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For those that are constantly on the hunt for quality photos and art, below are a handful of sites that should make finishing up any job that much easier.
Royalty-free, Free Image Sources
FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This is a great site for obtaining free art with a range of categories available. Though the free image that’s provided is pretty small for any design work its actually the perfect size for most blog post or articles. Likewise, if you’d like to upgrade to a larger image you can for a fee, which also grants you the right to use the image without crediting the source.
morguefile
Morguefile provides a simple layout that offers a very nice but limited selection of photos to choose from. It appears to be no illustrations available but the quality of what’s provided is worth the visit. The site is geared more towards designers (with the intent to alter the photo) but using the original is also okay if credit is given to the owner. All of the images are 100% free with a size that is definitely manageable.
Vectorific
Vectorific has a good selection of vectors that provide lots of space for text (to be added) and can be downloaded without a subscription. Credit wise, in order to use the image a link must be provided back to the author. Unfortunately there is no option to purchase the image in the event that this type of credit is not suitable for your site.
Freerange
Freerange seems to be connected to Vectorific somehow and provides tons of free stock images to use. The categories are pretty diversified and if you ignore the advertised images from Shutterstock you can find a lot of quality deals. The other good thing about this site is that the photo credits are only a courtesy so you are allowed to use photos unaccredited if the need arises.
Microsoft Office Clip Art and Stock Images
The nice thing about Microsoft’s collection is that the image quality is pretty high and they have a wide selection to choose from (as they shuffle in work from a variety of sites). But as with Freedigitalphotos the free image is a small set version, though the upgrade is available for purchase through the partner site. In general all the images appear to be free for commercial use as long as you don’t try to sell them or something similar to that.
openclipart
The images offered here are pretty amateur (as it is just clipart) but the wide selection can definitely come in handy for certain projects. The size for each image is also pretty small, but since its open clipart all rights for the images are waved and you have freedom to copy and paste as needed. It also appears that no credit has to be given to the owner when utilizing an image.
Legal issues connected to online images
If you’re not a web designer or blogger, or just someone that frequents these types of sites, you may need a little clarity on some of the terms mentioned.
Royalty free (RF)
This is one of the most common licenses given to online images. It simply means that you don’t have to pay any royalties out to the owner of the image each time you use it. It doesn’t mean that the image is always free of course. Also if you don’t pay for the image its more than likely that you’ll have to credit the source.
Creative commons (CC)
Other terms you may hear are creative commons and rights managed. Creative commons is pretty popular as well and you’ll find it present on many image sites (Flickr has a well-known creative commons section). It’s applied to copyrighted images and is the same as RF when it comes to crediting the original source.
Rights managed is a bit more advanced and expensive. It provides private access to the image for a limited time (a wise choice for large companies at war with the competition!). But for the everyday designer or image user, RF and other basic licenses such as creative commons are usually more than enough.
This article was written by a guest writer and Evolutionary Designs may or may not agree with what is written. Please contact us if you have any questions about the writer or if you want to guest write for us.
Author Bio:
This post was written by Martha Buckly, who is a professional writer currently collaborating with best writing service. Martha enjoys writing about many different subjects.
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