Stock illustration

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Stock illustrations (often called stock photographs) used by creative professionals as a method of visual communication. They are found in reports, news media, advertising, and websites. They are abundant and available online through several stock art agencies, many of which sell both photographs and illustrations. Today stock photos can be purchased through a subscription and downloaded from a stock photography distributor's Website or purchased as a CD-ROM collection. [1] Buying stock art is convenient for those who are looking for high-quality images without spending too much time and spending only what their budgets allow. Stock images (that includes stock photography, vectors, and illustrations) have many perks for businesses and digital market, but the main, most immediate and evident benefits are the time and money savings. [2]

Stock illustrations fall into two main categories: royalty free and rights managed. The choice between royalty free or rights managed illustrations depends on buyers' needs. For instance, royalty-free illustrations may be used many times with few restrictions and for multiple projects, e.g. annual reports, brochures, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, books, and websites, for one flat fee. That is because the pricing of a royalty-free illustration is determined by the size of the illustration and not its specific use. Illustration sizes vary from the low resolution that are suitable for the web to high resolution or vector graphics images that are suitable for printed media.

Rights-managed illustrations may benefit those who need exclusive use of images. Unlike royalty-free stock illustrations, prices for rights-managed illustrations are determined by the medium where the illustrations will appear such as the web or printed media, distribution, and the duration for which the image will be used.

While many stock art agencies sell both photos and illustrations, some sell only illustrations. The following companies sell only illustrations, but that list is neither definitive nor complete: Ikon Images, Illustration Works, Laughing Stock, Stock Illustration Source, ImageZoo, and Ecliptic Stock Illustrations. Ikon Images and Laughing Stock sell only rights-managed images. Illustration Works and Stock Illustration Source sell both rights-managed and royalty-free images, while ImageZoo and Ecliptic Stock Illustrations are two of the many illustration companies that specialize in royalty-free illustrations. The two companies that have been in business longest are Illustration Works and Stock Illustration Source. Illustration Works established the first searchable online internet site in 1996 and brought stock illustrations to the digital market that was emerging for stock images.

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Branded Entertainment Network (BEN) is a Los Angeles-based product placement, influencer marketing and licensing company. The company offers product placement, rights clearance, and personality rights management services for the entertainment industry.

Stock photography Photographs with the purpose of having a specific use

Stock photography is the supply of photographs which are often licensed for specific uses. The stock photo industry, which began to gain hold in the 1920s, has established models including traditional macrostock photography, midstock photography, and microstock photography. Conventional stock agencies charge from several hundred to several thousand United States dollars per image, while microstock photography may sell for around USD 25 cents. Professional stock photographers traditionally place their images with one or more stock agencies on a contractual basis, while stock agencies may accept the high-quality photos of amateur photographers through online submission.

Clip art Graphic illustrations created for reuse by others

Clip art, is a type of graphic art. Pieces are pre-made images used to illustrate any medium. Today, clip art is used extensively and comes in many forms, both electronic and printed. However, most clip art today is created, distributed, and used in a digital form. Since its inception, clip art has evolved to include a wide variety of content, file formats, illustration styles, and licensing restrictions. It is generally composed exclusively of illustrations, and does not include stock photography.

freeImages

stock.xchng was a website providing free-to use stock photography and illustrations, its name being a reduced version of "stock exchange". The site was launched in February 2001 by Peter Hamza, and allows users to contribute, share and download high-resolution photographs and illustrations free of charge. Contributors are encouraged to submit material to enhance their photography career through wider public exposure. In 2009, the site had over 2,500,000 registered users and more than 400,000 photos. Until 2009 it operated parallel to its sister site, Stockxpert.com, until the site's parent company, Jupiterimages, was purchased by Getty Images, and the site is now tied in with the iStock library of paid images.

Mecklermedia was a U.S.-based corporation. The original WebMediaBrands was established in 1994, and headquartered in New York. Founded by Alan M. Meckler and Tristan Louis, the company provides business-to-business (B2B) services for creative, business and information technology professionals, including recruitment and event promotion.

Masterfile Corporation is a stock photography library in Toronto, Ontario, Canada It is represented in over 100 other countries around the world by independent agents and distributors.

Royalty-free (RF) material subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold or some time period of use or sales.

Rights Managed, or RM, in photography and the stock photo industry, refers to a copyright license which, if purchased by a user, allows the one-time use of the photo as specified by the license. If the user wants to use the photo for other uses an additional license needs to be purchased. RM licences can be given on a non-exclusive or exclusive basis. In stock photography RM is one of the two common license types together with royalty-free, subscription and microstock photography being business models often confused as separate license types.

Microstock photography, also known as micropayment photography, is a part of the stock photography industry. What defines a company as a microstock photography company is that they (1) source their images almost exclusively via the Internet, (2) do so from a wider range of photographers than the traditional stock agencies, and (3) sell their images at a very low rate for a royalty-free (RF) image.

Digital scrapbooking is the term for the creation of a new 2D artwork by re-combining various graphic elements. It is a form of scrapbooking that is done using a personal computer, digital or scanned photos and computer graphics software. It is a relatively new form of the traditional print scrapbooking.

iStock is an online royalty free, international micro stock photography provider based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The firm offers millions of photos, illustrations, clip art, videos and audio tracks. Artists, designers and photographers worldwide contribute their work to iStock collections in return for royalties. Nearly half a million new photos, illustrations, videos and audio files, are added each month.

National Geographic Image Collection, a division of the National Geographic Society (NGS) headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is a stock photography agency that manages and licenses one of the world's most comprehensive and unique collections of photographs and original artwork. It maintains a collection of more than 10 million digital images, transparencies, black-and-white prints, early auto chromes, and pieces of original artwork.

DreamsTime.com is an online royalty-free microstock provider based in Brentwood, Tennessee.

Bigstock is an online royalty-free, international microstock photography website that sells images via a credit-based system. Bigstock's photos, vectors and illustrations cost from between 1 and 6 credits each, depending on size, with credits ranging from $.90 to US$3.00. BigStockPhoto was founded in Davis, California, in the fall of 2004. Bigstock adds to its library every day as photographers and designers from around the world submit their work. As of June 2015, Bigstock had more than 25 million royalty-free images available.

Alamy British company

Alamy is a British privately owned stock photography agency launched in September 1999. Its headquarters are in Milton Park, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It has a development and operations centre at Techno park in Trivandrum, Kerala, India and a sales office in Brooklyn, New York, United States.

Depositphotos

Depositphotos is a royalty-free content marketplace with headquarters in New York, USA. The company was founded by Dmitry Sergeev in November 2009 in Kyiv, Ukraine. The Depositphotos library has over 200 million files, including royalty-free stock photos, vector images, video clips, and editorial files. In 2012, the Depositphotos library exceeded 10 million files in less than four years and was considered one of the fastest-growing photobanks in the world.

Can Stock Photo is a stock photography provider which licenses royalty-free images, photos, digital illustrations, picture clip art and footage files on behalf of photographers, illustrators, and videographers. Founded in 2004, it was one of the earliest microstock agencies.

Featurepics is a royalty-free microstock photography digital content agency that has been actively working in the stock photography market since 2007 based in Fremont, California.

References

  1. ↑ Beal, Vangie. "What is stock photo? Webopedia Definition". www.webopedia.com. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
  2. ↑ April 17, Reply Tugmy cart; Pm, 2018 at 3:16 (2016-09-07). "What are Stock Images? One of the Best Image Resources Explained > Stock Photo Secrets". Stock Photo Secrets. Retrieved 2019-06-27.
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