Local cartoon creators go for $US

By Adam Gifford

Auckland company Inkspot Digital is the first New Zealand company to use WorldPay to handle payments for images and animations from its new web site.

Inkspot Digital is making the images from its Cliptoonz and Clipart for Kiwis CDs available for downloading, at a cost of $US5 each. Animated Flash library files are also available for $US5 each.

Sales director Louise Rutten says that while New Zealand banks could do on-line micropayments, "we couldn't get them to bill in US dollars."

She says the transaction details are held on the WorldPay site rather than Inkspot Digital's, meaning greater security and lessening the potential for fraud.

"The site also allows you to see the exchange rate for the currency you pay in. The back end of the system is very sophisticated, so we can monitor what people purchase."

The full Cliptoonz CD costs $49.95. The Clipart for Kiwis CD, released a week before Christmas, costs $79.95, reflecting the production cost of the accompanying image manual.

"That has gone really well for us. We've already sold more than 1000 copies, which is very good for a local CD."

Louise Rutten says the animations are designed so people can insert them in Publisher or Powerpoint presentations or web sites, in the same way they now use static Cliptoonz images.

Purchasers will have the choice of .WMF and .PICT files and within the next month .SWF and .FLA (Flash Library Files) will be available in both still and animated versions.