Royalty Free Photo Directory

For web design or print projects search this royalty free photo directory to locate high resolution stock photographs. For custom web design projects including website graphics, my rules for complying with copyright are strict and need to be considered for content provided by customers. The phrases stock photographs or royalty free does not mean free unlimited use for web design or print, so please read license terms.

The Hard Work is Done Finding Royalty Free Photos

Most small business owners who need to find photographs for web design are too busy to conduct research for royalty free photographs to use online or in print, so I created this photo directory to save you time and money. Most web graphics are 72 dpi which is fine for web design, but for quality printing, high resolution photographs are needed.

Rating System: To help minimize your search time, I went out and reviewed 150 sites for Business Related Photos and rated each using a 5-Star System from One Star to Five Star based on site web design, photo quality, selection, and terms of use. The search was extensive, and the results are more than 20 sites out of 150 that I feel deserve your attention.

Five Star – Top Sites for Stock Photos for Web Design or Print

Morgue File contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use in web design or related projects.

PhotoGen – Free Stock Photos images are FREE for commercial web design, printed material, and personal use. The images are not for resale, or redistribution. Registration required to download.

Stock Xchng contains over 300,000 quality stock photos by more than 10.000 users for web design, artwork for print, personal, or commercial use. Must register as member (free).

Wikimedia.org contains a contributed database of over 2.5 million high resolution media files including photographs, graphics, and multimedia for web design, print, or related design.

Four Star – More Royalty Free Photographs for Web Design or Print

Copyright Free Photo Archive has 27,000 free photos from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Note: Photos of identifiable persons should NOT be used even in a web design because signed model releases are unlikely.

PD Photo – Free and Public Domain has thousands of royalty free pictures. Not all are available for commercial use, so read each license before using for web design. File size of some may be unsuitable for print.

Public Domain Photos displays over 5000 public domain photographs. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial web design or printed materials. Some photos may contain logos or products, so you need to be careful.

Uncle Sams Photos is a directory of the U.S. Government’s free stock photo sites. Note: Includes many low resolution photos that may be unsuitable for artwork for print, but okay for web design.

Three Star – More Sites with Photos for Website Design or Print

Burning Well is a repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy and use the photos for any purpose including web design, print, or multimedia.

Cepolina includes 3577 free photo available for download.

Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from the site and use it in your web design work, either personal or commercial.

Public-Domain-Image.com is a collection by category of public domain images with several thousand photos organized in folders. Most are 96 dpi low resolution suitable for online projects, not print, and free for personal or commercial use.

Stock Vault allows you to download high quality stock photos, textures, and other images completely free for printed materials or custom web design.

Two and One Star – More Options, Listed Alphabetically

Creating Online has free stock photos for personal or commercial use including web design.

Free Digital Photos has free pictures for commercial and non-commercial use.
Note: Some photos are web quality for web design, and may not be appropriate for printed materials.

Free Photos Dot Com has free stock photos for your website, brochure, or web design work with no credit or royalty required.

Free Photos Bank has free stock photography and their site is searchable and browsable.

Free Stock Photos Dot Com features free photos for your personal or commercial web design or related projects.

Free Media Goo has totally royalty free photos.

GeekPhilosopher includes a collection of stock photo, background, and desktop wallpaper, and the quality images are free to use.

Free Stock Photos has free photography for personal or commercial use.
Note: Some photos are web design quality and may not be appropriate for printed materials.

From Old Books features scanned images, engravings and pictures from old books, so content for web design is limited.

Yellowstone National Park has over 13,000 image digital slide files of Yellowstone National Park with captions. As public domain these are suitable for web design or print with few restrictions. Be cautious of using photos with identifiable persons even on public domain content.

Copyright Reminder About License Terms for Royalty Free

Study license terms carefully before using any photograph in your website design to avoid copyright infringement. The word "free" is used loosely by some websites, and rights violations may extend beyond "copyright". You should review the US Library of Congress comparison of rights: copyright, publicity, and privacy here before using for print or commercial web design.

Check out my photo edit tutorial for advice using photographs in advertisements. Please contact me by email if you have a stock photo gallery to suggest adding to this list. Thanks.