Over 150 Gigabytes of images, forty thousand free Web graphics, and on-line image editing. These are just some of what ArtToday, one of the largest of the pay clip-Art sites offers visitors. Does this massive resource live up to it's claims? Is this a realistic alternative to purchasing a CD collection?

WELCOME SCREEN	SIGN-UP PAGE

Introduction

      As you can see from the choices on the sign-up page many of their packages are way too expensive for the average person. Especially for an on-line collection. I feel most users looking for clipart on the internet are searching for either a good source of free clipart, or a "cheap" subscription besting what they could find in the store for under fifty dollars. With this in mind I decided to review the $29.95 "Standard" collection.

Content

      The collection weighing in at some 741,035 images (more on this a little later) is quite large for most people, and at $29.95 does sound pretty reasonable. Consisting of 677,540 Clipart Images, 17,729 Photographs, 43,969 Web Graphics, and 1,797 Fonts this package should be plenty for the average user. The inclusion of Photographs, Fonts, and their free Web Graphics as "images" to increase the total number in the subscription to over 740,000 seems some how misleading. The inclusion of around 5,000 sounds to the "Professional" collection is outrageous, how this would increase the amount of images in the collection is misleading.
 
 
 

(TOP) MAIN SCREEN	(BOTTOM) MAIN SCREEN

After You Order

      Once you've entered your credit card information and gain access to the collection, your presented (At least to me) with much more then expected. There is so much to do here, you could almost get lost in the confusion. Message bases, graphic tools, tutorials, extensive help pages, and much more round out a very well designed site. The main page is tailored to web designers searching for clipart. With "Meta Tags: No More Hide & Seek" dominating the page as their main article. This is understandable being that their free subscription gives you access to their 40,000+ Web Graphics. 

Criticism

      I would have liked to see more emphasis on the clipart which makes up the bulk of their site. At this point I get the feeling I've just bought access to a web development resource. With the clipart thrown in as an after thought. I understand the need for content, but I have doubts they have chosen the right type of content for a paid clipart subscription. This site feels more like a web designers portal than a clipart site. The information is wonderful, but the focus seems a little off. That said this is a great resource for web developers. If your looking for this type of content you would be better off getting the free subscription, if you do this I'm sure you will be more than pleased. For those of us that have just paid to get access to thousands of clipart images, this just feels off the mark.
 
 

WEB GRAPHICS	WEB ANIMATIONS

Navigation

      Clicking on "Web Art" on the top of the main screen you are presented with the Web Art main menu. On the left pane you will find a list of available categories, a keyword search box, and the option to change your preferences. Clicking "change your preferences" brings you to the manage your account section of the site. This is a great idea, and you should go through your options here. Allowing paid members to turn off banner ads is a welcome addition. Some of the other options such as the number of items to browse at once are some things you should fine tune to your internet connection speed. 

      Clicking on animations under the categories section shows you another set of choices, I chose Accents for the screen shot above. You need to click "SHOW" to get any results from your category choice. Is this necessary? Notice that the images are thrown onto the screen in a very unorganized fashion. This does get the job done, but feels pretty sloppy to me.   A paid site of this magnitude should be presented in a much cleaner fashion. Searching for specific clipart images gives the same "thrown on the screen" results.
 
 

CLIPART MAIN	CLIPART BRIDGES

 

CLIPART OPTIONS

      Entering the clipart section shows how much time was spent tweaking this section. Choices abound with clipart formats including gif, jpeg, wmf, and eps. With 16 main categories, and countless sub-categories. We can only assume ArtToday is giving an accurate account of their total images. Clicking through the categories is the same as the web clipart section, with the exception of the format choices above the category listings. Clicking on the image brings up the download choices as seen in the third image above. The ability to add images to a cart for later download is one of the sites best attributes. All in all the clipart section is well presented, and very easy to use. My only dislike being the actual browsing of the collection.

Conclusion

      Is ArtToday's "standard" collection worth the $29.95/year price tag? If you don't mind browsing for the images your looking for, and putting up with the sloppy feel of the image sections possibly. One of the best features of CD collections is the included booklet showing very small versions of the images to browse through. This ability is non-existent on clipart websites, striving to offer this kind of usefulness should be the goal of a premier clipart site. ArtToday is a great source for clipart, with tons of options, and the ability to add images to a shopping cart for later downloads. However they miss the mark with their sloppy interface.

http://www.arttoday.com/