17 Best Stock Photo Sites for Graphic Designers

If you need a stunning cityscape, PikWizard is a great place to look. The vast majority of pictures on Pixabay are safe for work, but to avoid anything explicit appearing in search results, make sure you check the Enable SafeSearch box before browsing. There are countless photos available here, with a helpful ‘trending’ bar below the search menu to get the right photo you need. Unsplash even has an iOS app, which helps you find stock pictures to use for creative work on an iPad or iPhone.

best free photo stocks for designers

The site was founded in 2011 by Ryan McGuire, and most of the photos on the site were taken by Ryan. You don’t need to be logged in to download at Pixabay, but there are a few advantages to creating a free account and logging in. If you try to download more than a few resources without being logged in, you’ll have to complete a CAPTCHA before each download. Additionally, being logged in allows you to track your download history. All of the ideas revolve around e-commerce and selling online, which makes sense since it’s owned by Shopify. When you’re browsing or searching at Vecteezy, there are several helpful filters you can use to quickly narrow your search and find exactly what you’re looking for.

Free Stock Photos Websites For Designers & Creative Artists

As you’ve probably noticed, there are amazing free stock images all over the web. The downside is, they really are ALL over the web, including your competitor’s websites. Contributers from around the world are encouraged to upload their high-resolution images to help users find the perfect free stock photo. That means you are free to use these images anywhere in your personal or commercial projects without any author attribution or credit.

best free photo stocks for designers

A logo maker sometimes employs the same techniques, but they offer you total, unlimited control over your logo design. However, they may be too much for a simple job or for those who don’t want to tinker for hours making a logo perfect. For a high-resolution SVG, you’ll need to purchase the file outright for a one-off fee.

Breathtaking free stock photo sites (Updated for

Some of them are quite expensive, but there are also plenty of affordable, high-quality images to be found, including several free options. Nothing makes a print design pop more than exciting visuals that engage the audience, but you may not always have the time or budget to create original photographs or illustrations. Stock art is a quick and easy way to add a visual component to your designs; just remember that not all stock image websites will have the print-ready images you need. Today their collection is over one half million images and counting, and their contributor profile pages are a unique feature. Another popular site for creators looking for high-quality photos and stock videos is Pixabay.

Free stock photos are a great way to ensure quality, without paying a lot to get your message across. If you want to get creative without leaving your browser, PikWizard provides links to an online photo editor. Most of the tools and templates here are premium designs, but none cost more than a couple of dollars. So, hopefully this list of some of the best Photoshop free alternatives acts as a starting point for your own journey of creativity. While each individual software excels in its own way, personal preference and needs will naturally play a big part in which one is the right choice for you.

Best Photoshop free alternative for brand consistency

The color filter is especially awesome because you can quickly find photos that feature a specific color and will work with your brand’s color palette. Of course, you can also filter by license designer stocks type if you want to see only the free photos. Don’t let the name scare you off—morgueFile is a top online public image archive founded and run by creatives as a resource for other creatives.

  • A former journalist at Web User magazine, he’s covered software and hardware news, reviews, features, and guides.
  • Many people use it is a photoblog site, so you might find many Flickr-style personal shots.
  • If you’re on the hunt for photos with impeccable color palettes, composition, and impressive use of negative space, you’ll find more than a few on Kaboompics.
  • Burst was launched to help entrepreneurs make better products, websites, and marketing campaigns.

Vecteezy is a new entry to this guide, mainly due to how modern it offers the user in features and search results, alongside plenty of high-quality images to help your projects. You can create your own collections after signing up for an account. They’re ideal for inspiration, or gathering resources for a project. Unsplash is a well-curated collection of beautiful photos donated by skilled photographers and has been used to create some incredible work. There are fewer images than you’ll find on Pixabay (see below), but the quality is more consistent.

Hundreds, yes hundreds, of quality photos are added daily, and no attribution is required. Now, the site has blossomed into a thorough collection of free photos for personal and commercial use. IM Free is where you can find a collection of photos, plus other web design resources, free for commercial use. As a web designer, you need to use quality images so you look like you actually know what you’re doing. When you are working with stock photos, you are acquiring the right to use the photo in a certain way.

best free photo stocks for designers

This is great if you’re unsure about choosing the right image dimensions and resolutions (a pixelated graphic is all-round bad for business). A good full-spectrum stock photography source with a contemporary catalog and an innovative technical design that makes it easy to use. Just like the name suggests, Startup Stock Photos is a trusted resource for free stock photography for a fledgling business that are just starting to get off the ground. The pictures here have an authentic, genuine feel to them that is sure to ring true with investors, customers, and employees alike as you grow your business from the ground up. A good amount of stock images that can be used immediately, but the in-house produced images are going to be safer than their contributor sourced content. With photos and images on a number of different subjects, this is a great place to find some free stock imagery with built-in artistic value.