The following article should be of interest to every teacher who
uses an Acorn Archimedes-series computer. The vector graphics program !Draw, which is
supplied with the machine, is far more powerful than many users realise. This review
concerns drawfile clip art, which can, desktop publishing or multimedia package, or which
can be used within !Draw itself for a wide range of design purposes.
In MICRO-SCOPE 49 I described the basic idea of vector graphics, and set out seven
principles by which I think drawfile clip art should be judged. Briefly, these were:
- Images should be recognisable.
- Images should be appropriate for their intended audience.
- When opened on screen, images should be sized so that they are immediately entirely
visible.
- Images should be saved as grouped objects.
- When ungrouped, images should where possible divide into sensible sub-groups.
- Text in an image should be in a standard font, or else converted to a path.
- The image should not be over-complicated.
Clip art collections which were originally created as drawfiles are far more likely to
comply with these principles than images which have been converted from a different
platform.
A wide selection of discs on specific topics is available from SEMERC, under the
general series heading Just Pictures (£14 each; some discs are of bitmapped images
or sprites, and some contain a mixture of sprites and drawfiles). The range of topics is
highly suitable for primary school use, and the images are well produced and comply with
most of the above principles. I sometimes find that they are over-fussy for my purposes -
the Roman centurion or the Victorian lady have a whole range of undergarments, which is
fine if I am doing a project on clothes, but rather tedious otherwise, as they do a sort
of reverse-striptease every time I move the image, which can make them very slow on older
machines.
The SEMERC Treasure Chest CD-ROM includes a considerable number of the Just
Pictures images, along with numerous sprites and sound files (including sprites from the
MAPE Into Europe pack). It is a dual-format (Acorn and PC) CD-ROM, and, like
virtually all SEMERC products, it is angled towards Special Needs users, though it can be
used effectively in any primary or middle school context. To my mind it is rather
over-priced at £69, though many schools will have received it free under a DFEE scheme a
couple of years ago, and if you own the CD-ROM you have a site licence, and can freely
copy the images within your school. You could, therefore, make up floppies for individual
topic areas, which would save you having to delve through the whole hypermedia structure
of the disc every time you wanted an image. For myself, I would rather have all the Just
Pictures packs on one CD-ROM, in a hierarchically structured directory system.
The Topic Art CD-ROM from Desktop Projects Ltd. is exactly that - a
compilation of what started out as floppy discs of drawfiles on well-known primary school
topics. Individual discs are still available at £8 each, and the CD-ROM is a mere £20;
both prices include a site licence. Again, the CD-ROM is dual-format, and the images are
present in their original drawfile format, and have also been converted into ArtWorks
files and Corel EPS files. Because they started out as drawfiles, they comply quite well
with the principles set out above. Images are appropriately grouped, and many take apart
into logical sections. Acorn users can take advantage of the !Thumbnail viewer to preview
pictures (though the version I have does not appear to be compatible with my StrongArm
processor). There are over 2000 images, and their quality varies from some rather weedily
thin outlines to a number of quite superbly detailed and accurate renditions of farm
animals, dinosaurs, insects, etc.. Some topic areas are perhaps of marginal use (whole
sets of road signs, or playing cards), and some headings promise much but deliver very few
images. History is represented only through costume. I find the faces on the human figures
slightly odd, some of the proportions look a bit strange and the poses very uncomfortable.
There is a large Xmas section, including a whole lot of cards which look a bit like those
30-for-75p selection-box cards that children give their teachers - you have been warned!
On balance, though you need to be slightly selective, I think this represents excellent
value for money.
The Sherston Clip Art CD Collection began as a set of topic-based
discs from DEC_dATA. Again it is dual-format; Acorn files are mostly drawfiles, and PC
files are mostly in CGM format. The architecture section contains some high quality
photographic images of buildings, in sprite or JPEG format. There are over 2300 Acorn
files on the disc, which costs £49.95 for a site licence copy. Most images are stored as
simple black-and-white outlines and also in colour, so you can choose whichever is
appropriate for your present purpose. The Clearview browser is quick and efficient, and
shows you a thumbnail sketch of each image, accompanied by some descriptive text (this is
sometimes unintentionally funny - how do you describe very well-known things, e.g.
