Whether you are a youtuber, webmaster, web designer or communication agency, you probably spend several hours each week looking for quality rights-free images for your personal or commercial projects.
In this article, I share the best of the sites to find royalty free and free images, and I also take the opportunity to remind you why you should not use Google Images to illustrate your articles and videos!
Important: respect the authors and licenses of the images you use.
The best sites to download free images for web design
FreePik shares free photos, illustrations, icons, PSD files and vector images that you can freely use for your personal and business projects. Note, however, that it is mandatory to mention freepik.com and the author of the resources you will use.
Mockup World is aimed in particular at web designers who are looking for ready-to-use Photoshop models. The site offers hundreds of free Photoshop models that can be used freely and without restriction for professional projects.
Blazrobar offers Photoshop models that you can freely use to create commercial websites (it is possible to create themes with the site’s mock-ups and sell them, but it is forbidden to sell the models directly). The site is also a mine of inspiration to create WordPress themes quickly. In short, a site to add to your favorites if you are web designer! Find out more
Graphic Burger offers models, user interfaces (UI kits), icons, background images, and other completely free graphics resources. You can freely use these resources for commercial projects and there is no need to mention the artist or quote graphicburger.com, although it’s always nice to do so …
Flat Iconis more than 350,000 free vector icons that you can freely use for your personal and professional projects by mentioning the site flaticon.com.
Icons8 offers more than 42,000 icons that you can freely use for your business projects by clearly mentioning the site icon8.com. The site also offers software for Mac and Windows that allows you to quickly search for icons based on several criteria. Practice.
CSS author is a real goldmine for developers and web designers looking for inspiration to create websites. The site offers Photoshop models ready to be integrated, tutorials, user interfaces (UI design), icons, WordPress themes, etc. All of these resources can be used freely for commercial projects without mentioning their responsibilities. However, it is forbidden to redistribute or resell them.
Mockup is a team of designers, engineers, analysts and web developers who share free writing fonts, animations, UI kits, textures, models, photos, etc. that you can use for free for your business projects without mentioning the authors and the source. It prohibits the redistribution and resale of these resources.
Download Free stock photos
Pexels offers high-resolution quality photos that you can download, edit, distribute and use for commercial projects for free.
Unsplash is high-resolution quality photos that you can download, distribute, copy, edit and therefore use for your business projects for free.
Gratisography is run by Ryan Mcguire who shares his best photographs for free. You can modify them and use them freely for commercial projects, unless they are pornographic, criminal or degrading.
Pixambo offers high-resolution quality photos that you can freely use for commercial projects.
Pixabay shares breathtaking images and videos that you can use anywhere, whether it’s in your personal or business projects. The site requires free registration to download high-resolution files.
Stock Up is more than 16,000 copyright-free photos from more than 31 different sites. The site is an aggregator from several sources, so I recommend you keep an eye on the rights of the photos you want to use in commercial projects. Find out more
PicJumbo is a project initiated by Viktor Hanacek, a passionate photographer and entrepreneur who freely shares his best photographs with the world. As he states on his website, you can edit, distribute, print and use his photos for commercial projects.
Every month, My Photo Pack offers a new archive of photos that you can edit and use freely for your creative and commercial projects. On the other hand, it is forbidden to redistribute and resell these photos.
Why not use Google Images?
The Internet is not a law-free zone and the law prohibits using images found on the Internet to illustrate a website or videos on YouTube.
To avoid legal trouble:
- buy your images from image banks like Shutterstock, Fotolia, GettyImages, etc.
- use Creative Commons-licensed photos in accordance with the rules specified by their authors in the following areas: attribution, commercial use, modification, redistribution of the work. ✓ Free for commercial use ✓ High Quality Images.
- mention the source and author of the photos you are using
And if you have any doubts, the easiest way is to contact the author of the photo you are interested in.