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Stock image resources

At Minuteman Press Bristol we use a number of Internet sources to search and acquire graphics and images for our design projects; from logo design and corporate identity to calendars and business cards. All sources provide categories to suit various themes and concepts.

The web is an excellent place for stock image resources, as it will not use up valuable memory on your hard drive needed for a comprehensive image library. Graphic Designers are able to pick and choose from large selections of images and graphics without having to purchase an entire library. You can also create your own database of images online, which are more familiar and useful then numerous CDs of images that gather dust and may never be viewed. You only pay a small fee for images that you choose to download.

Royalty free sites are also available that require no fee at all and offer a wide selection of design elements and photos. We recommend two royalty free image banks; from the classic Microsoft clip art, which also contains photo images, to the cutting edge stock.xchng. Both sites boast a large database of free images and vector graphics. We find stock.xchng extremely useful with a growing community who share their personal images with other users; there are also sections for tutorials, blogs and forums in order to communicate design solutions and knowledge of what to do once your selected image has been downloaded.

In terms of microstock photography websites, istockphoto and fotolia are two that we certainly recommend; they have a more diverse and comprehensive range then the royalty free sites but also command payment for their service. The prices for these libraries come at varying levels depending on the resolution the user requires. For example: a low resolution (72 dpi) image is 0.63p and the same image at a resolution of 300 dpi (good printable quality) costs £6.30.

All in all there are some very good stock image libraries online to help avoid forking out on large image banks and making searching and acquiring images easier.

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