Telecom images
Patent illustrations are free and copyright and royalty free! From the U.S.P.T.O. (external link) they come as 300 d.p.i. tiff files so you have enough detail to publish in hardcopy. These images show an early Motorola two way. Click on the left hand image for a "before" illustration and the one on the right for an "after" look. The right hand image was converted in Photoshop to a duotone, selecting a dark blue color. I then changed that duotone into a RGB file, to apply an "extrude edges" filter. Pretty neat, eh?
Searching takes the most time, not the processing, and these files require a broadband connection since they're so big. You may need QuickTime installed in your browser to accept the .tiff files the USPTO generates. You'll need a good graphics program, too, one that can do duotones and handle .tif files. But you need all of these things if you're interested in illustrating.
