Where to Find Free Images and Visuals

Finding quality images and photos to complement an important article, essay, or news report is already a challenge in itself. Imagine, then, when the goal is not only to find good images, but also ones you can use without having to pay royalties or purchase one-time publishing rights.

The task would seem, at first, a challenging one, especially since, until recently, there were few well-known free image resources available online. Today, however, new ones are popping up all over the Web, offering a great assortment of quality pictures and presenting an alternative to traditional, expensive stock-photography libraries.

As long as you don't require photos of artistic masterpieces or images of popular celebrities, you are likely to find highly interesting, affordable visual alternatives by exploring the world of free and grassroots online image banks.

Remember, too, to always check the licensing terms of any image you wish to use (for more information about permissions, see TechSoup's article Borrowing Images from the Web: An FAQ.) And no matter what your source, always try to credit the artist, and, when possible, send a link. This is an easy way to thank someone who has been so generous as to offer her creative work to you for free, and allows the artist to link back to your site to show potential customers how her work has been used.

Free Online Image Banks

Bigfoto.com

Bigfoto.com is a repository of photos whose main categories include America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Pacific. When you select a category, a menu with a list of subcategories appears below it; selecting a subcategory will take you a page with thumbnails and information about the topic. For example, Themes > Aviation leads you to a page with aviation photos, as well as a description of the Wright brothers and Charles Lindbergh.

At the bottom of the Web site, you'll see a link called "pps," which contains PowerPoint presentations for downloading and admiring.

Geek Philosopher

Geek Philosopher offers a collection of photos, backgrounds, and wallpaper organized into nine main categories, each with additional subcategories. If you use an image, the site requires you to include a link to Geek Philosopher. According to the site, you are free to do whatever you want with these photos except redistribute them. (Learn more by checking out the site's terms and conditions.)

Fotogenika.net

Fotogenika.net contains photos sorted into a handful of categories and subcategories. Images from this site "may be used freely for personal, educational, and nonprofit projects. You may not use them commercially, claim authorship, and/or sell them."

A category page displays subcategory folders with thumbnails (or, when there's no subcategory, thumbnail images only). Categories include architecture, animals, people, landscapes, objects, and textures. Some categories only have one page of photos, while others have more. It's a well-organized site that's easy to use and offers a lovely collection of high-quality images.

FreeImages.co.uk

FreeImages.co.uk has more than 2,500 stock photos. The home page lists the top three galleries; you can search for photos by gallery or by using the gallery index page's search tool. When you select a thumbnail from the gallery page, the picture appears in its full size and without information.

FreeImages.co.uk also offers ideas and tips on resolution and how to get the best out of the images. It also has a collection of desktop wallpapers and presentation slides.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

FreeDigitalPhotos.net has over 2,000 free images for use in commercial and non-commercial work as long as you don't claim them as your own, redistribute them, or offer them for sale.

Browse photos by category or use the search tool. Each category has subcategories, which may even have subcategories of their own. The subcategory thumbnails display the title and the number of times the image has been viewed. Click the thumbnail to see a larger view.

The home page displays a random image, which you can refresh to change. It's an easy-to-use site with a good collection.

FreePhotosBank

FreePhotosBank grants visitors a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use its images.

Search or browse categories to find photos, or check out new or randomly selected photos featured on the home page. Click the Hot List button to see the most popular photos as well as photos with the highest ratings, most views, and most downloads. Some photos have an added digital effect, meaning you'll find a diverse array of photos on FreePhotosBank you might not find on other photo sites.

Each photo comes with information regarding its size, rating, number of views, number of downloads, and the photographer's information. You can also email the photo to a friend or print it. You can download the image as a JPEG or as a Zip file. You'll find a quality collection with hundreds of photos.

Free Stock Photos

Free Stock Photos is a collection of free photos available for use in personal and commercial design projects (see the terms of use for guidelines). Images come in multiple sizes for downloading.

FreeMediaGoo

FreeMediaGoo has a collection of royalty-free images, audio, textures, and Flash animation available for commercial and private use (with some restrictions) free of charge. It is not necessary to credit the images you use. Images are sorted by category, including beach, aviation, buildings, finance, sports, foods, and others. You can find original and awe-inspiring digital images in the site's digital factory category.

