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Using Stock Photos: Royalty-Free vs. Rights Managed

By Gerae Lindsey

If you have searched for photos to use on your website, you have likely encountered the terms royalty-free and rights managed. So what is the difference between these types of photos?

Rights-Managed Images: Images you purchase for a specific purpose at a specific price (think renting the photo or paying to borrow the image). The price of the picture is usually determined by how you want to use the picture (on the web, in print, etc.). The plus side to using a rights managed photo is that you will most likely NOT see anyone else using the same photo (or model) promoting another product. The downside is of course the price; rights managed photos can cost you double (even triple) of what royalty-free runs.

Royalty-Free Images: Images purchased outright, either as single images or on disc volumes in bulk, and can be used any way you want, with certain restrictions. Pricing for royalty-free images is usually decided by the size of file you want to purchase; the larger the file (meaning, the better the quality of the image), the higher the price. The good news with royalty-free images is that if you are using them for the web (on websites, advertisements, etc.), you can use the smaller files, thus saving yourself a lot of money. For printing purposes however, you will need to buy the larger file sizes. And typically royalty-free images can be used however you like.

So which one should YOU use?
If pricing is the major factor, royalty-free is the way to go. You can save even more by purchasing your photos through a subscription-based website (which will cost you $140 and up for access to over 100,000 photos) instead of buying individual images (typically $50 and up per photo). For general web use (website or banner ads), we recommend you choose royalty-free photos over rights managed.

If price is not a factor in your advertising budget, or you are worried about someone with a similar product using the exact same photo as yourself, then rights managed might be the right option for you.

We really only recommend rights managed photos for larger companies who will be doing wide spread advertising - such as television ads - who want to avoid brand confusion.

Copyright © 2005 Gerae D. Lindsey
Gerae Lindsey is a freelance web designer specializing in web development for small and home based businesses. Visit her website for more web and graphic design tips at http://www.lindseywebdesign.com

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