Royalty-free images: when should you use them?

“…Creative works, including art, photography, music, movies, and software, are usually owned by their creator. If someone else wants to use someone’s song in a commercial, or put one of their photos on a website, the creator often earns a royalty. The royalty is a payment for each use of the creative work.

Sometimes artists create work that they sell as royalty-free. If a piece of work is royalty-free, you can purchase the right to use the work without paying a royalty each and every time the art is used. This can sometimes be a very cost-effective way for someone to use a piece of art, music, or software. The savings associated with using royalty-free works are especially high when the work will be used over and over.

Royalty-free images are free of royalties, but they are not free to use without purchase. The creator of a royalty-free song or photo still owns the work. The software, movie, or other royalty-free work belongs to its creator, and you are allowed to use it for specific purposes by paying a fee. This is usually much less than you would pay in royalties for a similar piece of work, but you are still required to pay….” – Wisegeek.com

The use of royalty-free images is a very popular choice among businesses and creatives alike when creating brochures, artworks, websites etc. They are cheap and you can use them over and over again without having to pay royalties. Not only do royalty-free images spoil you with choice of what images you are looking for, they offer you a fast and easy convenience to get the images you want without needing to resort a photographer or artist.

If you are a designer, royalty-free images can be a great way of gathering objects for you to digitally manipulate in your artworks.

However, there are restrictions when using royalty-free images. And despite what some websites may say otherwise, one should always consider and think twice before resorting to royalty-free images for certain uses. Below are some factors to consider:

1. Royalty-free images are NOT copy-rightable
Yup, they’re not. Just because you purchased them doesn’t mean the copyright goes to you. According to international copyright laws, the author or creator of the artwork automatically owns the copyright to that artwork.

Many royalty-free images give you non-exclusive rights to use the artwork for your own use. Some artworks charge you on certain specific criteria:

Medium of Use (eg. brochure, poster, magazine etc.)

Size of use (eg. 72 dpi, 300dpi, half-page, full-page etc.)

Placement of image ( eg. cover, inside, website etc.)

Press Run or Circulation (eg. 2000 brochures, an ad in 50,000 press run magazine etc.)

Duration of Use (eg. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year etc.)

Geographical Location (eg. local, regional, national or international )

Stock art sites like istock and Shutterstock offer greater flexibility and more affordable prices, while GettyImages are more costly, but offer very high quality images from selective photographers. It is important to know the rights and licenses you are assigned to before making a purchase.

2. Avoid royalty-free images when creating your brand identity
For more permanent mediums such as brand identity (logos, business cards, etc.), royalty-free image is a great NO-NO.

Not only does it lack originality, it makes your branding look cheap, and that is not the first impression you want to give to your clients (see example). Someone else out there can have the same logo icon or artwork as you, how embarrassing is that!

Due to the cheap options available out there such as online D.I.Y logo creations and templates, you cannot copyright or trademark your logos. If your company is worth it, don’t be afraid invest in originality and quality. Remember, cheap doesn’t always equal quality, and it can cost you a lot more in the long run.

3. Use royalty-free images on temporary mediums
So, when should you use royalty-free images?

If you are looking to design a brochure or flyer, and you are a on low budget, you can certainly get away with royalty-free images since such mediums tend to have a shorter duration of use.

If using it for a website, try not to use images that have been popular in downloads! Chances are someone has seen it somewhere else, and I have encountered this too many times.

4. Choose your images CAREFULLY
Whether you are using istock or Getty Images to purchase your images, make sure you know what size, the rights that you are assigned to and what mediums you are using these images in before making the purchase.

It is good to get a rough snapshot of the image and test them out in the artwork before deciding whether to purchase the images. Careful planning and wise decision-making will save you both time and money.