10 Tips for Selecting Images for Illustrated Books

Lizzy Silverton

1. Why that image?

It may seem an obvious question, but one worth asking yourself. What is the image showing? Is it necessary? Is it earning its place on the page? If push came to shove on extent or budget constraints, would this image make the cut? If you consider that for each image you select you will need to source a high resolution file, write a caption, clear the copyright and pay for usage, that it will need to be colour proofed and potentially colour corrected, and that you may need to send the rights owner a copy of the book, then it makes sense to really think about your choices.

2. Do you have the rights?

Whether it’s from a museum or art gallery, private collection, illustrator, architects firm or private photographer, you need to ascertain who owns the rights in the image so you can ask permission to use it. This applies to diagrams and drawings as well as photographs and pictures of paintings. Just because an image is available online doesn’t mean that it’s free to use. Most institutions have picture libraries that can help you with permissions, there are also image licensing companies such as Getty Images, DACS, Bridgeman Images, Mary Evans Picture Library and Press Association in the UK that you can use.

3. What rights do you need?

Are you using the image in a print book, eBook, online or in an app? Will it be published in multiple formats? Will your material be published internationally and will it be published in multiple languages? Will it be on the cover of the book, or inside and how big will it be? Do you want to include the whole image or just a detail? What is the print run of the book? Might the image appear in marketing material for the book? Prices will vary based on all of these factors so make sure you have a clear idea of what the image will be used for.

4. Is the image in budget?

Your editor or production manager will let you know what your image budget is. While some institutions will let you use their images for free, or else they may fall under the Creative Commons licences, others will cost tens if not hundreds of pounds. It’s amazing how quickly your image budget can be eaten up, so keep a good handle on costs and make sure you are choosing images wisely.

5. Is the image high res enough?

Your production team will give you a minimum size for your image in pixels and it’s important that the image file you have fits this minimum size. As a ready reckoner, images should be no smaller than 300dpi (dots per inch). If a digital file of the image doesn’t exist in the correct size, you may need to get the item photographed or a transparency scanned. This will inevitably incur an additional cost (and take longer) so factor this in, both in terms of your schedule and budget. Low res images won’t make it into the final cut so make sure your images all fit the specification given. If in any doubt, ask your editor/production controller to double check for you.

6. Is the image file format correct?

You will be asked to supply the image in a specific format, usually a tiff or jpeg file. Alternatively for technical drawings you may need to submit a vector file - eps or AI format. Make sure you are clear on the best format when you are sourcing your file.

7. Are you allowed to crop or transform the image?

When you are given permission to use the image there will also be a set of rules about what you are allowed to do with the file. If you want to use a detail or just part of an image, make sure you have permission to do this and check if you need to include the fact that the image is partial in your caption.

8. What is the copyright line?

Make sure you know what information you will need to include in your caption and in the picture credits for the image. Do you need to include the name of the photographer? Do you need the name of the institution? Or ‘with kind permission of x or y’? Keep a record of this information for when you are compiling your captions and picture credits.

9. Do you need to send a complementary copy of the book to the rights holder?

Check whether this is part of the terms of your image rights agreement. Some institutions take a copy in lieu of payment, others will require payment and a copy, while others still will ask for multiple copies. This needs to be factored into the print run and budget so keep a record of this and check how many copies your editor has allowed for as comps.

10. Do you have the paperwork to support your usage?

Once you’ve done all of the work to get permission to use an image, made sure it’s high enough res, the right format and captioned and credited perfectly, the final step is to make sure you have a signed copy of the image rights agreement to submit to your editor. It’s important to be able to prove that you have permission to use an image and also useful to have a paper trail in case the book reprints or if you sell a foreign language edition of your book.