1. A distributed image trading system comprising: at least one image publisher unit able to communicate with at least one image buyer terminal, said image publisher unit comprises at least one of a repository for high-resolution images and an image publishing module; an image enhancement unit; and a system service unit able to communicate with said at least one image buyer terminal and said at least one image publisher unit, the service unit comprising at least one of an image attributes database, a search module for searching said at least one image attributes database, a billing module and a coordination and control module.