Category: Net: General

Sometimes you just need a few extra pictures for a website you are working on, and here’s a few sources that I’m aware of for what is called “stock photos”. The licence summary I’ve provided is only a guide and you must read each sites terms of usage. The “number of results” was taken today (18-Sep-2008) and should help give you an idea of how many images each site has.

Crestock

Pricing: 100 credits (20 small images, 10 medium or 6 extra large) normally cost $90.00. However, you get a weeks sign up bonus which brings the price down to $45 for 100 credits. A single image is priced at $5/$10/$15 (small/medium/large) normally ($2/$5/$8 with the discount). They do also have a daily free image.
Licencing: Images cannot be resold seperately. Images cannot be used as photographic prints, t-shirts, mugs, mousemats or similar. Images can only be used for a single client.
Number of results for: “cat” (3,333), “girl” (74,136), “computer” (18,754), “traffic lights” (193)

iStockPhoto

Pricing: £8.89 for 10 credits (2 medium images or 1 detailed vector image), £22.22 for 26 credits (5 medium images, 1 elaborate vector image or 1 small web video), £41.27 for 50 credits (10 medium images, 2 elaborate vector images or 3 small web videos)
Licencing: Cannot be used in online of offline resold items (such as templates), cannot be used on sites designed to promote or sell “on demand” products, cannot be used as part of a trademark, business name or logo. Cannot be used in pornographic, obscene, immorale or libelous content. Cannot be used to appear to endorse a product.
Number of results for: “cat” (12,883), “girl” (232,596), “computer” (69,916), “traffic lights” (1,759)

Fotolia

Pricing: 1 credit= £0.57. Alternatively, a 30 day subscription at £125 allows you to download up to 25 images per day. Photos differ in “credit value” depending on size, resolution, exclusivity.
Licencing: Various
Number of results for: “cat” (27,314), “girl” (373,709), “computer” (113,622), “traffic lights” (1,252)

Reflex Stock

Pricing: Varies due to usage, image size, duration and insdustry.
Licencing: Various
Number of results for: “cat” (5,000), “girl” (5,000), “computer” (5,000), “traffic lights” (1,771) [it appears search results are capped at a maximum of 5,000]

Stock.Xchng (Stock exchange)

Pricing: Free
Licencing: Images cannot be used for pornographic, unlawful, or immoral purposes or for spreading hate or discrimination. Images cannot be used to endorse products or services if it depicts a person. Cannot be used as part of a trademark, serivce mark or logo. Not allowed to resell or distribute.
Number of results for: “cat” (1,000), “girl” (1,000), “computer” (1,000), “traffic lights” (169) [it appears search results are capped at a maximum of 1,000]

PunchStock

Pricing: Various
Licencing: Various
Number of results for: “cat” (10,996), “girl” (210,688), “computer” (94,718), “traffic lights” (876)

ShutterStock

Pricing: £29 for 5 hi-res images, £139 for 25. Alternatively, £149 for 1 month of up to 25 images a day
Licencing: Max web resolution is 800×600. Cannot be used for commercial usage or display on printed items. Cannot be used in email mailing lists sent to more than 250,000 users. Cannot be used more than 250,000 times on letterheads, business cards, brochures, software, etc. Cannot be used with pornographic, defamatory, unlawful/immoral content, tobacco advertising, adult advertising (in any way), pharmaceutical advertising (including deitary supplements or birth control).
Number of results for: “cat” (26,585), “girl” (507,322), “computer” (141,160), “traffic lights” (7,981)

And some slightly unusual sources:

Template Monster

You could buy a website template and then extract the image(s) from it that you like (subject to the licence agreement)

Any others that you know about which you’d like to fill in the details about (I know there are a large number of sources for photos, images and other stock and royalty free photos – but it’s just very time consuming hunting down the information).