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I love it when people use Sketchplanations. Please respect the licence when you share so more people can find sketches they like too.
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      <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">
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  <p class="text-center">All images and accompanying explanatory text on this website are licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License</a></p>
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In short, you're free to share any sketches but not sell them. You must include the source. Adding a link to the site or tagging a relevant social profile is extra helpful.

Keeping attribution helps people find the work, which helps me as a creator make a living doing this—thank you.

It's great when people share Sketchplanations, so please use sketches to illustrate your points in:

...as long as you give credit. In fact, I'd love you to use them to make a point, help explain something for others, further your career, or teach something to your students. That's what they're for!

If you’re adapting a sketch using AI or other tools, please include visible attribution on the image itself (e.g., “Adapted from Sketchplanations”). This helps the credit stay attached, even when the image is reshared without any accompanying text. Images have a way of making their own way around.

I don't consider AI remixes that omit attribution as appropriate use under this licence.

If you're talented enough to translate sketches into your own language, I highly encourage it.

If you translate and share a sketch, don't remove Sketchplanations from the image.

Ideally, include: 'Translated from Sketchplanations' or similar.

I have .psd files of most sketches in case they are helpful to you.

Have you translated a sketch? I'm collecting them, intending to add links to translations of each sketch on the site. Email them to me at jono.hey@gmail.com

Can I use them in my article, newsletter, presentation, LinkedIn post, Instagram business post, Medium post, or course? (or the like)

Yes. Please include the source. Because content is often reshared, I prefer that you don't remove the Sketchplanations logo from the sketches.

If you can add a link, i.e. it's online, this works well, I think:

...ideally with the word Sketchplanations linking to the sketch page as it appears on the site, e.g. to https://sketchplanations.com/the-overview-effect

If you can't add a link, for example, because it's in a book or flyer, then this works well:

Context matters when adding sources, so please make it work for you.

As for AI adaptations above, if you make a new or adapted version of the sketch, please include attribution on the image itself—otherwise they tend to get loose and attribution gets lost.

Yes—sketches can be used in books, but they are normally commercial use, so they need separate permission.

For professionally published books or publisher-led projects, please contact me—jono.hey@gmail.com—and I will confirm pricing based on the publication.

For independent authors, I licence images at $65 per image (or £50 if paying in GBP), to keep things straightforward. This is a one-off licence for use inside a single book.

To licence a sketch for use in a book, please complete and email the Image Consent Form below. I use this for all book uses so that permission, scope, and attribution are clear for both of us.

If the sketch appears in Big Ideas Little Pictures, I need to confirm with my publisher before approving use, but this is usually straightforward.

If you're thinking of publishing a collection with many sketchplanations, reselling them, or some giant marketing campaign, billboard, selling prints or the like, great! Please contact me at jono.hey@gmail.com, and we can find a price or arrangement that works for us both.

Do you have high-resolution versions I can use?

Yes. You can use the download link below each sketch for a higher-resolution image if you need it.

Some older sketches may only have slightly higher resolutions when you download them. Feel free to contact me (jono.hey@gmail.com)—I will likely have a higher-res version.

Do you have an Image Consent Form I can complete?

Why, yes! Find it here: Image Consent Form

I'm still unsure whether my use case is OK. What should I do?

Just contact me at jono.hey@gmail.com and explain how you plan to use sketches, and I'll happily let you know.

If the sketches have helped you, wonderful!

Upgrading to a paid subscription makes the biggest difference, or buying me a coffee really helps, but it's not required.

(OK, perhaps this isn't as frequently asked)

Good question. See here: Is it Advise or advice?

Licence

The classic 6 Thinking Hats framework from Edward De Bono. Though I’m yet to be in a meeting where everyone’s familiar enough with it that it wouldn’t sound a bit strange to propose it. Ah well.

Things get more complex before they get simple

Six thinking hats