clipart does not automatically mean that the image is licensed for use anywhere. It probably is but it might not be. Please always check the rules and regulations (terms and conditions). If there are none, assume they are in the public domain.
Clipartguide (no link) is a site that seems to have some decent free lion clipart until you click on the thumbnails and realise that the image has been removed! Avoid it.
Fotosearch charge almost $80 for a low res. image. Am I missing something? These are royalty free (no ongoing charges) but high prices making iStockphoto look cheap.
The clipart below comes from: Free Clip Art Pictures. They are here for illustrative purposes and cannot be used under the license.
Another site that provides free clipart of a decent quality (as good as some charging sites) is: Artvex.com
Here are two samples on the right>>
As I mentioned it is vital that “customers” stick by the terms and conditions. Clearly if these sites allowed people to sell their free clipart or put it in galleries for use to the public it would undermine the original site’s position. So these images are not for sale etc. That is why they are presented as they are.
The last website I would like to mention is Useless Graphics as they have several free animated lion graphics. Below is one example:
OK folks that sums up my foray into the world of lion clipart.
My Conclusion
Link above **** — Best Free clipart of lions: Lions Graphics
Link above **** — Best paid for and best clipart: iStockphoto
From Lion Clipart to Home Page