'bird'?). The overall standard of artistry is well-matched to most primary
school uses - good, and not over-fussy. Topic areas are fairly obvious (animals, history,
my life, technology, transport, maps, people, etc.); there are some superb renditions of
bits of the Bayeux Tapestry; an excellent set of coins (ideal for making money worksheets
or My World screens); a comprehensive and up-to-date set of maps; and one or two
appallingly inaccurate images (e.g. the recorder in the MyLife/Music section, which
definitely would not be playable). Images are sensibly grouped, though sub-groups are not
always carefully organised. I think this is one of the most useful CD-Roms I have at
present.
Logotron have taken over the distribution of the Bitfolio 7 CD-Rom
(single format, either Acorn or PC or Mac, price £38.29). This is a huge collection of
10,000 images, complete with a printed 266-page manual displaying all of them, which is
actually much quicker and easier to use than a thumbnail browser. Though the CD--Rom was
not originally specifically aimed at the education market, its scope is awesome: there are
innumerable borders and corners, many of which could well be useful, and a whole range of
topic areas, many of which will probably be of virtually no use at all in a classroom
context. The quality of images varies. In my view, it suffers from one major defect: all
or most of the files did not originate in !Draw format, and porting them across from
something else has lost some of the drawfile flexibility. Though images are grouped,
sub-groups rarely work effectively. The software that made many of the conversions
obviously cannot handle Bezier curves, so curves are in fact made up of a large series of
short straight lines. This can have serious consequences for memory consumption, as files
are often several times larger than they need to be. Having made those criticisms,
however, I am still quite fond of this CD-Rom, and many times it has come to my rescue
when other sources have failed.
One of the more charming aspects of the Bitfolio CD--Rom is the collection of cartoons
by Robert Duncan, which have all the appeal of an expensive birthday card (and could
potentially save you a fortune…)
Logotron also distribute a CD-Rom entirely of Duncan's work (The Robert
Duncan Cartoon Kit, single format, Acorn, PC or Mac, £29.78). Each image is
stored in three different ways, in black-and-white, spot colour and full colour. Though
again it is not specifically aimed at education, it contains enough funny animals and cute
kids to justify its place in the classroom. The Acorn version suffers from exactly the
same problems as Bitfolio 7, however, with images having been ported from a different
platform. The introduction in the manual says you can do things like swap characters'
heads, but on the Acorn version you can't, because of the way the conversion has
linked paths into single units. This is a great shame, as it represents a missed
opportunity to have fun and develop new IT skills simultaneously.
Having spent ages sifting through thousands of Public Domain clip art images, I had
high hopes of the Zenta Clip Art Collection CD-ROM (£29.95, Acorn only), which
also has 10,000 images covering a wide range of topic areas, not all of which are of use
in the primary classroom. As the images come from a wide variety of sources it is
difficult to generalise about them. Some are very well made, and others are awful, Many
are not grouped at all, so when you try to move or re-size them they fall apart. A large
proportion did not start out as drawfiles, and do not behave like drawfiles when you try
to manipulate them. Files originated in many places, and there is a strongly American bias
in some sections. The whole 'Education' directory is ghastly, and I really cannot imagine
ever actually using any of the images in it.
The EasyClip viewer, supplied on the disc, is rather tedious in operation. Overall, it
is the quality of the images that depresses me most. I suppose at more than three images
per penny I should not complain, and there is good material here, but the need for sifting
has not been diminished. If I were a strapped-for-cash school, and could afford only one
of the above, I think on balance I would opt for the Sherston Collection.
All quoted prices are ex-VAT.
Desktop Projects Ltd., Unit 2A, Heapriding Business Park, Ford St., Stockport, Cheshire
SK3 OBT - 0161 474 0778
Logotron, 124 Cambridge Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 4ZS 01223 425558
SEMERC, 1 Broadbent Road, Watersheddings, Oldham OL1 4LB - 0161 627 4469
Sherston Software Ltd., Angel House, Sherston, Malmesbury, Wilts. SN16 OLH 01666 840433
Zenta Multimedia, 10 Ravenhurst Drive, Birmingham B43 7RS - 0121 358 3054
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