Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

From the login page, you can create an account and register yourself as an IMAGO user. Then click on the activation link, which we will send you by email. Log in with your data on our site. Then you can use the IMAGO database without any restrictions.

Your privacy is very important to us here at IMAGO. All information on the use of your data can be found in our Privacy Policy.

Log in to your user account. Under Account details you can view the currently saved data and update it if necessary.

Yes, even if we regret this, you can deactivate your user account. Write us an e-mail with the subject "Account deletion".

Our picture editors create daily updated compilations on a wide variety of topics. You can find them under current events and collections.

You have the option of saving your images and videos in a folder in your lightbox. In order to be able to use the lightbox, you must first create a free user account on our website.

With a click on the + sign under an image or video you can save it in your lightbox. Via "change" button you can change the Lightbox folder or create a new Lightbox folder.

Licensing grants the right to use copyrighted content for specific uses. Copyright remains with the content creator after licensing, who can set licensing terms of the content.

IMAGO offers different licenses for sale on behalf of the copyright holders for all content displayed on the website. The respective licenses specify the conditions under which the content may be used, e.g. the type of use, the geographical scope and the medium.

There are categories of licenses available at IMAGO for images and videos:

• Rights Managed
• Royalty Free Classic
• Royalty Free Premium

Rights Managed Licenses are available to support informative content about topics of general interest, e.g. news, current or historic events, politics, society, science, art). It is available to be purchased in the below distribution formats:

Images

• Standard: One-time editorial use in an online article, social media channels, internal presentation, website, newsletter, or blog.
• Extended: One-time editorial use in a book, newspaper or magazine (excluding cover page), external presentation. Limited to 5.000 circulation. This includes the rights available in the Standard license.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

• Standard: One-time editorial use in an article, website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or internal presentation. The resolution of the video is up to 1080 pixels (Full HD).
• Extended: One-time editorial use in website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or external presentation. The resolution of the video is up to 4k pixels.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

Royalty-free (RF) material popularly known as stock image/video is available to be used in editorial and commercial context. It is available to be purchased in the below distribution formats:

Images

• Standard: One-time use in an online article, social media channels, presentation, website, newsletter, or blog. Editorial and commercial use possible. Medium-resolution quality.
• Extended: Multiple time use in print, advertising, packaging, and merchandising. Limited to 8.000 circulation. Editorial and commercial use possible. Unlimited web distribution.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

• Standard: One-time editorial or commercial use in an article, website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or internal presentation. The resolution of the video is up to 1080 pixels (Full HD).
• Extended: Unlimited use in website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or external presentation. The resolution of the video is up to 4k pixels.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

Royalty-free Premium is a higher end offering in the category of Royalty Free content. This includes stock image and video content and is available to be used in editorial and commercial context. It is available to be purchased in the below distribution formats:

Images

• Standard: One-time use in an article, social media channels, presentations, website, newsletter, or blog. Editorial and commercial use possible.
• Extended: Unlimited use in web, print, advertising, packaging, and merchandising. Editorial and commercial use possible.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

• Standard: Multiple-time editorial or commercial use in an article, website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or internal presentations. The resolution of the video is up to 1080 pixels (Full HD).
• Extended: Unlimited use in website, social media channels, newsletter, blog, app, or internal presentation. The resolution of the video is up to 4k pixels.
• Enterprise: Did you not find the license that you were looking for? Please contact us here. We will be happy to support you based on your requirements.

On each media (image/video) RM (Rights Managed), RF (Royalty Free Classic), or RF Premium (Royalty Free Premium) is mentioned. Please look for this tag on the pictures for a quick check. For all media, we also offer a filter option to search only for media available in the license category you want.

No, a Royalty Free license cannot be purchased for a Rights Managed image. A Rights Managed image can only be licensed in our webshop for a one-time editorial use. For all other uses, please contact us here via the contact form with all the details of your planned use.

For a one-time use license, if the media is used in the same post across multiple platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, then Web license is valid. However, in case of change of text, or if the media is used in another post from the same account, the license becomes invalid.

The content can be used on all common social media channels (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitch, Pinterest, & Reddit).

The valid regulations with regard to the personal rights of depicted natural or legal persons must be observed during publication; these can be found, for example, in §22, 23 KUG. In particular, the defamatory or distorting use of the photographic material should always be avoided. In the case of commercial use, it must be clarified whether a model release exists or whether the rights to the depicted property must be clarified with the person depicted or the copyright holder. Rights to possibly depicted artistic works cannot be obtained by IMAGO.

At IMAGO, authenticity and our customers' trust come first. Where content materially involves AI, we flag it clearly — with a label on the asset preview and in the additional file information below it. We don't accept AI-generated editorial content or deep fakes of any kind.

We use two distinct labels:

• AI-generated — the content was created by an AI system. There is no underlying real photograph or recording; the image or video was synthesised by a generative model.
• AI-modified — a real photo or video that an AI system has materially edited, changing the meaning or semantics of the content. This covers content-altering edits such as adding, removing, or replacing elements (e.g. generative fill, sky replacement, generatively removing or adding an object). It does not cover purely assistive edits that don't change the meaning or semantics of the content — even when done using an AI system or tool — such as editing brightness, or exposure, denoising, or blurring logos or licence plates.

