Where can you find good images?

A lot of people ask me where they can get good-quality images, so I thought it would be good to have one post that I could bookmark and send out to people. I mentioned before that I use iStockphoto.com the most (as well as more expensive sites — though I do that much less now — and high-quality photo discs from Japan). A few people gave links to their favorite free or inexpensive sites as well. Below, then, are links to both inexpensive sites and sites offering free images in searchable databases (but check terms of use). The quality ranges from "excellent" to "not too bad." If you can suggest some other sites which have worked well for you (free or inexpensive "but good"), please let me know and I'll add them below after I check them out. The sites below are not necessarily in order of quality, though iStock is my favorite. (Updated August 22, 2006)

Inexpensive (but good)
(1) iStockphoto.com
One dollar for low-rez images and two-three dollars for higher-rez images. This is my favorite site.
(2) Dreams Time
About one dollar for high-rez images for members.
(3) Shutterstock
750 royalty-free downloads per month for $139 (US) subscription.
(4) Fotolia
One or two bucks an image.
(5) Japanese Streets
Excellent source for Japanese fashion, street scenes, people, and much more from right here in Osaka. About $1.50 per pic via paypal. 
(6) Photocase. A German site (English and German versions). Low-cost download options.
(7) Stockxpert. Great pricing and great images. Easy-to-use site. Uses credit system.
(8) ShutterMap.com. From $1USD to $4USD for high-rez.
(9) Creative Express (Getty Images). With Getty's Creative Express you can buy one-month or one-year subscriptions and download up to 50 stunning images a day. The Express catalog has 75,000 great Getty images. The license works differently for subscription, but this may be a wonderful option for the right project (check out the FAQ). I will be using this for certain.

Free (but not bad)
(1) Morgue File
Providing "...free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.
(2) Flickr's Creative Commons pool
Search the myriad photos people are sharing on flickr by the type of CC license.
(3) Image*After
From their site: "Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture...and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial."
(4) Stock.xchng
Close to 200,000 photos. Some gems in there if you look.
(5) Everystockphoto. Indexing over 283,000 free photos.
(6) Studio.25: Digital Resource Bank.
(7) Freepixels. About 2000 photos.
(8) The Photoshop tutorial blog. This cool blog has a laundry list of free photo sites.
(9) Robin Good has a good page dedicated to helping you find good images.  

Fonts (free or cheap)
(1) 1001 Fonts.com. A lot of free fonts. You get what you pay for, but many are pretty good. Find by most popular, highest rated. Articles, message board, etc.
(2) 1001freefonts.com. 4000 fonts for $9.95 (download).
(3) iFree. This Australian site links to free stuff in Australia and worldwide, like fonts, freeware, etc.
(4) Indezine on fonts. There are so many font sites out there, I trust the folks at Indezine to narrow it down. They list about ten.
(5) HighFonts.com. Database of about 3000 free fonts.

("Elvis" image from iStockphoto.com)

Comments

[Ed Eubanks]

Thanks for the list. I find that a basic Google Image search also turns up some good options, many times from personal or non-corporate sites that won't mind "lending" an image if you e-mail and ask.

These (Google, Flickr, etc.) also raise the question of "fair use" and how it applies to presentations. Any thoughts on that?

All I need now is a list of links for sources of good (e.g., not Microsoft-ish) clip art. I usually prefer photos if I use images, but sometimes it's hard to find a photo that represents something iconic in an iconic way. GOOD clip art can get it done.

[James Barker]

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net provides completely free photos which can be used for any design project. I've used it several times.

[Rob]

Thanks for the links. I always struggle finding good, free stock photos.

[Matthew Price]

I've found alot of great images on stock xchange. Flickr creative commons is a great place too!

[Ivan Minic]

A very good list if I may say

[Hafiz Muhtar]

I think http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/frontdoor/DefaultRfLanding.aspx is quite a good place for nice quality images. Maybe you can add that up to your list.

[Björn Ognibeni]

I very often use a German service called Photocase:

http://www.photocase.com/

Nice pictures and you have three downloads free per day...

[Fanch Kay]

Thank you for the list, it is really great.
Do you also have some good bookmarks for icons ?

[Cheyne]

Great post! I use stock photography often. Stock xchange is the best from my experience. I'll try the others.
http://www.thewebdesignblog.com

[Aaron Curtis]

I use http://www.sxc.hu (stock.xchng) a lot for stock photos. There are some photos that require owner's approval for usage, but for the most part, the images there are freely available without written (electronic) permission. Check it out.

[Aaron Curtis]

Hmm, http://www.deviantart.com is a good source for stock photos too. Just make sure you use photos categorized as STOCK photos.

[Dimitris]

I have compiled a long list of about 70 sites that offer free stock photos and posted it at my blog. You can see the list at the link below
http://pstutorialsblog.com/?p=44

[Alexandre]

I have compiled a short (but ever growing) list of sites dealing with stock photos. Check this @ http://www.pochettesurprise.net/blog/index.php?2005/12/11/94-icononautes-banques-d-images

[Leroy]

I have a pretty extensive collection of FREE IMAGES for you to use for webdesign, or whatever. I like pictures good.

http://www.aokeh.com/informed/

[Stefan]

http://www.alvit.de/handbook

Vitaly Friedman's Web Developer's Handbook

[Stacy Reed]

www.photobreed.com has some excellent stock photos and brushes, some are free.

[Gary Crabbe]

Question: So under what circumstances would you pay more money to use a photo. I'm biased, but I think for the majority of uses, cheap photos make web sites look, well, cheap. No problem if you have a personal blog, but do cheap & free photos make a business web site look more or less professional? Does image selection effect pofessional presentation and design? I sometimes wonder about the people that think the cost of using a cheap or free photo is really a better value? What if a better photo made people stay at your site longer? Is that worth anything more? I wonder: "if they got arrested for a crime they didn't commit, would they opt for the free or cheap lawyer, or hire the best one they could afford?"

[mark]

Good list. thanks for the info.

[Zap]

Nice list, thanks !

[Elliot Smith]

Nice list, thanks. You might also be interested in my Flickr search engine (see link above), which allows searching for Creative Commons-licensed images by license. Not complete yet, but still useful I hope.

[kal]

We have a new stock photo site and would appreciate your taking a look.
http://featurepics.com/

[Roy Tennant]

I have a site called FreeLargePhotos.com that has large photos (with up to 4MP size images available by request) free for non-commercial use. There are nearly 600 photos there now, with more being added all the time.

[Mr.Rungsun Klinkaeo]

Education

[stchatterbox]

I've been looking for good stock quite a long time. Nice you posted such thing and there're FREE too! That'll make my day.

[Anup]

Thanks for the list. I've found
www.digikitten.com useful for good images.
Hope it helps you guys too.