Best Paid Stock Photo and Illustration Sites
eLearning Art | Great selection of people cutouts in professional, casual and medical clothes and also sets of phone people. Backgrounds and silhouettes. | One subscription price to download all graphics and templates. |
eLearning Brothers | People Cutouts: Excellent selection of cutout people and illustrated characters in many different poses. Also photos of workplace backgrounds. | One subscription price to download all graphic, template and game products. |
Graphic River | Inexpensive design elements, such as PowerPoint templates, backgrounds, textures and illustrations. Photo Dune is part of the Envato Market for creatives. | Pay by the graphic. Can use a price filter in your search. |
istockphoto | The original member-generated stock photo and illustration site with a good selection of photos, illustrations, Flash animations, video and audio. | Buy credits in bundles to purchase individual items or subscribe. Plans are for 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. |
Photo Dune | Standard stock photos and many are at a lower price than most. Photo Dune is part of the Envato Market for creatives. | Pay by the graphic. Can use a price filter in your search. |
Shutterstock | Over 15 million photos and illustrations as well as video footage. They also have a free photo and vector graphic every week. | Subscription plans or pay for a group of downloads. |
Getty images | An aggregate of several stock photo services. Though they only offer a portion of the media from other services, the selection is good. | Subscription pricing for teams (call to work it out). Individual photos are expensive. |
Animation, Clip Art and Cartoons
Animation Factory | Large collection (over 500,000 according to the site) of animated clip art and motion designs. Dig through the cliches to find something good. Can be used in PowerPoint, video, Flash and websites. | Various membership plans. |
Caricature King | An artist caricature site that offers celebrity caricatures. | Free for non-commercial use. Must include the site url (which is on the drawing). |
Clipart.com | Large collection of stock clipart, some photos and vector illustrations. | Subscribe by the week, month or year. (I use clip art to illustrate elements in diagrams.) |
iClipart | Good collection of clipart, animations, illustrations and fonts. Now they have photos too. | Lost of subscription options. |
Medical and Scientific Graphics
A.D.A.M. Images | Library of 30,000 top-of-the-line medical illustrations. | Varies by individual image, product line and your usage. It's rarely cheap. |
Health Education Assets Library (HEAL) | A digital repository of 22,000 medical education resources, including medical illustrations, animations and photos. | Free with registration. [July 30, 2012: Site is temporarily down for maintenance] |
Russell Knightly Media | Scientific and medical illustration and animation. | Varied pricing packages. |
Science Photo | Impressive scientific photos and video footage as well as some standard stock in high-res format. | Priced by the image. Some products require registration for pricing info. |
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