Yes. As well as marking AI content, we also tell you when a feature itself uses AI, so you always know when you're interacting with an AI system. Two of our search tools are AI-powered:

• Search by Image (Reverse Image Search, Creative only) — uses AI to find images that look visually similar to one you provide.
• People Filter — uses facial recognition to help you find images of selected people.

Many of the captions of our assets are processed with AI assistance — ranging from correcting grammar, to translating captions, to enriching and improving them. These enhancements are important for search quality: more accurate, consistent and multilingual captions make it significantly easier to find the right content.

Important: This concerns the caption text only. It does not mean the image or video itself has been altered in any way. Whether a given asset is itself AI-generated or AI-modified is a separate question, indicated by the content labels on the asset.

Media that is restricted to Editorial use (all RM licenses) may only be used to support informative content about topics of general interest, e.g. news, current or historic events, politics, society, science, art. All other cases are considered commercial usage, e.g. media supporting advertising, merchandising, and sales.

Depending on the license purchased, the images are available in medium or high resolutions. In the medium resolution, the size of the longest side is between 768 and 1,000 pixels. There are no limits to the high resolution, you will receive the images in the maximum resolution available to us. This resolution can differ from image to image. You will always find the valid information directly in the information on an image.

If multiple use is permitted for a license (= Yes), this material can be used with this one license in several of your projects and for different topics. In addition, you can store the material internally and use it continuously by several people within your company. However, if multiple use is excluded, you need a separate license for material with these licenses for each use. This is the case for all RM licenses, where the license is always linked to a specific contribution to a topic. Please contact us here for multiple uses of a RM License.

In case of reprinting or other publication of the images and videos, a copyright notice in the form IMAGO / name of the photographer must be made. The necessary information can be found in the description text of the image or video.

You may use images and videos in social media, but you must ensure that the terms of use of the social media platform do not require exclusive rights to the material. When posting it, please include an agency and copyright notice in the form IMAGO /name of the photographer. The necessary information can be found in the description text.

Yes, you can licence images and videos for TV, film and similar productions with IMAGO. Please contact us directly via our contact form with the details of your planned use and we will get back to you shortly

Credits are used as internal currency to purchase media licenses at IMAGO. Each image/video has a pre-assigned credit value needed for the purchase. This information is available on each individual media.

There are 5 easy-to-use packages available (Mini - $99, Regular - $299, Mega - $499, Super Saver - $999 and Ultra Saver - $1,999). For more details on individual packages, please click here.

When purchasing a package, you acquire the number of credits specified for the respective package, these will be credited to your customer account. You can then download the desired material with the license that suits you from our website at any time; the corresponding equivalent value for the license in credits will be deducted from your credit when you download it.

Yes, it is possible to buy different licenses with a single package.

If you have purchased at least one package, you will see the credits currently still available (not yet used) on our website in the menu bar at the top, directly on the credit icon. Simply click on the credit symbol or on Account in the menu bar for more details as mentioned below:

• Single License Purchases: This provides information on downloads under the active package including license information.
• Package Details: This provides information on expiry date for the package and available credits.

Yes, you always have the option of purchasing additional credits from the same or a different package in addition to the credits you have already purchased. In your account view under Account you will always receive an up-to-date overview of when the respective credits will expire. The credits acquired first are used for licenses until they are used up. After that, further downloads will be booked on the credits acquired afterwards. This is how we try to ensure that credits do not expire when purchasing multiple packages.

The term of our packages and thus the validity of the included credits is always 12 months from the date of purchase. At the end of the package term, your unused credits will expire.

You can pay by credit card, PayPal, instant transfer or direct debit. Registered customers can also request purchase on invoice as a payment method, subject to a positive check by us. Payment by invoice is so far only possible for professional clients and companies from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

IMAGO offers US Dollar for payments on www.imago-images.com and Euro for payments on www.imago-images.de.

All prices on our website are net prices. Whether sales tax is due on your purchase from IMAGO and shown on our invoices depends on your company headquarters and thus on your billing address: If your billing address is within Germany, your invoice includes sales tax at the reduced tax rate of currently 7%. On our invoices, both the net amount of the product, the sales tax amount and the gross amount are shown separately. If your billing address is within the European Union but not in Germany, no sales tax will be shown - the reverse charge procedure applies. If your billing address is outside the European Union, no sales tax will be shown on our invoices.

The VAT ID serves to identify companies within the European Union and is necessary for companies involved in the trade of goods and services within the EU. If you are a part of the European Union and do not have a VAT ID, please contact us here.

After you successfully complete the payment process, the media download will automatically start in your browser. You'll then receive a prompt to approve the download. The downloaded file will be saved to the default download location on your device, but you have the option to choose a different location if you prefer. To ensure a smooth download process, we recommend having a stable and reliable internet connection and sufficient storage space on your device.

You can reach our customer service team via this contact form. Please attach your invoice number and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

No, cancellations are not possible. However, you can return an unused license purchased on our website within 7 days of purchase as part of our IMAGO happiness guarantee.

Publishing rights for licenses are mentioned in the description text on each image and video. If nothing is specified, then it means the license is available to be used worldwide.

Please use our contact form for your inquiries. There you will also find further information on how to reach IMAGO by telephone.

Our offer is aimed at professional users. Licenses can be acquired by both companies and individuals (for example, if you work as a freelance picture or video editor for several clients).

You can find our pictures and videos with the help of German and English search terms.

You can request a new password through this link, and we will send you a link to your email to reset your password.