From Old Books

From Old Books is a unique collection of over 800 images in the public domain (unless otherwise noted) scanned from books. The site has many pictures of castles, abbeys, and old houses. The home page displays new images and a search tool with various sorting options.

When you find a photo of interest, click on it to see its title, source, the place it depicts (if applicable), keywords, copyright status, file name, and notes. Each photo also comes in several dimensions, and you can download by simply clicking on the size you want. From Old Books offers many photos you won't find elsewhere that can add character to any project.

ImageBase

ImageBase is a collection of over a few hundred photos of nature, people, cities, and objects taken by (presumably) one photographer, David Niblack. Though a small database in comparison to others, you can expect to find quality photos here. The site clearly states that "all images are 100 percent free to use." Click on one of the categories to view thumbnails; after clicking on a thumbnail, the full image appears on the right. If you click on the full image, it takes you to the next image in that category.

Image*After

Image*After is a free online photo collection. Download and use any image or "texture" — close-ups of elements such as fur, food, and fabrics, and more — from the site to use in personal or commercial work (see the site's terms of use for licensing information). A series of drop-down menus let you browse images and textures by category; you can also look for images via a search feature.

Image*After's clipping tool is a nice feature that you rarely see on free photo sites. Click the scissors icon to "clip" a photo; when you're done clipping, you can review all of your clipped images in one page by clicking on the bigger scissors icon next to the die icon.

Mayang's Free Textures

Mayang's Free Textures is a library of over 3,000 textures from architecture, buildings, fabric, man-made items, metal, nature, plants, stone, and wood. Images are high resolution at 1600x1200 pixels or larger, with most at 2560x1920 pixels.

All images are free for all uses, but can't be sold; crediting the site is also appreciated. Mayang's Free Textures has a mailing list for those who wish to be notified when new textures are added. Downloads are limited to 20 textures per day. (The site will let you know how many you've downloaded.) Each image comes with a caption describing it.

Not all images look like background pictures, especially the autos collection, so don't let the term "texture" throw you off. The aerial view of Paris and other locales are amazing.

MorgueFile

MorgueFile contains free, high-resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for corporate or public use. The official purpose of MorgueFile is to provide free image reference materials for all creative pursuits.

MorgueFile's archive contains over 55,000 digital images, which can be searched and accessed through a broad set of well-organized categories, including animals, objects, people, and scenes, all via a simple, quick interface.

While some may find the MorgueFile thumbnails too small, two features compensate for this: the fast-displaying search results and the photo quality.

National Park Service

National Park Service has about 13,000 images available in the public domain for use, free of charge as long as you credit the photo as "NPS Photo" or "NPS Photo by (photographer's name)."

The photos are specifically related to Yellowstone National Park, with categories including animals, fire, geology, park structures, special events, and more. The Park Services plans to continue scanning and posting those that aren't yet online.

Open Photo

The Open Photo Project is a stock photography community and framework whose purpose is to allow photographers to share and protect their works through Creative Commons licensing. Mousing over the thumbnails allows you to view each photo's licensing information.

The site uses a wiki to manage its collection; you must register in order to contribute to the site or access other features. Click the Spy tab at the top of the home page to see what photos other users are admiring, or find pictures by category or using the search tool. The site offers RSS feeds so you can keep track of new photos when they're added.

PD Photo

PDPhoto.org is a repository for free public-domain photos. It contains about 2,000 photographs — most of them by the same photographer — organized by category.

Unless an image is clearly marked as copyrighted, you can assume it is free to use. Pictures featuring products or property should also be used with care.

The home page links to the newest photos, the site author's favorite photos, the most-viewed photos, and recent comments from the site's forum, which resembles a guest book.

Photocase

Photocase contains a repository of photos and a community that includes forums, polls, buddy lists, and user profiles. (The site was formerly located at Photocase.de, so check your bookmarks to make sure they're up-to-date.)

