Images are highly required in the marketing and design world. An image accompanies any content in it since the visual part always captures more than the plain text, and for many, they better explain the presented content. So, marketers and designers understood the value that free stock images offer. Get to know more about this article!
Importance of access to free stock images
We can agree that images have specific functions, such as giving more pleasant details to posts on social media or ads and helping with SEO to achieve a better position. However, despite the number of options that exist online, not all the images are free to use.
Many high-quality, well-content illustrations and photos are copyrighted and must be paid for, in order to use them legally. But don’t worry, there are several ways to find free stock images, ready to download and use in your projects.
These are found in portals known as free stock images sites, although doubts may arise about how to use them properly, to take the content you write to the next level by attracting more users. That is why the use of licenses to use images, illustrations, and photos for any project. These are the licenses!
Types of licenses
Images are subject to certain licenses or rights for both personal and commercial use, but many professionals, when starting to write digital content, know little about this topic. Let’s talk about those elements.
Copyrights: These works are prohibited for use and distribution by third parties. This is because they belong to one person – usually photographers – or a company. There is a variety of these so-called copylefts that may have more permissions than others, although they still belong to their authors.
Public domain: there is a light at the end of the road! Copyrights expire after a certain period. Of course, this depends on the laws and regulations of each country. Once the stipulated time has expired, they become public domain, so their use is free.
Creative Commons: it is considered the most complicated for users who are not well versed in this subject, since there are many variants of this license:
- Attribution (CC BY): you should only credit the author, linking to the original file.
- Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) is the same as in the previous version, although the original license must also be used.
- Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND): the image is used giving credits to the author, but it cannot be modified.
- Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC): The author is still acknowledged, but no monetary compensation can be obtained.
- Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): same as previously mentioned, plus you must continue using the same license as the original.
- Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND): the worst of all. Credit must be given, there is no monetary compensation, and it can’t be modified.
Free Stock Images Sites
Now that we clarify how they work and what are the different licenses that exist for free stock images, it is time to show you our list of the sites for quality images, illustrations, and photos.
Unsplash
This is one of the best when looking for quality photos, but yes, only photographs don’t have illustrations, but maybe in the near future. The site works on donations of talented photographers with more than 400000 photos to use. They can be used commercially, and the site even gives the correct credit for every photo. The variety is not that large, but the quality will always be the best.
Pixabay
Pixabay is one of the sites that work closely with Creative Commons CC0 licenses, so the owners upload the images on their profiles within site. But the other great point of Pixabay is that it also offers illustrations, vectors, and even videos, all ready to use under the different licenses.
Freepik
This site is highly focused on professionals designers, and actually, they said that it is one of the main resources sites, with thousands of illustrations, vectors, images, photos, PSDs, and other tools. There is also a premium side with more professional material that can be updated daily.
Pexels
With Pexels, it’s easy to find content similar to Pixabay. Also, they work with Creative Commons CC0. Beside excellent images and photos, they have a space dedicated to videos that are constantly growing. This makes the site an excellent option for any content.
Flicker
This site is interesting because it works like some social media for photographers. It can store the photos in an online memory, which is perfect for photography lovers and professionals alike. But the search engine is where the magic happens; when you use the option of the creative commons, it appears the free image stock that you are looking for.
There are many other options online for free stock images, but these are one of the most used and trusted sites for the visual part of any project. Check out more interesting articles and content with 786 Magazine, and don’t forget to follow us on our social media.
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