No Cease and Desist Letters: Four Copyright-Free Image Sites

Image in public domain, courtesy of Ryan McGuire

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Or in this case, free professional high-resolution photos and images. No need to copy images off the Internet, risking violating copyrights and receiving nasty cease & desist letters from lawyers – instead check out these four sites that offer gorgeous stuff for free downloads, all copyright-free.

Some indie writers use sites such as iStockPhoto, which offers royalty-free, professional high-resolution graphics, illustrations and images for a fee, but some of the more popular images show up over and over on indie book covers. What’s great about the below sites is the images are unique, with some offering new, free images every week or so via an email subscription.

Unsplash

This is one of our current favorites. Stunning photos, many of landscapes, that can be modified in any way you want, including for commercial use, no attribution required. Sign-up for new images, sent weekly to your inbox.

Link: Unsplash

Gratisography

We have one word for this site: Fun! All photographs by Ryan McGuire, who calls himself a “whimsically creative visual artist.” All images are copyright-free for you to use on any project, personal or commercial, and he doesn’t require an attribution, although he wouldn’t mind if you did it anyway (a simple “Photo by Ryan McGuire” does the trick). Email sign-up for his new, copyright-free images.

Link: Gratisography

Little Visuals

Sadly, this photographer, a young man named Nic, died suddenly in November 2013. He offered his photos copyright-free for anyone to download for personal and/or commercial uses. His family has posted a note explaining that Nic died from Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS), and asks those who are downloading Nic’s images to consider giving to the Hand on the Heart charity (link provided).

Link: Little Visuals

Life of Pix

High-resolution photos without copyright restrictions, courtesy of an advertising agency in Montreal (Leeroy Advertising Agency). No attribution required. They also offer an email subscription for weekly copyright-free images.

Link: Life of Pix

Have a great week, Writing PIs

All images in this post are in the public domain. All rights reserved for written content.