One option when finding images to use for commercial purposes is to look for creative commons or public domain images. Get started at the Finding Free Media research guide or try the suggested sites below. Even some creative commons images require an attribution message, so make sure you look for that!
Creative Commons - a nonprofit organization that works "to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing."
Creative Commons licenses provide a way for people to share their work and make it available for others to build on and reuse. It is free to download, adapt, distribute, and transmit without having to ask permission. Depending on the license, however, there may be certain conditions: you may only be able to use the content for educational purposes, you may have to give attribution, etc. Because licenses vary, always be sure to check the exact terms of the license before using an image.
Attribution: others can use the work however they like, so long as they give credit
No Derivative Work: others can copy, display, or perform your work, but it must be verbatim
Non-Commercial: others can use your work, but for non-commercial purposes only
Share Alike: others can distribute derivative works, but only under the same terms as the original license
Do you have an image, but are unsure of its source? There are a couple of online tools that can help.
allows you to discover image sources, by searching by image url, uploading the image file, or doing a drag-and drop of the image. You can also search Creative Commons Images by color.
helps you find the source of an image by searching the image url, and dragging/dropping or uploading images. There are also Chrome and Firefox extensions that lets you right click on an image to search the web for that image.
