Use These Secret “Public Domain” Photo and Illustration Resources for Your Next Creative Project(s)

Here are some little known, quality public domains (that means free) photograph and illustration sites that can be used immediately for your current or upcoming creative business projects.

What does Public Domain mean exactly? A work is in the public domain if it is no longer protected by copyright. This means you can copy and use the work freely, including preparation of derivative works and use of images commercially without infringing or violating anyone’s rights.

There are so many stock photo sites on the web that it becomes difficult to keep track of all of them. But who has the time to hunt all these down?

If you visit the same ones regularly (anyone heard of istock?) it might surprise you to know just how much free quality public domain photos, illustrations are out there. It’s massive.

Although all of these sites have been reviewed as public domain please practice due-diligence in re-reading each websites terms of use.

Public Domain Sites

Open Clip Art:

http://www.openclipart.org

Print and Photographs Online Catalog:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Karen’s Whimsy:

http://karenswhimsy.com/public-domain-images/

Library of Congress:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Public Domain Media:

http://web4j1.lane.edu/libraryservices/mediainst/graphicsguide.html

United States Government Photos and Multimedia:

http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml

United States Department of Defense:

http://www.defenselink.mil/multimedia/

Free Images and Sounds from Microsoft:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx

Ebooks on the web:

http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/ft/EBooks.html

stock.xchng:

http://www.sxc.hu/

http://www.sxc.hu/info.phtml?f=help&s=8_2 (terms)

MorgueFile:

http://www.morguefile.com/

Pixel Perfect Digital:

http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/free_stock_photos/

http://www.pixelperfectdigital.com/terms (terms)

Image After:

http://www.imageafter.com/index.php

http://www.imageafter.com/terms.php (terms)

Free Photos Bank:

http://www.freephotosbank.com/

http://www.freephotosbank.com/index.php?action=show&cat=terms (terms)

YotoPhoto:

http://yotophoto.com/