Why was Picfree created?

Simply, I have worked in the print industry for 21 years and know just how difficult the right image is to find and when you do find it, it costs money and all you want to do - is use it to make your presentation look good! Without any fear of the copyright police coming round and arresting you.

I used to take pictures and keep them in a folder just in case I needed a picture of a door or a flower that I could use in my presentations - please note that I don't class myself as a photographer not even an amateur photographer, I just aim my camera and shoot and hopefully the pictures look OK!

In January 2008 I was awarded a FUJIFILM S5Pro Camera for my contribution to an organisation who help GCSE students look at the print industry as a career option. The award was called "The Ambassador for Print". I was very surprised to be awarded such an honour.

I decided that I would give something back so I collated all of my photographs and put them together in one place - I realised that I had quite a few pictures sat doing nothing, so I decided to set up a website called "Picfree" that allows people to use in four ways:

1 Students:

All students can use the image(s) worldwide, for course work, presentations, PowerPoints, creating posters, with no limit on the number of times used, you can use the images for magazines (print or electronic - within the school), calendars, newspapers, advertising, design, stationery, CD covers, phone cards, postcards, merchandise, mobile phones, multimedia products, cups, hats, T-shirts and many other creative ways just download and use, including products for sale and fund raising for the school - please send picture so we can show other school what you have done.

2 Artists/Designer:

All artists of any nature can use the images as reference material at no cost, it would be nice to see a reference on your website, but you can't reference an image in a painting so feel free to use all the images. I hope this will save time hunting through books and websites when you should be creative.

3 Businesses:

There are times in industry when a simple picture can tell a thousand words - well please feel free to use all of the pictures in this website with our blessing. Please note as long as you don't publish the picture they are free to use. You will also notice that we have not put a water mark in any of the pictures (as this will only be cut off), this is so that you can use the image straight from the website. I hope that some of your presentations benefit from having some quirky pictures that liven them up.

4 Published Cost:

The only cost is for high res pictures that will be published "printed or used on commercial website". The cost will be a one payment of £10.00, PicFree© will supply 1 x master picture un-edited and 1 x screen image (as seen when clicking on screen).

What happens to the £10.00? This will be split in three ways.

• £1.00 will go to each of the 4 founders
• £3.00 will be use to run the site
• £3.00 will go into a pot for students to use for personal purchases such as memory sticks - a special link will be developed once the funds are collected.