Today, our Senior Manager of Content & Promotions, Anne Marie Robson, answers another common question that we hear from clients looking for ways to boost online engagement.
What types of images can I find online and use for free or with little cost?
Anne Marie: This is a topic that comes up a lot in regards to sourcing graphics or photo resources for content. When looking for free or inexpensive images, it’s important to understand the differences between the various types of material available for commercial use. In your search, you’ll likely come across terms such as royalty-free, rights-managed, public domain, and creative commons, just to name a few. Here is a quick breakdown of what these terms mean and how they can affect your ability to use certain images.
Images with fees attached
Royalty-free: Images in this category are available for practically unlimited use, allowing you to feature them in multiple pieces of content. However, a photo or graphic that is labeled as royalty-free does have a cost attached. You will still have to purchase a license for the material, but there will be no additional fees owed for subsequent uses.
Rights-managed: Images that fall into the rights-managed category have both a cost and more limitations for use. For example, permissions may be restricted to a particular geographic region, industry, or duration of use. Be sure to read the license agreement in full before purchasing these pieces to ensure you can use them for your intended purpose.
Images without fees
Public domain: Photos that are considered public domain can be used freely with no need to ask permission of the image’s owner. However, there are a few exceptions to this, which are outlined in this great article from Pixabay.
Creative Commons: Where public domain is a status, Creative Commons refers to a non-profit organization whose function is to create a suite of licenses for content. All Creative Commons licenses require attribution to the author/photographer/creator and some limit the ways the material can be used, so be sure to review the license for the particular image you’re interested in using before incorporating it into your content. Photos under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, however, have waived their copyrights and have been placed into public domain. You can learn more about CC0 at CreativeCommons.org.
Always be sure you know what category an image falls under and whether there are fees or limitations associated with it’s use before you include it in your own content. For a list of free or inexpensive photo databases and editing tools, check out this post.
