Images and Copyright
It is a nightmare – you get all creative and you want to include images in newsletters, emails, invitations, advertising material – but where can you get free of cost, free to use, even free to modify good quality images?
The good news is that there are actually quite a few places you can find them – and a lot more than will be listed here. These are just a few popular, uncomplicated options. If you know some more, send them in and we will publish an updated list in a future newsletter.
In every case you can assume you are not allowed to resell or redistribute the unaltered images, and other inappropriate uses that you shouldn’t be considering anyway.
Pixabay. This is one of the best known. From their terms of use page: Under the Pixabay License you are granted an irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive and royalty free right to use, download, copy, modify or adapt the Content for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Attribution of the photographer, videographer, musician or Pixabay is not required but is always appreciated.
Unsplash. From their terms of use: “Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Unsplash.”
Pexels. From their licence page: “All photos and videos on Pexels are free to use. Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the photographer or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated. You can modify the photos and videos from Pexels. Be creative and edit them as you like.”
Burst. This is provided by Shopify but can be used by anyone. From their terms: “Some Content on the Website and the Application is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (“Creative Commons Content”) … Some Content on the Website and the Application is made available for use under a nonexclusive license (“License”) to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, display and use such Content (“Licensed Content”) in accordance with these Burst Terms of Service. You are free to adapt and use the Licensed Content for free for commercial and noncommercial purposes …”
Free Images. From their terms of use page: “All Content made available for download on the Site CAN BE USED FOR FREE for personal and/or commercial purposes, subject to any limitations provided in the Terms, including any requirements notified to you at the time of download. Unless otherwise stated, you do not need to, but it would be appreciated if you credited the photographer or owner of the Content and Freeimages, as appropriate in accordance with the License Agreement.”
Kaboompics. From their terms of use: “All photos on Kaboompics can be used for free for commercial and noncommercial use. Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the the Kaboompics is not necessary but always appreciated. You can modify the photos. Be creative and edit the photos as you like.”
StockSnap.io. From their easy-to-read terms of use: “There’s no fee to download or use these StockSnap images in accordance with the CC0 license. They’re free to download, free to edit, and free to use – even in a commercial project! You don’t even need to attribute the image to the creator, the way you do with other CC or traditional copyright licensing schemes. (However, even though it’s not required, we here at StockSnap do encourage you to include an appropriate attribution. It’s a nice thing to do.)”
Canva. Canva is different because it is a template based design website. It does offer a free account option, and free images can be accessed. But unlike the above options, it is not free site-wide. Be warned that it isn’t as simple an option as the above websites, but it is included because so many people around the world love it.
FINAL COMMENTS
Apart from general searching and website checking, I have also used a page offered by buffer.com, listing lots of places to find free images. You can check this page for yourself.
Information in this article is provided in good faith, based on first hand information from each website at the time of writing. Terms and conditions can change, and ultimately everyone is responsible for checking such things for themselves.
