Royalty Free Images Download: Free Websites to Download Copyright Free Images

Liza Brown

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

When you think of Web design, the first thing that inevitably jumps to your mind is 'where to find good quality images. The Internet is a great place to locate these and there are thousands of portals that advertise high-quality photos and images. Most of these are quite affordable, but it's always nice to land up on sites that offer royalty-free images to use wherever you want to, however you want. Talented photographers that want to share their work with the public and make themselves known in the process have contributed to these sites.

Previously, we have shared some online resources where you can download royalty-free video clips and some free music sites to download free and legal music. So don't despair of not being able to find copyright-free images that you can download—here we have covered some best websites for you to download copyright-free stock images.

1. Filmstock

Filmstock is a one-stop shop for royalty-free video effects, music and sound effects, stock video footage, and images and photos. You can choose photos and images in the image library on Filmstock in a different orientations and the photos in Filmstock covers about 20 categories, such as animal photos, beach images, water, travel photos, sunset photos, and summer photos. Some of the photos are free to download and you can add the downloaded stock photos to any video project.

2. Freeimagebay

As all the photos and illustrations in this website are licensed under creative commons, the photos and images are free to use in presentations and on websites. There don't seem to be any copyright restrictions and they can be used for personal and commercial use at no cost. The best part is that no registration or attribution is required.

3. Pixabay

Pixabay.com offers quality public domain images. The site is said to have been developed in Germany by Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger. There are more than 350.000 free photos and vector graphics that you can choose from. Contributions from photographers and illustrators around the world have made this site possible. The images are free to use for personal and commercial use without attribution. Images can be inserted anywhere on a site or blog with just a click of the mouse.

4. Morguefile

That's not a morbid site at all as the name might suggest—it has a great collection of copyright-free images that you can use anywhere, anyhow. The aim of this site is to provide free image reference material to designers, teachers, and more. If an image has a copyrighted license, you won't be able to see the crop and download link, so those with the download link are okay. Those who would like to contribute photos can do so. These will be reviewed before approval.

5. Commons.Wikimedia

A fantastic collection that has some stunning images. As it's a part of the Wikipedia umbrella project, users can freely use all that is available on the site and also contribute. Since the content is in the public domain, no attribution is really needed, but it's always good to give correct provenance.

6. Gratisography

This site lives up to its name and the credit goes entirely to the photographer-Ryan McGuire. High-resolution pictures of stunning quality and awesome pictures added weekly make this site a tempting one. They are free of copyright restrictions and can be downloaded just by clicking on the image. What sets this site apart is that most of the photos are very original and don't resemble the typical stock photos. A truly refreshing site with lots of themes and effects. This is a good site to explore. Typography is also his creation but still growing.

7. Copyrightfreephotos

The site has a new look now after its relaunch; it has more variety with 12 free photo galleries to choose from. All of them are available for download and can be used with no restrictions; they are free of cost and royalty-free. The site is stated to have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to all photos on the site. It's worth taking a look at the dozens of amazing pictures that it has.

8. Pics4learning

Pics4Learning is stated to be a "safe, free image library for education." It has a wide range of images that are copyright friendly that can be used by teachers and students for their projects or websites in an educational setting. It has a superb collection of pictures that range from art and architecture to weather and transportation. It can easily be rated as being home to education's largest image collection.

9. Stocksnap.io

Thanks to an amazing community of photographers that are keen to share their beautiful work with others, Stocksnap is perhaps the best place to lay your hands on some beautiful copyright-free images that are so different from the regular run-of-the-mill stock photos. Photos—only high-quality and highest resolution pictures are added daily to its collection.

Get started on these sites and watch your websites and blog posts transform like magic. Remember though that many of them are there today because of great individual contributions.

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Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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