Free image banks
You’ve probably run out of photos, graphics or renders when designing a catalogue. The client doesn’t have them, and buying them from well-known stock sites such as shutterstock or depositphotos is out of the question because the client’s budget simply doesn’t allow it. This is where free image banks can come in handy.
We will tell you where to look for images and materials and what markings to look out for to make sure you have used the material legally.
Types of licences
But before we get into specifics, we need to touch on an extremely important issue – licensing. Every time you download an image, remember to check which license it is covered by. On free image banks you will most often find two types of licenses:
CC BY
The use of photos is permitted, but with indication of the photo’s author. The work must be marked appropriately (e.g. with the author’s name or nickname, a link to the licence and indication if changes have been made.
CC BY-SA
The use of photographs is permitted, with indication of the author, and provided that the work created from the originals with CC BY-SA is also distributed with this license.
CC0 (public domain)
It is permitted to use photographs without indicating the author, in any form and with any modifications.
The best free image banks
(in our opinion)
Below is a summary of the best image banks in our opinion:
- Unsplash (unsplash.com)
- Pexels (pexels.com)
- Pixabay (pixabay.com)
- Pikwizard (pikwizard.com)
- Gratisography (gratisography.com)
- Rawpixel (rawpixel.com/free-images)
- Picjumbo (picjumbo.com)
- freeimages (freeimages.com)
Best free icon banks
(in our opinion)
Free vectors and icons are a little more difficult to come by, but nothing hard for those who want them! We encourage you to visit the sites below and see what they have to offer.
- Freepik (pl.freepik.com)
- Pixabay (pixabay.com/pl/vectors)
- Iconfinder (iconfinder.com/free_icons)
We hope that you manage to choose the most useful items from the list above. If you know of something special that we haven’t included in our list, be sure to let us know!