Research Guides: Locating and Using Images for Presentations and Coursework: Free &amp; Open Source Images

General Image Resources

Creative Commons
Locate images to use where the creator gives different levels of permission. All the information is included with images for proper citation. It's worth exploring the below links to learn about how to use Creative Commons images, the different types of licenses, and how to choose a license yourself when you take images and share with the community of users.

About Creative Commons

How to Use Creative Commons

License Choos er

Compress Images

TinyPNG

"TinyPNG uses smart lossy compression techniques to reduce the file size of your WEBP, JPEG and PNG files."

Images

Chamber of Commerce: Find a Photo
The Chamber of Commerce offers this resource to browse across different free and paid stock photo sites.
Disabled and Here Collection
"This collection is a disability-led effort to provide free and inclusive photos shot from our own perspective, featuring disabled Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) across the Pacific Northwest"
Faces of Travel
"The initiative is an important step in ushering in a new era of representation, showing people of diverse races, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, religious beliefs, and physical abilities of today's travelers. Adobe Stock is partnering with Delta Air Lines to share this collection of images and video clips, free of charge."
Flickr Commons
Individual and institutions who use Flickr have chosen Creative Commons licenses to share their work. You can search by license type.
Google Image reverse lookup
Already have an image you like, but you do not have the details to give the author credit through a citation? Select the camera icon in the search box and upload the image or URL in the image search box to locate.
Google Images
A popular way to locate images, BUT it's important to note that in order to access images you can use without consent from the author and/or paying, you must enter your image topic > Tools > and choose a usage right that allows you to use the image freely. That said, attribution is still typically required.
nappy
Images of black and brown people. When you find an image you like, after you click on it, you can see at the top left who the creator is to give him or her attribution for their work.
pixabay
Freely available stock images and videos.
TinEye
TinEye is a revers image search, so you can find the information needed for attribution.
Unsplash
Free images for commercial or non-commercial purposes. No permission is needed, but attribution to the creator is recommended.
Wikimedia Commons
"Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language." Search images by topic, location, resolution and more. Creative Commons license and citation information included.

Icons & Illustrations

Looking for icons to spice up your presentation? Check out the Noun Project. It's free and when you download the image, it includes the citation information.

Tip: When you save the icon, you want to be sure to select "Basic Download" in order for it to be free. Save as .png if you want to use it as an image. Save as .svg if you plan to use it in animation.

Want to create an Explainer or How-to video using illustrations, check out pixabay or freepik for vector illustrations you can use with attribution.

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/couple-friends-reading-books_2799129.htm#page=1&query=librarian&position=28

Zoom Backgrounds

99+ Funny Zoom Virtual Backgrounds to Download
ManofMany offers directions on how to add your Zoom background and a list of funny backgrounds.
Free National Park and Landscape Images
Pixabay offers a large collection of images to use. Note: Be sure to check Zoom's image resolution and size recommendations when choosing images to download.
Zoom Virtual Background Templates
Canva offers free templates to use as your Zoom background.

Make a GIF

How to Make a GIF: 4 Tried-and-True Methods
Want to emphasize a point in your presentation or share something you made on social media, make a GIF. Hootsuite gives detailed directions on how to create a GIF in either Photoshop or GIPHY.

Art & Architecture

Art Institute of Chicago Public Domain Images
As you search, be sure to stay in the Public Domain section to access to an ever-expanding collection of digital images from the Art Institute of Chicago collections. Detailed attribution information included.
Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER)
"The collections document achievements in architecture, engineering, and landscape design in the United States and its territories through a comprehensive range of building types, engineering technologies, and landscapes...." Images that are available for download will give options for downloading. When an image is just a thumbnail, that usually means it's still under copyright.
Getty Open Images
The Getty makes available digital images they hold the rights to or that are in the public domain. No permission is required.
Paris Musées
Over 100,000 images in the public domain from Paris museums.
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
Online exhibits allow high-resolution images that can be freely used and remixed. Detailed attribution information is included for citation.
Structurae
Register for free for access to this international database and gallery of civil, structural and bridge engineering. Photos, images, and drawings are available under a free license such as Creative Commons or which are in the public domain.
VADS: an online resource for visual arts
Freely available images for use in education only.

GIS

IndianaMap
Layer images available to download for use in your desktop GIS software. Select the "Imagery" box for access.
IndianaView
"The overall purpose of IndianaView is to promote sharing and use of public domain remotely sensed image data (aerial and satellite platforms) for education, research and outreach across universities, colleges, K-12 educators and state and local governments." Select "Download Data" to access images.
GeoData at Purdue University
Save images to locations found through search.
BTAA Geoportal
Provided by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, this resources include GIS datasets and digitized historical maps.

Science & Technology

US Department of Agriculture Image Gallery
Digital photographs available from the Agricultural Research Service Office of Communications. Although the images are free to use, read the copyright policy for instructions on how to give attribution.
Science Reference Services
Copyright free government, science images. Note: Most of the images are protected by copyright and cannot be reproduced without permission from the copyright owner. The exceptions are U.S. Government images. Be sure what you've chosen is a government image.
Nasa Image and Video Library
Public access to Nasa images. "NASA content - images, audio, video, and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format - generally are not copyrighted. You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages."