We Have Moved!

This blog has been retired and will receive no new content. To read new Cranial Soup articles, please visit our new location.

Showing posts with label image. Show all posts
Showing posts with label image. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

New Art and a New Blog

I recently redesigned and moved my old RussoGraffix art site. From now on I'll be posting all my art releases there, instead of here.

To celebrate the occasion, I have released 6 new CC-BY licensed works for you to use.
Click the images to visit the pages and get the files.

Free Website Banner Graphic: Night Sky
 
night sky demo

Free PSP Vector: Cube of Spheres
 
cube
Free PSP Vectors: Dice
 
dice-sample
Free PSP Vector: Balloons
 
balloons-sky

Free Images: Gold Coins
 
sample

Free PSP Vector: 4-Leaf Clovers
 
4-leaf-clover

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Tons of Free Stock Photo Sites – Commercial Use OK – No Attribution Required

When you are a blogger, web designer, developer, or creating a product for resale, you might need photos for your posts, templates, and other designs, but you can't just use any photo you find on the internet. That would most likely violate someone's copyright and get you into a heap of legal trouble.

So what are you supposed to do if you don't have a camera or any photography talent?

Stock photos? Sounds good, but most stock photos cost money.

Creative Commons licensed photos from Flickr? That could be good too, but that requires a link back and there may be restrictions against commercial use. Can you imagine having to put a long Flickr URL on every t-shirt and mousepad you make?  How would you go about giving proper credit on a small 125x125 ad? And if you are making web templates it might not be the best idea to trust people that use your templates to keep the attribution links intact.

So where can you get a whole bunch of great photos to use, that don't require an attribution link, won't cost you a dime, and allow for commercial use, too?

Fortunately for you, I have done some research into this and found quite a few sources.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_16_30 AM  Fotolia has a section on their site where they give away free stock photos. The selection is limited, but they change the photos offered on a regular basis. Good for web use. Files must not be displayed in a size bigger than 640x480 pixels. Can not be used in items meant for resale (no printed t-shirts, web templates, etc). Free membership is required.

Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_18_37 AM  freestockphotos.biz has tons of photos with varying licenses, many of which allow for commercial use, including items meant for resale. Check the license terms included on the page with each photo.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_20_34 AM  BurningWell.org has nothing but public domain photos. You can do anything you please with them, including items for resale.

Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_23_11 AM  Crestock gives away one free stock photo each week. If you hit the site every week, you can build quite a nice collection. Sometimes they even give away a vector instead of a photo. All material they give away is covered by their standard license agreement. Free membership is required.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_25_30 AM  Free Media Goo provides free images, audio files, textures and flash files that you can pretty much do whatever you please with them except use them in propaganda, pornography, or anything suggestive, according to their license.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_26_39 AM  freerangestock offers photos you can use for just about anything. They request that you give credit, but they also say it isn't required if you don't want to. There is a credit and link requirement if you use their photos as part of a web template, though.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_27_59 AM  Image*After lets you do anything you want with their photos, as long as you don't use them to set up a stock photo site that competes with theirs.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_29_21 AM iStockPhoto gives away one free stock photo each week, under their standard license. They also give away a free vector, video file, and audio track each month. Free membership is required.

Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_31_46 AM  Morguefile has some very generous license terms that even allow you to sell the images, as images, as long as you have altered it so that it isn't identical to the original.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_32_59 AM  PDPhoto.org has some really nice images that you can do whatever you please with, as they are all dedicated to the public domain. There are a few sections containing photos that are not public domain, but that collection is a rather small part of the site.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_34_00 AM  Photogen has images that are good for the standard commercial uses that don't involve redistribution or printing on products for sale.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_36_21 AM  Photo Rack says there are no limitations on the use of their images.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_37_23 AM  Pixel Perfect Digital has lots of great images, but you can't use them for items for sale or redistribution, and that includes not using them in web templates.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_38_40 AM 
Public-Domain-Photos.com has images you can do anything you want with, no restrictions.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_39_44 AM 
PublicDomainPictures.net is a repository for free public domain photos. You can do anything you want with them, but keep in mind that none of the photos have model or property releases. If you want that type of photo, they do sell some cheap, in the bottom section of the main page.
Screenshot - 3_27_2010 , 5_41_22 AM  Unprofound.com was created by designers, for designers and will pretty much let you do anything with their photos except redistribute them as stock photos. The only payment they want is the pleasure of knowing what their work has become. All they want in return is to be able to see what you have done with them, which means either sending them a photo of your product, screenshot of your software, link to your website or template, or whatever other way you can show them what their images have become part of.





Norebbo has some great 3D renderings that would be perfect for illustrating technology related blog posts, creating web templates, Powerpoint presentations, and many other types of projects. The free images are ENORMOUS compared to similar free images offered by other artists. Norebbo has some very generous terms of use for his free images, too. You may use them any way you wish, except redistributing them, as-is. And while a link back to his site is appreciated, it is not required. And if you need even larger versions than Norebbo is offering for free, you can buy them in his shop.
Screenshot - 7_25_2013 , 9_07_04 PM Stock.xchng offers lots of high quality stock photos, free of charge. Their licensing terms allow for commercial use, with only a few limitations. If you'd like to use a photo for certain uses (web templates, print on demand items, etc.), you will have to contact the photographer and ask for permission, first. Some photos also require you to notify the photographer that you plan on using it for something that will be displayed, publicly. So, for example, if you plan on using it for a blog post, contact the photographer and give him a link to your post, so he can see it. Some photos may have additional terms, set by the photographer. Check the page before downloading. And be sure to rate and leave comments on the photos you use. Photographers love getting feedback on their work. Free membership is required.

Do you know of a stock photo site that I might have missed that will allow you to use their images commercially, without attribution? Leave me a link in a comment.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Free Buttons: Top Ten (CC-BY)

A long time ago I created a set of buttons for use on my old art website, to number pages.

Back in those days, I was kind of careless and stupid concerning saving the original templates for my artwork. Instead I saved one blank button with a black background, to match that site, which means I can only use those buttons on sites with black backgrounds.

I really liked those buttons a lot, so I recreated them from scratch today, in much better quality than the originals.

sample: Top Ten buttons
(shown actual size)

With transparent backgrounds, they can now be used on any color website. I also made a set with a slight drop shadow, so they would stand out more on lighter backgrounds.

Released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, suitable for both personal and commercial use. Just give credit by linking back to this site on any page that you use them, or in your about box if you use them in a desktop application.

Besides using them to number pages, I think they would be great for numbering items in all those “Top 10” lists that so many bloggers seem to be fond of.

And in case you want to do a top 20 list, I have included .psp and .psd source files of both versions, so you can edit and make more buttons (or change the font).

This item has been moved to my art site.


font used on buttons: Adorable

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Free Bird Icons (CC-BY)

Perfect for linking to your Twitter profile or any other purpose in which you’d need a bird icon.
In 16 assorted colors, so you can dare to be a little different and match the colors of your website.

birds-sample

Also included in the full set, are the original Paintshop Pro vectors (.psp).

Released under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license, suitable for both personal and commercial use.

This item has been moved to my art site.









Sunday, April 05, 2009

Free Header Graphic: Peachy

Just messing around again, and created another graphic for you to use.

The sample is shown at 50%. Click to see it full size (800x250).

The font used is Aldridge Script SSK.

Zip file includes PSD, PSP, PNG (blank), and JPG (blank).

sample-peachy

Download link can be found on my art site.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Free Website Graphics: Header Images

Playing around in Paintshop Pro again!

Inspired by the trend on a lot of the design blogs to use flourishes and swirly looking things, I decided to take a crack at it and create a pack of images that would be suitable for anyone that designs Wordpress themes, website templates, or just if you want to use it on your own website or blog. Commercial use is OK, do as you wish, just don't offer them for download (together or individually) or claim you made them. You have to make something with them.

There is a total of 60 PNG images in this pack:
  • 1 image with a transparent background
  • 1 image with a white background
  • 29 images with various gradient backgrounds
  • 29 matching gradients images to be used as page or element backgrounds.

Sample shown at actual size:

Click to download

Samples with some of the gradients (reduced size):




Download link can be found on my art site.

Font used for sample text is Adorable.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Free Clipart: Foodstuff

I decided to make some clipart and share it. Perfect for a food related site or blog, you may use these any way you wish. Use them to decorate your site, create a logo, make a banner, insert them into posts, printed newsletters, restaurant menus, etc.

There are 26 different images, each with dropshadow, png format, each in 2 styles, both transparent and white backgrounds.

If you like these, let me know and I'll make more. If you use them on your site or blog, share a link so I can see.


Shown at 50% of actual size:


Based on Bon Apetit Font

Download link can now be found on my art site.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Barbie Wants to Code

I thought the idea of branding was taken a bit too far when I saw this, but I think we can take it to an absurd distance and territories completely unknown, by proposing a fun little exercise for your 1337 Photochop skills.

Now that Hello Kitty has her own antivirus (how can you take a product like that seriously?), Barbie is jealous and wants her own programming IDE...and she wants YOU to design it for her.

Your assignment (if you choose to accept it):
  • Take a screenshot of your favorite IDE.
  • Drag it into the photo editing software of your choice.
  • Dress it up Barbie style...all pink, flowery, and quite girly.
  • Make it look like something Barbie would be proud to code in.
  • Show it off by posting a link to your creation(s) in a comment.
Here is one I quickly did to give you an idea of what I mean and get your creative juices flowing. I am sure you can do much better than this, with a little thought and effort.

Delphi 6 for Barbie:

Delphi 6 for Barbie