Finding Images For Projects

A picture's worth 1000 words - but how do you find the one that will speak to your customers?

There are a number of good sites from which you can get free clip art. Type "free clip art" into your search engine to see a long list of sites providing just that.

If you are a PC user and have a registered version of a Microsoft Product, you can go to the Microsoft website for a host of free clip art and photos. They have a surprisingly good collection and you just might find what you're looking for.

Need more choices? Go to a site such as clipart.com or photos.com which work on a subscription basis. You pay for the service for 1 week, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. You can download as many images as you want, royalty-free, from their vast collection.

If you need higher resolution or larger image size, you may need to purchase the image you want from a stock photography site. Generally speaking, the way they work is you find the image that fits your needs and you pay for that image. You can expect to pay around $300 for a single image. You may also need to pay for "seat licenses" if several people will be working on the file.

Some sites will let you "comp" an image by downloading a low res version of the image you are considering to see how it will work in your project, before committing to purchasing it. You can also purchase a CD of 50 or so images pre-assembled in a library.

You can read more about the different image options.

As always, check the Terms of Use on the site you are using to avoid any copyright issues later on. Read more about image licensing.