Reposted with permission from WebJunction
Photo from Pixabay.
People are visual creatures, so a good image can go a long way toward dressing up a blog post, newsletter, or website. The good folks over at WebJunction put together this list of free images, photo editing programs, and design resources to make it easy to add that special touch to your library communications. They have graciously allowed us to repost it here:
Elk in Yellowstone National Park. From the New York Public Library.
Image Sources – Free
- New York Public Library – Public Domain Collections
- Compfight
- Flickr Creative Commons
- Internet Archive Book Images
- Library of Congress on Flickr
- U.S. Government on Flickr
- Free Digital Photos.net
- Wikimedia Commons
- From Rapid E-Learning Blog, Here’s How to Find Free Stock Photos & Clip Art for PowerPoint
- http://www.123rf.com/
- Liam’s Pictures from Old Books for something different
- morguefile
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Pixabay
- NounProject: partially free source of lots of icons
- A list collected by Canva of Free Stock Photos: 73 Best Sites To Find Awesome Free Images
GIMP is free, open-source photo editing software.
Image Editing Programs – Free
- GIMP: open source software freely available for personal use; suitable for users accustomed to the sophistication of PhotoShop.
- GimpShop is a modification of GIMP, which creates an interface more familiar to users of PhotoShop.
- Microsoft Office Picture Manager is part of the Office suite of programs and has basic editing capability; find it under Microsoft Office >> Microsoft Office Tools.
- NET for Windows
- Google Photos
- PicMonkey
Piktochart makes it easy to create infographics, such as this one for the Wyoming Library Endowment Challenge.
Design Resources
- Let’s Make This Look Good: Design for Maximum Engagement: webinar about basic graphic design principles and free resources
- Colorzilla: browser add-on to pick colors for your design palette right from websites
- Design Seeds: beautiful suggestions of color palettes, with the color hexidecimal numbers
- easel.ly: infographic creator with many templates
- Piktochart: free and easy-to-use infographic creator
- 1001 (free) fonts (usage rights may vary — check individual font for permission information)
WebJunction’s mission is to promote learning for all library staff by providing an open online learning community:the place where the library profession gathers to build the knowledge, skills and support needed to power relevant, vibrant libraries. Learn more at www.webjunction.org.