When it comes to creating content, visuals are very important. Images are better at engaging a website visitor rather than walls of text, therefore it’s so important to use images to entice and draw the reader in.
When choosing images, it is important to choose clear, high quality, unique images that will stand out and catch the reader’s eye. Where do you find these images, however? Many stock photos require licenses to use, and those costs can build up over time, especially if you’re working with a smaller budget.
We’re here to share with you our favourite outlets where you can choose from hundreds of high-quality images that are free to use, and some even come with fantastic built-in editing tools. Here are our winners:
1.PIXABAY
Pixabay is an amazing bank of images that you can search and download free of charge. They offer photos, cartoon graphics, and vector images to suit a wide variety of topics. Just search what you are looking for in the search bar at the top, and away you go! It’s as simple as that.
2. PABLO BUFFER
Pablo Buffer is also a strong contender for some of the best free images on the web. Not only can you download free of charge, but you can also customize your image with a logo and text, making it unique to your brand and helping it stand out from the crowd.
You can also customise images from another source. You simply upload them to Pablo Buffer and add your desired text and logo. Pablo Buffer also lets you crop or resize your image for the platform you’re using. For example, if you would like to use it for Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you can download it in the required dimensions.
3.UNSPLASH
Unsplash offers images on a Creative Commons license, which means users can download high resolution images for free and use whatever way they like (as long as you aren’t selling them), no permission needed. The also feature some of the most creative and beautiful photography on the web, although their library isn’t as extensive as some others. What’s not to love?
4. BURST
Burst is a great source of free and beautiful stock images, where you can download free photos for your website and commercial use. Simply search the keywords you’re looking to match, choose your favourite image, and download. It’s as easy as that.
5. PEXELS
Pexels offers a fantastic choice of stock photos, perfect for uploading to your social media platforms or website. In a brilliant offering, they also offer free videos, setting themselves a bit apart from the competition.
Now that you have sourced your free images, I am going to go through the best free tools for editing your pictures, so you have the perfect graphics to use on your website or social media platforms.
6. G.I.M.P
G.I.M.P is a program you download to your computer free of charge. It’s similar to Adobe Photoshop in many ways, with the important difference of not requiring a monthly subscription fee. Once you have adjusted to Gimp, you won’t know how you did without it. Gimp allows you to resize and crop photos, retouch, and edit to create images that are unique. There are text tools, advanced selection tools, and much more. If you are just starting to familiarise yourself with photo editing, Gimp is a great free alternative.
7. BEFUNKY
BeFunky offers a free and easy to use online photo editing platform. This platform allows you to edit photos from the exposure and contrast, to touch up capabilities, effects and much more. You will have all the editing tools you need in one place to make simple and effective images for your posts.
8. FOTOR
Fotor allows you get professional results for your images with none of the cost. Fotor acts as an image enhancer, which in turn leaves you with flawless looking images. Fotor also offers a collage maker and graphic designs for you to make banners, logos, ads – anything you wish.
9. CANVA
Canva offers more than 250,000 free templates for you to create, design and edit images. It also offers thousands of free images and graphics, hundreds of designs for social media, presentations, letter, and much more. This is a great tool if you are working on a project with a team as you can comment and collaborate in real time with their ‘pro’ version, and even store brand guidelines like fonts and colours.
10. PIXLR X
Pixlr X is a free photo editor that is so simple to use. Select the image you want to edit and use the panel on the left hand side to create your new image. Choose from effects like animation, text, crop, rotate, layout and much more.
Now you have all the tools you need to create and edit images for free!
