09 December 2013

[design] Free Stuff: 196 Country Outline Vector Silhouettes From Freepik

2977.
And now, something stumbled on that will interest anyone looking into maps to use in a layout.

The online consortium Freepik has released an archive file containing 196 vector outline silhouettes of the world's countries. The icon possibilities here, as well as the artistic remix possibilities should be self-evident.

I found it via an article on Spyrestudios' blog extravaganza, and downloaded it to check it out. Here's what I found:

• Three graphic files, .ai, .eps, .pdf and .cdr, containing each of the vectors arranged on one artboard in a grid pattern. Though not immediately obvious, it's a continent-major, country-alphabetic-minor arrangement.
• Two Preview files, one in .jpg and the other .png.
• A 'cover' graphic.

This is a good collection of country outlines which will do well in any appropriate application. They're vector outlines, so anyone reading this who is looking for such a thing needs no further introduction, I think.

Two nitpicks:
• The map of Brazil is only about two-thirds of the country, lopping off the extreme western and southern parts for no discernable reason.
• There is absolutely no licensing readme at all. Spyrestudios' article mentions that this collection of vectors is licensed such that "you can use these icons commercially. No credit or link back is required!", which suggests to me unlimited rights, but the producer doesn't explicitly state this in the archive anyway. So my suggestion is proceed deliberately when using. I'm sure Spyrestudios has better things to do than to unwittingly mislead us on rights, but in this litigation-happy DMCA world, my policy on using free resources might be found to be charmingly Reaganesque: Trust, but verify. Let's be careful out there, kids!

Now that that ugliness is out of the way, you can check them out for yourselves:

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