Adobe Stock Images (& More)

Accessing Adobe Stock

All IU affiliates have access to a wide range of Adobe software and tools, including the vast Adobe Stock library.  Adobe Stock offers millions of professional-quality multimedia assets (photos, graphics, videos, and templates for use in Adobe software) that are easily searchable and specifically made available for reuse.

When you first visit https://stock.adobe.com/,you will need to sign in with your IU Adobe account via the button in the top right corner.  Like all Adobe tools, be sure to use the format "YourIUID@iu.edu” when signing in. Visit the Adobe at IU portal to learn more about logging in or creating your Adobe account.

IU’s agreement with Adobe allows the IU community to utilize an unlimited amount of “standard” Adobe Stock assets without attribution or other restrictions for nearly any purpose related to their academic or professional work at the university.  Attribution is required when using Stock assets in editorial pieces (for example, in news articles or press releases).  Please visit this IU Knowledge Base article for more information about how you may use multimedia you find via Adobe Stock.

Some assets in Adobe Stock are labeled “premium,” which are not available through IU’s agreement except in special circumstances.  If your project requires use of a premium asset, please visit the Knowledge Base article listed above to learn about the request process.

• After locating an asset you would like to use via the search tools, click on the asset’s thumbnail image to select it and view its information. Here you will see if it is included in your licensing plan, learn about possible download formats, find links and keywords to similar images, and have the option to license the asset.  To license and download the asset for use in your work, click the blue License   Assets that have already been licensed by any IU user (even if it wasn’t you) will show a blue checkmark and words indicating it has been licensed. You do not need to do anything further to license it for yourself.
• After clicking “License,” the asset may be added to your default Library or start downloading automatically (depending on specific settings), or you may need to start these processes manually by clicking the relevant buttons.
• Assets that have been previously licensed by any IU user will give you the option to “Re-Download for Free.”

A note about watermarks:

 If your asset downloads with a watermark that says “Adobe Stock,” check to ensure you have successfully licensed the asset.

Terms to know:

• Standard content – high quality multimedia and template assets that are available to all Adobe stock users
• Premium content – a curated collection of assets in specialized formats (animation, videos, etc.) or created by notable professionals, which are available to IU affiliates only in special circumstances
• License (“to license” an asset) - the action of adding an available asset to the collection of items usable by the entire group of IU users, including yourself
• Library – your personal collection of assets that you have saved for use
• Filters (search feature) - methods of narrowing your search results to locate specifically the content you need (by size, orientation, etc.)