UPDATE:
It should be noted that what the British Library did got us super, super excited about talking about beautiful, copyright-free images. However, it was brought to our attention that we should absolutely be careful in how we promote and encourage their use. So with that in mind, we’re pulling from Pixabay’s guidelines on what is and is not allowed with public domain images (and we really, really, super really, encourage you read the whole thing):
“Understand “public domain” as the permission to freely use (display, modify, print, etc.) an image without asking permission from the image author. However, it is still your responsibility, to make sure the depicted content (persons, logos, private property, etc.) is suitable for your application and does not infringe any rights.”
Recently the British Library did something really awesome: They put a bunch of cool looking images up on the Internet that anybody can use free of charge. And by “a bunch” we mean “one million.”
We don’t even know who this guy is, but we need him on our squad.
For those that just love to use images, this is huge. Finding creative pictures that are free to use can be super tough to do, and even then you can find yourself hitting a wall of having to recycle what you already used. So when the British Library drops a one-million-picture bomb on the whole world, creative marketers everywhere should’ve gotten a little giddy about it.
Giddier than this dude at least.
What’s that you say? Antique images of old British people and artifacts isn’t your thing? Well, you’re in luck: Here are a few sites (in no particular order) we like to tap on when we’re looking for copyright-free images …
3. Flickr
Starting with the obvious — well, obvious to those who clicked through to the British Library — Flickr is a hotbed of free images for anyone to utilize. And perhaps best of all, these images come from all over Earth. From professionals to people who just point-and-shoot, you’ve got an entire planet’s worth of awesome photography. And probably an entire planet’s worth of food pictures also.
All the falafel your heart desires.
While the search function is likely to give a lot of hit or miss photos, the library — since it’s completely user generated — is limitless. However, speaking of the library, just make sure one thing:
Be careful that you’re searching under the correct licensing and not poaching someone’s work that you should be paying for.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay is the same sort of deal as Flickr except, as near as we can tell, you won’t find a lot of low quality community pictures on it.
You will find high quality pictures of people wearing awesome hats, though.
You also won’t have to worry about making sure you’re searching under the right licenses for this site. Every picture you download is good for you to use however you see fit.
As such.
They do ask that you make a donation so their contributors can “buy a cup of coffee” but we really suspect they mean “eat street tacos and drink the Coca-Cola that comes in those little glass bottles that claim they’re the authentic kind.”
1. Kaboompics
Kaboompics is the king (or queen) of awesome pictures with totally unimaginative titles.
Oh wow, you don’t say.
But we love them still. Aside from having a site that looks easy on the eyes, and pictures that are high quality, they have a great category feature that can make it quick and simple to find and grab a pic if you’re in a pinch. Their search function is super easy and utilizes the tagging feature so awesomely that it’s easily possible to get sucked into a black hole of food pictures for hours on end.
We don’t need the pretty presentation just stuff it in our mouth holes, thanks.
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