I have been compiling high quality public domain (really public domain) art for a bit. My idea was to use it in a equipment book I was going to do, but alas, I think I don't have that kind of time. What I can do is post the work online so that there is repository of free public domain art that is suitable for OSR type projects. This art is no strings attached with no gotchas, free art for all to use.

The public domain art out there is really fantastic! No really! It can and should be used in OSR/D&D products. My question is this: What is the best way to put the art out there? Flickr? A special Dropbox? Google Drive?

Where is the best place to put it, something that is persistent and flexible, preferably with a gallery.

Cheers

Quote from: Teazia;586641I have been compiling high quality public domain (really public domain) art for a bit. My idea was to use it in a equipment book I was going to do, but alas, I think I don't have that kind of time. What I can do is post the work online so that there is repository of free public domain art that is suitable for OSR type projects. This art is no strings attached with no gotchas, free art for all to use.

The public domain art out there is really fantastic! No really! It can and should be used in OSR/D&D products. My question is this: What is the best way to put the art out there? Flickr? A special Dropbox? Google Drive?

Where is the best place to put it, something that is persistent and flexible, preferably with a gallery.

Cheers

I use Photobucket.  Well, I haven't actually used it for a while, but you know what I mean.  

I have traversed a few Flickr galleries, and they can actually be something of a hassle to download stuff from.  They want to provide all manner of images, but in so doing, it becomes difficult to easily get the one you want.  Google Drive is not very good for that kind of thing at all, it's more of a cloud storage/collaboration service.  I think Dropbox is about the same, but someone should be along shortly to correct me; I don't have any first-hand experience, just what I have heard and read.

I think rpgpun has stated that photobucket is website nongrata as it does not play friendly in non North American countries.

But i'll have to look into it!

Quote from: Teazia;586657I think rpgpun has stated that photobucket is website nongrata as it does not play friendly in non North American countries.

But i'll have to look into it!

I forgot about that.  I guess that is something to look into, I don't know how that works or doesn't.  I would imagine it is a copyright issue of some kind.  Mediafire is another option, but they don't have a built-in gallery, as far as I know.  You would have to set up something on your own, like a photo blog, to display the images.

You need to be really careful about ensuring those images are in public domain. It really doesn't take all that much to lose safe harbor protections.

The images will all be from books before 1922 and from golden age comics that are also out of copyright.

Cheers

I'm not sure of the best way to do this, but possibly release it on 4shared or something as a big .zip file, with notice included as to it all being Public Domain?

Very cool idea, by the way.

This is a really cool idea. I can't come up with anything that fits the bill immediately though, anything that handles large resolution images tends to be tricky for one reason or another. Maybe some friendly forum owners *cough* would be kind enough to host it for a while? Its sure to drive a ton of traffic.

What about WikiMedia Commons? That where I got a lot of my public domain images.

Karen's Whimsy is one of the places where I've seen a huge collection of public domain art.

This is an awesome idea and could be a real boon for amateur designers; but as was said above, you'd have to be very careful to make sure everything was public domain.

RPGPundit

The Ms and Mrs are out of town for awwk or so, it gives me time to clean upnthe several hundred images I already have. I guess ill post them on the bucket at first then see what else is an option. Wiki is a good backup idea, but I feel it is too diffuse and monolithic for a focused.project.

Once I get some stuff up ill discuss the process I used. There is an unbelievable amount of high quality professionally scanned material out there,  but not obvious (I found it somewhat by accident).

Quote from: Teazia;587080Wiki is a good backup idea, but I feel it is too diffuse and monolithic for a focused.project.

I was messing around with the software, and I found out it is nearly impossible to lock it down completely.  I like the structure, but it would be nice to keep the general public from editing it for some purposes.  I understand their mission statement and all, but not everyone wants to use it the exact same way.

QuoteOnce I get some stuff up ill discuss the process I used. There is an unbelievable amount of high quality professionally scanned material out there,  but not obvious (I found it somewhat by accident).

Maybe a listing of the links you found, too...?  

The links?  I can tell you them right now:

http://comicbookplus.com/

http://archive.org/

But the process is the more important as there is some sleuthing and elbow grease that is required.  At first I wanted it to be my private playground, but what the hey, it is public domain after all!

I can say that of the books I have worked on, I am only recovering about 5-20% of the art.  There is tons more that may not match my idea of what could possibly fit in the 1e dmg (my mental benchmark), but could be perfect for someone else's project.

Cheers

I think I'll have to settle on PNG format due to it lossless nature and SVG for vectorized files. Here is a taste, mind you there the whole thing is still a WIP: