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Free stock photography sites

April 16, 2015, By Jeremy Porter

Communication is about more than words, but it can be hard to find the right image. These websites offer millions of photos — for free.

Image: Gratisography

When I worked as a graphic designer I relied a lot on stock images. Back then I relied on one website for everything. Now the web is flooded with great photography that’s free — much of it doesn’t require attribution.

I’ve kept a list of stock photography on my writing resources page for the past couple of years, but it’s time for an update. There are hundreds of websites now offering free images, here’s the best websites I’ve found.

Death to the Stock Photo

Death to the Stock Photo

Free high-resolution images sent via a monthly newsletter. Access to the complete library for $20/month. Top quality images.

FindA.PhotoFindA.Photo

A good selection of images that you can search for by word, color, category, or source.

Foter

Foter

Huge archive (200 million photos). The site offers a WordPress plugin that allows you to insert any of their images into your site automatically.

Free Refe

Free Refe

A Tumblr with the best free mobile images. Can be used commercially.

Freerange StockFreerange Stock

A good selection of free stock photography. Requires sign up. Also has links to “premium” images from Shutterstock.

Gratisography

Gratisography

Free images that can be used for commercial projects. The quality of the images are amazing, but hard to find if you have a specific images in mind.

ISO Republic

ISO Republic

Small but growing portfolio of images that don’t require attribution. Photos not model-released so be careful using photos with people in them on commercial projects.

Magdeleine

Magdeleine

Hand-picked Creative Commons and public domain photos. Small library, but excellent quality. One new photo every day.

New Old Stock

New Old Stock

Images with no copyright restrictions harvested from public archives.

Pexels

Pexels

Five new photos added every day. A growing collection of excellent images.

PicJumbo

Picjumbo

Free images organized by category. No registration required. Premium accounts if you need more images.

Pixabay

Pixabay

Almost 400,000 photos, vectors, and drawings all in the public domain and don’t require attribution. Full resolution images require signup.

Startup Stock Photos

Startup Stock Photos

High-quality images with a focus on office life — not necessarily startups.

StockPhotos.io

StockPhotos.io

Large collection of photos licensed under Creative Commons or in the public domain. Pinterest-style layout.

Pattern Library

The Pattern Library

A lovely site to use. Full of interesting textures and patterns to add some punch to your design.

Unsplash

Unsplash

10 Free images delivered to your inbox every ten days.

 

If you’re still looking for the perfect photo…

I almost always find the image I need at one of these websites. On the rare occasions that I can’t, I look to Getty Images. In 2014 added an option to embed 35 million of its images into your website for free.

Happy hunting.

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