N+ Recommends… Pixabay

Apr 19, 2017 | N+ Recommends

 

So you need some images for a flyer, a blog post, or maybe even a general page on your website…

Most people usually end up going to Google Images, which is an absolute no no. Between rarely having a good quality and sized image, you also have to worry about watermarks, and then the biggest issue: If you can even use the image in question, in the first place.
That’s right – choose the wrong image, and you can easily be hit with a C&D letter, or worse. Or end up with a terribly enlarged and grainy image (which isn’t as bad as the letter, but still terrible enough. )

The other unpleasant, but otherwise recommended option is going to a website like Shutterstock or Getty Images – but the images and credit system there means shelling out a good amount of money.

Thankfully, in these days and ages, there have been a number of organizations and sites that seek to make royalty free images accessible to the everyday user who can’t afford to shell out 30 to 40 dollars per image that they likely would only end up using once. It’s true that you don’t get quite as wide or as specific of a selection as you would with the paid photo services, but these often end up working for most purposes.

 

 

Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/)

Pixabay makes it easy to jump right into your image search.

 

 

While there are many options, we love going back to Pixabay each time. There’s thousands of photos already available – and if the topic you need is so obscure that you can’t find it on the site or other royalty-free types, then it might be time to consider purchasing one. The website is straightforward to use, giving you a large search bar when you first arrive on the site letting you get started right away.

With your search results, you are presented huge, clear photos as previews in a masonry format. Once you’ve made your selection, you have a choice of often three or four sizes to download the images, using a captcha to verify your human nature, as well as a suggestion for donating to their cause.

It’s made obvious what type of usage the images are for (for example, if you need to credit the photographer, or if you can or can’t use it for commercial use) but other than that you are free to download as many images you need, so that you can get started on your project with the best of images!

 

Want alternative sites to Pixabay in case you can’t find what you’re looking for?

We also recommend the following:

Pexels ( http://www.pexels.com/ )

Public Domain Archive ( http://publicdomainarchive.com/ )

Unsplah ( https://unsplash.com/ )

Morguefile ( https://morguefile.com/ )

Stockvault ( http://www.stockvault.net/ )