Searching for a searchable directory of line art
November 13, 2013 6:19 AM Subscribe
I'm in love with these wedding place cards, but I'm having trouble finding online sources of line art I can use. Specifically, I would like to find an online directory of line art - the kind of black and white image that would accompany a dictionary definition. Ideally, it would be open source/taken from old books but I'd be willing to pay if I could find the right images. I've tried searching Google images with the line art function, but it's pretty limited in the results and often too cartoon-y for what I"m looking for. Additionally, if you could think of any additional search terms for that style of art it could be very helpful.
Examples of things I would be searching for are: microscope, conch shell, geode, ostrich egg, sea sponge - things that could be in old dictionaries/scientific manuscripts. Also, I'm pretty sure that in the example I linked, an artist simply drew the images, but I don't have that kind of skill.
Examples of things I would be searching for are: microscope, conch shell, geode, ostrich egg, sea sponge - things that could be in old dictionaries/scientific manuscripts. Also, I'm pretty sure that in the example I linked, an artist simply drew the images, but I don't have that kind of skill.
Best answer: You want clip art. Here's vintage science clip art that's aimed at teachers, but I don't see why you couldn't use them.
posted by Ideefixe at 6:30 AM on November 13, 2013 [8 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 6:30 AM on November 13, 2013 [8 favorites]
Dover Publications has a ton of clip art. Not free but a great resource.
posted by gudrun at 6:52 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 6:52 AM on November 13, 2013 [2 favorites]
You might find this masterlist of public domain images useful. These engraved images from a children's book are maybe little more fussy than the ones on those cards, but you may find that searching through old encyclopedias and children's material will provide similar kinds of clean, precise images-- this book has some nice clean depictions of a microscope, for example, and some of the images in this book are I think more in line with your aesthetic. I'm having more success filtering the results to the 19th century and using the phrase "list of illustrations" to weed out books without any pictures.
posted by jetlagaddict at 7:05 AM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by jetlagaddict at 7:05 AM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]
The Public Domain Review has some really nice examples of this sort of illustration
posted by Gilgongo at 7:15 AM on November 13, 2013
posted by Gilgongo at 7:15 AM on November 13, 2013
Here's another site for clip art illustrations.
For pay, clipart.com lets you download everything you can for a week (or month, or year). You will want to search Illustrations on that site.
Also agree with gudrun on Dover Publications.
posted by sarajane at 10:12 AM on November 13, 2013
For pay, clipart.com lets you download everything you can for a week (or month, or year). You will want to search Illustrations on that site.
Also agree with gudrun on Dover Publications.
posted by sarajane at 10:12 AM on November 13, 2013
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posted by unknowncommand at 6:27 AM on November 13, 2013 [1 favorite]