Graphic Solutions


Copyright and graphics are topics that come up in our business all the time. When you are using images on your website, blog or in your newsletter, you need to ensure they are copyright free or you have paid the copyright owner for use. You should not search Google images and take any image that pops up. Google searches for all images and does not filter out any by copyright status.

There are several free sites for images and several more that are reasonably priced under $10. I recommend that you take some time to search for images that are not overused on the internet. You will come to recognize those that are most popular.

Some of the places you can find free images are:
  • Morguefile - a lot of free images, some very artsy, some not great quality but lots of quality there for those who are willing to browse
  • Microsoft Office clipart - images that come up in that search are copyright free
  • Unprofound - created and run by designers, this site has the very cool feature of searching for images by colour rather than subject. Great for designers of any kind.
  • Free Digital Photo - has pages and pages of good quality business photos. Only the small version is free with the larger versions being reasonably priced. But typically, the small version is large enough for a newsletter or blog post.
Once you get started looking for images, you will find a wealth of copyright free or free photos you can use with credit attribution. It is worth taking the time to do this right rather than infringe on someones copyright in your published content.

And remember, you can always take your own photographs as well. Take your camera to events you attend, workshops you hold or spend a day setting up artsy photos in your garden that speak to your upcoming blog topics.

Get creative in developing your own or searching for that special free photo that no one has seen yet. People will notice.

 Originally published in Work Better, Not Harder, August 2, 2012

zone 3 gardening, bird watching, chasing dogs and snapping photos somewhere around sleepy hollow road

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