Photocase images may be used for commercial and noncommercial self-contained original work. You can download up to three photos per day; if you need to download more, the site requires buying download credits. You can also get five download credits for every picture you upload.

Photocase also has a magazine with articles, short stories, and a photo contest. To download photos, you must register (which is free); registering allows you to join the Photocase community, upload photos, and personalize your account. Photocase can be viewed in German or English.

Photo Rogue

Photo Rogue has a unique concept: If you can't find a picture you need, submit a request to Photo Rogue and they'll try to fulfill it. Before submitting a request, review the guidelines. The service is free and relies on volunteer photographers; you can read more about the usage terms in the Volunteering FAQ. The site also offers an RSS feed to notify you when new images are posted.

Pixel Perfect Digital

Pixel Perfect Digital offers more than 4,000 images sorted into 146 categories, free for commercial and non-commercial use. The newest files appear on the gallery home page; a random selection of other images appears at the bottom of the page. You can stay on top of the newest files by subscribing to Pixel Perfect Digital's RSS feed.

Details accompanying each thumbnail include the photographer's name, size, number of views, number of downloads, and the average rating.

Pixel Perfect Digital's licensing terms allow you to use its images in "as many projects as necessary, including those you are creating for your clients," but forbid you from selling or redistributing them, even in modified form, without the company's written consent.

Stock XChng

One of the best resources of free images online is Stock XChng, which includes an impressive collection of high-quality photos taken by amateur photographers from around the world. In fact, you too can be one of the many contributors to this outstanding and fast-growing image clearinghouse by submitting your own photographs to the site.

Stock XChng images are searchable in multiple ways, and offer thumbnail views large enough to provide a good preview of what the shots contain, unlike other alternative image libraries that have overly reduced the size of their thumbnails, making it harder to appreciate the image's content without loading a larger version of it — a step that can add a lot of additional time to the search process.

Stock XChng archives more than 100,000 images. Photographers establish the use terms, and most images are available for immediate reuse.

Stockvault

Stockvault is a stock photography resource that offers medium-sized images for personal and non-commercial use. The site features images from various photographers, both professional and amateur, and offers an impressive array of awe-inspiring shots.

To view the photos, go to the Stockgallery, where you can browse over 2,300 images by category. You can rate photos, search for photos with top ratings, or click on the Photographers tab, where you can find out what cameras photographers featured on the site use and where they are from.

Unprofound.com

Unprofound.com is a collection of photos sorted by basic colors instead of the usual categories. White, however, isn't white, but rather is found under the "everything else" category.

The home page explains the terms of use: you can use images any way you like, but don't redistribute them. Pick a color, any color, to see photos.

Visipix

Visipix is an art museum, clip art, and photo gallery with around 100,000 exhibits. If you publish a Visipix photo, the site requires that you credit the authors and Visipix near the photo. All images are free, but can't be used in the sex industry or to promote the sale of tobacco or alcohol.

The Clips section contains clip art, but most samples are photos rather than flat images. You can zoom in on pictures using Visipix's Java tool. Just click on the image to zoom in; hold Shift while clicking to zoom out. The Start Mirror button shows a mirrored version of the photo; as the site explains, this is to help Westerners view Eastern art in the way it was intended and vice versa. Each picture comes in multiple sizes.

Be aware that it's not always clear which images are copyrighted and which aren't. This site has many wonderful things to discover, so be prepared to spend a lot of time once you get there.

Woophy

Woophy has a collection of over 23,000 photos from around the world, with over 4,300 cities represented. You can search by city, highest-rated photos, country, category keywords, or member to find photos. The categories are animals, culture, landmarks and buildings, nature, objects, and people. You can also limit the search results by date and number of views.

A world map appears on the site and you can click on a city to view the pictures taken there. At the bottom of the map you'll find statistics, the number of pictures added in the last 24 hours, the featured city of the day, the member of the month, latest user comments, and news.

Searching for the Right Image

If you can't find what you're looking for on one of the free online image banks, try using one of the following search engines to find that extra-special image for your Web site or next report.

