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We researched the 30 best sources for royalty-free images, which you can use free of charge without registration. In addition, we give in this article legal information, which should be observed when using free images necessarily.
If you use bad pictures on your website, your internet presence will also be less professional. This can lead to many visitors leaving your website right away. On the other hand, with good pictures you can stand out clearly from the competition and leave a good impression with your visitors from the first moment on.
There Are Many Websites For Free Images
The Stocks ( B ildsuche ) – The best royalty-free images in one place. This page combines the images of some other image databases on a website. The free pictures are sorted by category.
Pic Jumbo.com ( B ildsuche ) – Another side of a photographer with royalty-free images for free use.
Jay Mantri ( Image Search ) – Public domain images for free use. The photographer adds 7 new pictures every week.
Get Refe ( Image Search ) – “Real Life Photos” – Free pictures from the real life
Gratisography ( Image Search ) – Public domain images by photographer Ryan McGuire.
Crow the stone ( Image Search ) – Free stock photos from around the world.
Travel Coffee Book ( Image Search ) – Free travel images that are completely free, even without naming the original photographer may be used.
Little Visuals.co ( Image Search ) – Here you will find many nice royalty landscapes. However, the image selection is no longer extended, because unfortunately the author died in 2013.
Snapwire Snaps.Tumblr.com ( Image Search ) – Images that tell a story – for free use.
Picography.co ( Image Search ) – Free high-resolution photos for free use.
How to Get Licenses for Free Images
If you want to make sure that you can use certain images for your homepage, you need to understand what different types of licenses are. Below I give a brief overview. Most image databases on this page list images under the Public Domain License.
Limitation of Liability: This listing is also not legally binding. If in doubt, you should contact a lawyer.
Public Domain Images / Public Domain (CCO) Public domain images do not contain copyright. Therefore, they may also be used for commercial purposes without charge and without naming the photographer. “You may copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes without asking for further permission.
General Public License (GPL) This license is normally used for software. GPL images may be used and changed free of charge. A mention of the author is not necessary. However, if the images are shared or sold, the GPL licensing of the images must be retained.
Creative Commons BY (CC BY) Attribution necessary: Images under the Creative Commons BY license may also be used for commercial purposes and also changed. However, you must mention the photographer and refer to his website if possible. “Attribution – You must provide adequate copyright and legal information, attach a link to the license, and indicate if changes have been made.”
Creative Commons Share Alike (CC SA) Share on equal terms: Creative Commons SA license adds, in addition to a mandatory attribution, the condition that you submit the photo under the same license terms. So if you change the image and publish, then others may use your modified version. “Share Alike – If you remix, modify, or otherwise directly edit the material, you may distribute your contributions only under the same license as the original.”
Creative Commons Non Commercial (CC NC) Non-commercial: these images may not be used for commercial purposes. The question of what a commercial project is and what can not be answered, however, is not always clear. In case of doubt, one should rather do without these pictures.
These websites are either from individual photographers or they list handpicked images with a specific style. These projects usually do not display thumbnails, which can cause long load times. In addition, there is usually no division of images into categories and no search function. That’s why I’ve always added a link to Google Images Search. So you can easily search for images with keywords.
Conclusion
When I need pictures for an article, I usually visit Pixabay and search for a keyword related to the content of my article. If I do not immediately find a suitable picture, I search in the other picture databases.
And if the search does not look promising there, then I buy pictures from Shutterstock . The pictures cost a small amount there. Shutterstock very quickly finds very professional pictures that you can use. Especially for customer projects, this is often the more efficient and cheaper way, because I do not have to charge one or two hours for the image research.
Of course, I’m happy when others link to this page. After all, the compilation has taken some time and it would be nice if as many people benefit from it. If you know other sources for royalty-free images, please leave a comment. I will be happy to complete the list. Please keep in mind, however, that only the highest quality image databases will be included. I do not try to list as many sources as possible, but only the best sites for free royalty-free images.
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