Royalty free pictures

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And in commercial design, all kinds of publishing, advertising, web design etc. etc. images are used as a key to awaken interest or illustrate a text. Picture editors throughout the world rely heavily on the millions of images available from various sources. This saves time and the considerable expense of hiring a photographer to shoot on location. At one time it was usual for a picture buyer to browse through a photo library’s stock or to get a selection delivered from which to choose. The Internet has drastically changed picture searching and with today’s digital delivery methods, images may be searched for and acquired online.

Use of images (stock photos) from photo libraries is charged on a rental basis for a specific, one-time use at a rate determined by a combination of time required, purpose, print run or circulation, colour or monochrome and title page use etc.

There is also royalty-free stock photography which however, does not mean that the use of the image is free. It basically means that you pay a one-time fee or subscription for the right to use the image in your publication according to the terms agreed, without paying license fees for further use.

Then there are true free-picture agencies such as www.bigfoto.com. Bigfoto's main aim is to offer free pictures to the Internet community with users in return publicizing bigfoto in any way possible. By following this basic idea, use of all images is absolutely free.