Free and open-license graphics
& How To Resize Them
Find Free and Open-license Graphics
There are a number of resources to search for images you can use in your course materials (or homework):
- Google Images search
- Website repositories of graphics labeled for commercial or non-commercial reuse
- https://pixabay.com (choose the smaller sizes!)
- https://flickr.com/creativecommons
- https://stockvault.net
- https://unsplash.com
- https://wikimediacommons.org
- We curate a collection of free and open image resources (as well as vector, audio, and video media)
Resize images
There’s no need to pay for Adobe Creative Cloud if all you need to do with your images is resize and compress them. There are a number of free web-based apps available to use.
- SumoPaint: https://sumopaint.com (try online or download)
- Pic Monkey: https://picmonkey.com (follow the ‘no registration needed, edit for free’ link)
- Pic Resize: https://picresize.com
- Even faster? https://picresize.com/plugins.php Bookmarklet for your browser — if you use them, if not, do not go down this rabbit trail!
Why resize images?
There are two great reasons to resize images: faster load time on a web-page and smaller file size when sharing or storing a document. Resizing images helps others view your online resources faster. In addition to resizing the dimensions of an image, you can also use an image editor to compress images to make the file sizes even smaller. This will help even more with load time for web-based resources.
How to resize?
Use one of the online tools above and change the dimensions of the image and/or the resolution of the final stored image to reduce file size. First, crop the image to be just what you want. Only download smaller images unless you need a very high-resolution graphic for printing!
Efficiencies
Find the product that works for you and stick with it.
Create a folder to save items to and rename images (what they are or how you want to use it) to reduce future time searching.
Extra Tips
Consider sharing a Google Drive folder with your students Put graphics into the folder to help get them started, plus this tip, or your assignment sheet.
Want your students to go out and create images that they share with each other? Share images in a folder on Google Drive.
More
- Learn about Copyright and Fair Use
- Google talks image optimization
- Janene McMahan provides more information about online photo editors —
https://ecampus.uaf.edu/go/edit-online
