As a book designer online image websites are a good source when creating book cover designs or images that might be used within the interior book design pages.
Online image websites provide 'Royalty-free images'. Royalty-free is a term employed in negotiating the right to use creative content such as images for commercial use. Royalty-free Images can be used with no limit on time, copies or geographical location. Some companies will have a limitation to 500,000 copies - an 'Extended Royalty-free' license is available that can eliminate the 500,000 copies limitation agreement to unlimited. Check with your online image source.
'Rights Managed images' are also available which lets you customize the image license to protect yourself so that another person doesn’t use the same image as you do for the same purpose for a certain amount of time.
Below is a listing of online image companies that I use. Here are their official blurbs:
Dreamstime
Dreamstime is one of my favorite online photo websites. They allow you to create and name multiple folders called ‘Lightboxes’ which you can save as many photos as you wish into the Lightbox(s) you’ve created - a great way to organize multiple jobs. You can also email any Lightbox directly to anyone and that person can view the photos saved in that Lightbox.
Can Stock Photo
Royalty free stock photography with over 10,000 new top quality affordable images added each day from the world's best photographers and artists.
Pexels
Pexels is a good resource, all photos and videos on Pexels are free to use.
GoGraph
GoGraph offers very affordable royalty free stock photography, vectors, illustrations, graphics, and stock footage. With over 25 years of industry experience and over 27 Million Stock Photos.
iStock
Search for rights managed and royalty-free images.
Illustration Works
Dedicated to only art. Search for rights managed and royalty-free stock art.
Foto Search
Foto Search Stock Photography and Stock Footage allows users to search from more than 15 million images and 250,000 video clips from 140 quality publishers at one site. Foto Search also offers royalty-free clipart pictures, illustrations, stock audio clips, maps, and more.
Getty Images
Search for rights managed and royalty-free images to still imagery, footage, music and other premium content.
fololia
Fotolia is devoted to offering affordable rights managed and royalty-free images, illustrations and videos.
ImageZoo
Is dedicated to beautiful royalty free stock illustrations, rights managed and custom illustration.
Photos.com
Search for rights managed and royalty-free images.
Illustration Source
Search through the finest illustrators and illustration collections worldwide for publishing.
Corbis Images
Search for rights managed and royalty-free images.
The British Library, Images Online
Includes manuscripts, rare books, musical texts and maps spanning almost 3000 years. The range of images that are available include illustrations, drawings, paintings and photographs.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is not a traditional online image source. I use it for searching vintage images. They have a great resource of original photographs such as the photo displayed on this webpage which the author has allowed anyone to use. They also have an extensive Public Domain image liberary.
Public Domain is a category of text, documents and images that are no longer protected by an active legal copyright. They have become public property. On the Internet, material in the public domain can be freely downloaded, copied and reused for personal and commercial use.
Creative material usually ends up in the public domain in one of two ways.
