We're FigureOne, the online hub for photo research since 2002.  Research teams — researchers, authors, editors, illustrators, photo managers, and production staff — use our platform to manage the photo and art programs for higher ed and K-12 textbooks.  FigureOne was purpose-built for textbook publishing by experts in the field.   Read more about our ORIGINS »

You might expect photos to be the “easy part” beyond the text, but it's research missteps that force books to miss print deadlines by months, formerly peaceful projects erupting into ferocious crosstalk and blame games.

Why? Well, poor communication, but that's almost a tautology.  Most of the time, it's also a poor choice of tools for communicating goals and progress.

Photo research is no place for bricks and mortar.  But it's also no place for primitive technologies like e-mail and FTP.  Those used to work when deadlines weren't as tight, and they're better than overnighting printouts.  But they're no way to collaborate. Thousands of images sent to 5 people's inboxes and spiraling reply-alls? Not making things easier! Files left on a disk drive somewhere with no ability to comment on or tag images? Bad to worse. (Okay, some publishers have software that helps a little... if IT can keep the server from crashing before lunchtime!)

Online collaboration is the only way to reliably meet contemporary deadlines. And that's what we do. FigureOne makes photo research work in the real world, all in your web browser.

Spec lists  and reference images are imported to form the framework for research.

Photo researchers  drag-and-drop images to the site for consideration, check on rejections and selections, exchange comments with the team, note repro fees and permissions, and attach hi-res files when needed.

Illustrators  and other content creators save new proofs to the website straight from their desktop. 

Authors  see at a glance which specs have new photos for review, mark them up with straightforward tags such as Selected, Suggested, or Rejected, and discuss issues with specs or individual images.

Editors  and in-house photo managers make recommendations and monitor progress using our unparalleled workflow tools. 

Production  downloads the hi-res and they're good to go. 

FigureOne is always fast, always up, available across countries and continents.  Jump into our CORE FEATURES »