Free Resource Websites: Images, Vectors, Data Visualizations, Colors, Fonts, HTML, & CSS
No surprises here – just a list of great free resources!
You don’t spend endless hours online without coming across some great websites that the average person wouldn’t find. I have folders and folders of these sites and thought offloading some of them into a blog post would be useful for some.
The following resources focus on design: free stock image sites, free vector graphic sites, color generators, pattern generators, and a couple great free font and data visualization websites.
Royalty Free Images
Free Images – Formerly stock.xchng
Over 350,000 quality stock photos by more than 30.000 photographers.
Capabilities:
- Advanced Search
- Lightbox Creation
- Random Photo Explorer
- Popular Users and Download Stats
Strength: Lightbox Creation
Morgue File
A morgueFile is a place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgueFile contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use. morgueFile has quick filters which makes judging their inventory for a given search simple.
Strength: Search
Open Photo
Unlike most on the this list, Open Photo’s search functionality is not their strength. Instead they have an extensive category page which will allow you to explore everything from”Architecture” to the meta category”Photos”. So meta.
Strength: Pinteresty Category Exploration. Featured categories are updated for seasons and holidays.
Image After
Image After looks like something out of the 90’s. But that’s okay, their no frills site makes evaluating if they have what you need quick and easy. If you don’t find what you’re looking for in one of their two dropdowns, move on.
Strength: Search by Texture
Free Photos Bank
Free Photo Bank focuses on giving users access to some of the most common photo categories used in stock photography. Cateogries include Abstract, Architecture, Computers & Technology, Fruits & Food, Nature, Objects, Transportation, Life, and Misc.
Strength: Category Exploration
Flickr
Flickr’s creative commons is not one of my favorites, but does deserve a spot on this list. The search functionality is great, but I rarely find exactly what I am looking for.
Strength: Search
Free Vector Files
Free Design File
Free Design File is a massive databse of vectors, icons, and PSD’s. Great for spicing up inforgraphics.
Strength: Generic Vectors
Icon Finder
Icon Finder has a monthly payment options to unlock premium icons. But the site also has a lot of free icons available for download. Even better they don’t force you to sort through the premium icons to find the free ones.
Strength: Visual Design, Search Functionality, and Free vs Premium Filter
Logo EPS
Forget searching for logo’s via Google images, this database has all the logo’s and accompanying design files to go with them. It might be niche, but it is handy.
Strength: Quality downloads of nearly every branded logo out there.
Color Generators and Converters
Adobe Color CC
This is a tool from Adobe that allows you to create, explore, and save a color palette. It’s intuitive, but you kind of need to know what you’re doing to make sure your colors match.
Colrd
Not sure what color you need? This is the site for you. Colrd will randomly generate colors until you find one that catches your eye. It also supplies similar color suggestions, just incase you come across a shade that’s several hexadecimal’s away from being perfect.
Hex Colorrrs Color Converter
This is a beautiful hexidecimal to rgb (and vice versa) color converter by Jamie Brittain. Once you populate one of the color fields, the background will change to be that color. For a similarly styled random color generator by Jamie, check out the root domain, colorrrs.com
Color Scheme Designer
This tools is great for generating a pallet of colors and grabbing several shades of each color generated. Once you have your perfect palette, click the share button to grab and share a permalink.
Free Web Fonts
When it comes to web fonts the following sites are created equal. They all have a similar function, but selection in each may vary. Check them out and choose the one that suits you the best.
Data Presentation
Canva
Canva is kind of like a more simple verison of Adobe InDesign. Instead of getting lost in menus and settings, Canva places the focus on creating visually appealing assets. Their platform gives you access to a wide variety of templates including: social media post images and headers, marketing materials like business cards and posters, standard A4 documents and presentation layouts, you can even create the perfect kindle cover for that book you’ve been writting. Once you pick your asset template you can get to creating. Choose a layout, search for images from their data base of free and paid images, customize your background and text, then download or publish. Everything is drag and drop and requires zero technical knowledge, unlike Adobe InDesign.
Strength: Assets on the fly
Inforgram
Custom branded infographics. They’re quick to make and they look great. The free version includes 30+ chart types, spreadsheet import, and web publishing.
Google Developer Charts
Google has a charts section of their developer site which is really cool. If you’re have the ability to code you can really step up the visuals your using to represent data online.
Chart types inlude:
- Geo Chart
- Scatter Chart
- Column Chart
- Histogram
- Bar Chart
- Combo Chart
- Area Chart
- Stepped Area Chart
- Line Chart
- Pie Chart
- Bubble Chart
- Donut Chart
- Org Chart
- Treemap
- Table
- Timeline
- Gauge
- Candlestick Chart
HTML and CSS Generators
As you can see CSS websites aren’t big on logos, but here are a free great ones.
