eps resources on the web

April 2, 2006 4:07 PM

Online repositories of EPS graphics/charts/diagrams/maps of any type... above and beyond the standard "clip art." The more elaborate, complicated, and random, the better...

...it amazes me how little I can find on the internet by way of EPS files. What I can find costs money.

Not looking for clip-art birthday cakes or cartoony stuff--looking for big, beautiful, detailed, gloriously random EPSs with dubious resale value, motivated archivists, or compulsory availability.

Surely there have to be people out there who have EPS files that they want to (or "must legally") share. Seems to me that government agencies/academies of higher learning/political parties/vendors of various products would have, somewhere on the internet:

• exploded diagrams
• maps
• posters
• collections of historical woodcuts/engraving/art
• schematics
• propaganda
• art portfolios
• blueprints
• corporate logos (found quite a few of these sites)
• many other things I have not even considered


Anyone know of any resources/search tips that they'd like to share?

Assuming there was any interest, I'd be willing to start a torrent of any (public domain/free/legal) EPSs I could find. Many thanks.

posted by cadastral to media & arts (10 comments total)

you'll probably get more responses if you define EPS.
posted by Brando_T. at 5:09 PM on April 2, 2006

Encapsulated Postscript files. Basically he's looking for vector graphic files.

I don't know of any sources offhand, but I'm definitely keeping an eye on this thread.
posted by chrominance at 5:16 PM on April 2, 2006

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/34668 has a few good ones, particularly Briar Press (credit to luriete)
posted by sdis at 5:20 PM on April 2, 2006

...it amazes me how little I can find on the internet by way of EPS files. What I can find costs money.
The sort of files you are looking for require quite a bit of man-hours to compile and build. Thus, the cost.
It is frustrating, though. On the other hand, the maps that are available for a fee tend to be incredible.

Don't limit your searches to just .eps files. Also search for .pdf files. Many .pdfs are, basically, vector files made portable. They can be opened and edited in Illustrator just like an .eps. Who knows? You might get lucky.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:31 PM on April 2, 2006

Public Doman world maps, if you have Illustrator, download the PDF and you can manipulate the text, background and boundry lines.
posted by FreezBoy at 6:43 PM on April 2, 2006

Most CAD (computer aided design) programs can output to EPS, and there also exist separate tools to convert CAD formats such as DWG to EPS.

In the past I have often come across manufactures who provide CAD files for their widgets (I forget in which formats) to help you design their widget into your product.

Mechanical standards organizations (e.g. ThreadSpecs) use CAD for their specifications though they normally publish them as PDF - you would have to pull out/convert to EPS.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 6:43 PM on April 2, 2006

I think I remember the Canadian road atlas thinger having these types of maps, and I couldn't figure out how to use them, because my computer bogs down with all the layered info.
posted by zhivota at 9:04 PM on April 2, 2006

istockphoto.com probably doesn't have a huge number of vector art files, but it might be worth a shot.
posted by rmm at 9:59 PM on April 2, 2006

Another AskMeFi post about vector maps.

If you're looking for random-ish stuff to use in your work, I suggest the clipart route. Not a lot of details usually, but you can find some interesting stuff. Going through DaFont's selection will get you some interesting stuff. Some useful ones I've found are Crowns And Coronets, Dead Letter Office, Oil Crisis, Tax Taxation, etc.

Also, DesignEducation.ca's vector section might have some stuff. I bookmarked this site but haven't been to many of these links so I can't really vouch for anything. Same with the selection at Blue Vertigo. There's some overlap, but they should give you a good start.
posted by chimmyc at 10:51 PM on April 2, 2006

And now that Adobe Illustrator CS2 has the raster-to-vector "button" that works really good, in my opinion, I should expect that there will be more and more vector art floating out into the internets.
posted by UnclePlayground at 10:27 AM on April 3, 2006