Steve E Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 The pictures displayed by Storyist are very valuable as quick reference, as everyone knows. But short of drawing the picture yourself, you have to find one somewhere. It is fortunate that the Web offers no end of graphics but I wonder if Storyist should come with some stock photos, if only to get people up and running/writing faster using Storyist at its full potential. Hear me out. This isn't as crazy as it sounds. Templates are the norm now in writing programs. Many of those templates come with elaborate graphics (e.g., memo, fax, business letter, birthday card...). Desktop publishing packages and database management packages often come with hundreds of pre-made graphics. Even e-mail programs now come with a selection of fancy background graphics. So why not Storyist? The ads for Storyist show pictures of (what I assume are) heros, villains, sidekicks, and such. Why not include them in the product? Throw in some settings as well. Yes, I know that the odds of any of them being a perfect match for what the writer has in mind are small but it's a starting point (like templates). You just need variations of age, weight and sex (and maybe hair and eye color as well. And let's not forget race. Oh, and throw in a few monsters. Gotta have monsters.) As for settings, some recognizable landmarks would be good. Room shots. Restaurants. Theaters. Urban, suburban and rural scenes. Perhaps a castle? You get the idea. Again, I know it is not possible to produce a comprehensive set of stock images. Just the basics then. Hey, there's always Flickr. -Thoth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 The rights to ship stock photography in a software application don't come cheap. What do you think a reasonable price increase would be? -Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve E Posted March 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 The rights to ship stock photography in a software application don't come cheap. What do you think a reasonable price increase would be? I haven't a clue since I know neither Storyist's sales volume nor profit margin. But there has to be plenty of public domain stuff out there. Also, the photos don't have to be "photos". Do you know a graphic artist who'll take a commission on the cheap? We're not looking for (the late) Ansel Adams here. (Calli?) What about the pictures you use in your ad? Gotta be a better way, -Thoth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astillac Posted March 22, 2008 Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Stock photos are expensive. Stock artwork is infinitely less so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve E Posted March 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2008 Stock photos are expensive. Stock artwork is infinitely less so. Hear that Steve? Infinitely less. Why, I'd bet dollars to donuts* you could find artists who'd be willing to pay you for the honor and the privilege of having their work appear in the Storyist program. Keeping his sunny side up, -Thoth. *Not really a good bet. According to "Listening to America" by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1982) the phrase originated in 1890 when donuts were plentiful for a buck. A high-end coffee and "sinker" cost 10¢ in the big city and 2¢ in small towns. Compare that to what you can get at Starbucks for a dollar today. (Did you hear about the $100M judgement against Starbucks? Managers were taking all the tips. A judge ordered management to give them all back plus interest.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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