Ask.com Picture Search

Ask.com Picture Search is a search engine that locates images by keyword. Its advanced search feature lets you conduct more detailed searches by selecting words to include or exclude, language, domain or site, geographical area, and date modified. You can save these settings or restore default settings.

Picture Search's copyright disclaimer clearly states that search results are protected by copyright and trademark laws; whether or not you can use the pictures depends on the rules of the site where you find them.

Every image found by Picture Search appears with two links: Info and Save. Info provides the file name, URL, and the page where the image lives; Save stores the images on a page where you can refer to them later.

Once you've saved images, click the My Saved Results button at the top of the thumbnails page. There, you can move images to another folder, delete them, print them, or email them. Saved images can be sorted by date or title.

Picture Search is a very nice search engine, but remember that the search results may not always be free.

Creative Commons Search

The Creative Commons search engine locates content on the Web that has been published under a Creative Commons license. Still in its beta stage, CC Search doesn't yet offer thumbnails of the photos it finds; however, as soon as it is able to display more visual data on its search results, this will become a popular destination for finding a rich selection of free images.

Flickr

Flickr is one of the best ways to store, search, sort, and share your photos. This easy-to-use online application has super features and a worldwide community of contributors.

Unlike your typical photo archive, Flickr is more of a repository of personal shots and individual home photo collections than a public repository of images to be shared and reused. But with the large amount of content available, it's difficult not to find something that fits your needs.

Flickr is free; registration is only required if you want to upload, edit, and tag your own digital images. Those who publish images on Flickr can select and specify the image's licensing terms — from all rights reserved to any of the Creative Commons licenses. Before downloading a photo, read its permissions carefully. (Head to the Creative Commons page to find the 100 most recently licensed photos.)

Google Image Search

Best known for its Web search engine, Google also offers a separate search engine for images only. Keep in mind, however, that because they come from all over the Internet, these images may not be free (chances are, they aren't). Nonetheless, Google Image Search can still be a useful way to locate hard-to-find images.

To conduct a search, enter the keyword of the image you're trying to find (the fewer words, the better). If you get too many results or want something more specific, add another word. You can also filter your results to omit images from adult sites by going into preferences and changing the options under SafeSearch Filtering.

For specific searches, you can also use the advanced search tool, which allows you to add additional filters to your search. You can also limit your search to images of a specific size, a specific format, and even a specific color. Once you find an image, check the source for its licensing information.

MSN Live Search

MSN Live Search allows you to search for images by keyword and to sort results by size and color. Under Options, you can change display and filter options, including language and location.

Picsearch

Picsearch is a search engine that uses its own technology to crawl the Web and index images. If you find an image through Picsearch, check the site's licensing terms or contact the copyright holder to see if you have permission to use it. (Picsearch also provides information on how you can prevent your pictures from appearing in its search results.)

Family filters are in place at all times, so parents don't have to worry about kids turning them off. The Help button explains how to search and how to improve your results, while Preferences allows you to change the interface language and choose whether you want the results to open in the same window or in a new window.

Advanced search options let you search for animation or to sort images by color or size. Additionally, the results page will suggest relevant keywords to help you narrow down or broaden your results. Results are displayed as thumbnails, and come with the image's size, source, and other information. A nice search tool.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia available in a variety of languages. While its search tool's main purpose is to find entries containing the entered keywords, most Wikipedia entries also include an image. Some photos displayed on Wikipedia are in the public domain and are available for reuse. Click on an image to find out its copyright status.

Yahoo Search

Yahoo Search also allows you to search for images, including clip art. Its Advanced Image Search tool allows you to search for specific results, including the top-level domain (.com, .edu, .net and so on). The site also lists popular image searches so you can see what many people are looking for.

Yahoo Search also allows you to manage your display preferences, including language and layout and to search for multimedia. If you're a member of a site like LexisNexis, Yahoo Search also has a feature that allows you to search it for images — though they are likely to be copyrighted.

Yotophoto

Yotophoto searches multiple photo collection sites for free images. It may be a good starting point when you're looking for something specific. (For example, the tool found 351 images for the word apple.) Enter a keyword into the search box and the results display thumbnails along with copyright information, size, and source; a new feature even allows you to search images by color.