72 Free Image Sources for Authors

by | May 13, 2019

By Shelley Sturgeon

Nearly ten years ago, not long after Joel first started The Book Designer, he wrote an article entitled 4 Incredible Free Sources for Photos to Use in Your Book or Blog.

As you can imagine, that article is somewhat out of date and we have been discussing for a while now that we should update it.

So today I would like to present our new and expanded list of 72 free sources for photos. These images can potentially be used for book covers, social media and blog post images.

Using these sites

Some of the sites in this list are reputable, some of them aren’t as well known. As any wise “netizen” knows, it is always a good idea to scan downloaded files to check for viruses.

Please also read the fine print on each site—if it exists. Some of the sites are very straight forward and invite you to download their images and use as you wish. But most sites detail whether:

  • there are restrictions on how and where their images are allowed to be used, i.e. personal, editorial or commercial use, etc.
     
  • the images can be edited
     
  • they want you to attribute the photo to them (I almost always leave a photo credit at the bottom of posts even if the image came from a free site that doesn’t request attribution. I see it as a way to give them a nod and a bit of exposure and it helps me to remember where I got the photo later if I want to go back to the site in the future.)
     
  • model releases have been signed by individuals who appear in their images although this is more common in sites where you buy images versus sites that offer free images
     
  • you are required to create an account with them
     
  • there is a limit to the number of free photos you can use from their site

72 Sites Offering Free Images

  1. A Digital Dreamer
  2. albumarium
  3. Alegri Photos
  4. AllTheFreeStock
  5. Ancestry Images
  6. AvoPix
  7. BarnImages
  8. Beautiful Free Stock Photos
  9. Big Foto
  10. Burst
  11. Cepolina
  12. Cupcake
  13. DesignersPics
  14. Dreamstime
  15. e-Cobo
  16. EveryStockPhoto
  17. FancyCrave
  18. Foodiesfeed
  19. Free Digital Photos
  20. Free Nature Stock
  21. Free Stock Photos
  22. FreeImages
  23. FreeImagesLive
  24. FreeMediaGoo
  25. FreeRange
  26. Getty Images
  27. GoodFreePhotos
  28. Gratisography
  29. Hubspot
  30. Im Free
  31. ImageBase
  32. ImageFree
  33. ISO
  34. Jay Mantri
  35. Jeshoots
  36. LargePhotos
  37. Library of Congress
  38. LibreShot
  39. LibreStock
  40. Life of Pix
  41. Little Visuals
  42. Magdeleine
  43. MMT
  44. Morguefile
  45. Negative Space
  46. New Old Stock
  47. NOAA Photo Library
  48. Pexels
  49. picjumbo
  50. Pickup Image
  51. Picography
  52. PikWizard
  53. Pixabay
  54. Polarfox
  55. Raw Pixels – Free Images
  56. Raw Pixels – Public Domain
  57. RGBStock
  58. skitterphoto
  59. SNAPWIRE SNAPS
  60. Stick Stock
  61. Stock Snap
  62. StockPhotos 4 Free
  63. Stocksy
  64. StockVault
  65. Stokpic
  66. Sunipix
  67. Super Famous Images
  68. Travel Coffee Book
  69. Turbo Photo
  70. Unprofound
  71. Unsplash
  72. Wikimedia Commons

Even more sites

  1. Heritage Library

Care to add to the list?

Got a favorite free stock image site that you think we should be adding to the site? Please let us know in the comments.
 
Photo: BigStockPhoto

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