Free images for your blog or design projects

15.03.2014 2 min read

If it's on web it's free. Many people seem to think that anything they find on web is free for them to use. There's lots of legally free stuff out there, but most of all there are lots of things you can use to get yourself into all sorts of trouble. For instance photos and other images you don't have a permission to use.

Fortunately alongside the photos you took yourself and images you created there are free options to use. Unfortunately it's a bit of a Wild West. Some of the licenses are vague or too restrictive. There are people who upload photos online under Creative Commons licenses without understanding the licensing and start to complain if you use their photos. The free photos can be terribly small or bad quality.

The best way to avoid trouble is to be meticulous. Never ever use photos you found from Pinterest, Google or other non-licensed sources without asking and getting a permission from the creator/photographer. When using the images with free image licensing you must check the details. Sometimes you need to give credit to the creator, sometimes you can use the image only non-commercially or you can use the image only as is and not to modify it. Read the license carefully and always make sure you have the permission to use the image the way you want to use it. There are always terms of use, make sure you can meet the terms.

There are several sites you can find free photos to use on your blog, web design and different projects. From these sites you can download photos and other images. However always check the terms and read the license before downloading the photo. In the following I have listed six of these sites.

stock.xchng

SXC or stock.xchng is a well known source of free stock images. The basic license allows using the images commercially and non-commercially but not as parts of logos or endorsing products or services if the photo depicts a person. Some photos have different licensing and the license mentioned by the download button. In order to download the images you must sign up to the site.

StockFreeImages.com

StockFreeImages.com has lots of nice free images. The free images have limited size (web size) and using a free image requires including the credit line on the site/page. The credit line is included by the photos for easy copying. Downloading the images requires signing up to the site.

Flickr: Creative Commons

Flickr: Creative Commons offers Creative Commons licensed photos uploaded by any Flickr users. If you take some time to sort through the photos you can find lots of great ones. Creative Commons licenses always require crediting the original creator. There are different licenses and some of them are for non-commercial use only. My photos on Flickr are licensed under CC BY unless stated otherwise. You don't need to sign up to the site to download the CC images.

morgueFile

morgueFile offers free high resolution stock photos. The photos can be used on non-commercial and commercial websites and designs without attribution and there are plenty. You don't have to sign up in order to download the photos from the site.

FreeMediaGoo.com

FreeMediaGoo.com provides free photos, textures and digital backgrounds for your design needs. The photos, textures and backgrounds can be used without attribution and for both non-commercial and commercial stuff. The categories are a bit limited, but some of the photos are very nice. This site also doesn't require signing up for downloading the photos or textures.

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