I make book covers, along with a whole slew of other small graphic design things. I wish someone had informed my of royalty-free sites when I first started designing my covers, they’ve made life so much easier.

For those of you who want to get into graphic design or want to make your own covers, here are a few sites you can use without worrying about permissions or legal trouble.

You don’t have to join to make use and download the awesome and amazingly high-quality photos, but when you make an account you can favorite and organize the photos you may want to use later.  As is the case with all of these sites, I have an account for this reason; I’m not too fond of filling up my hard drive with photos I may never use, no matter how breathtaking they are.

Unsplash

I just joined Unplash recently.  It’s already a big favorite.

Not only am I getting amazingly high-quality images but I enjoy the organization feature a lot more, it reminds me of WeHeartIt in that aspect, a website I am already very fond of and familiar with.

The website is also very minimal and easy on the eyes, something the other sites tend to lack, which makes scrolling and searching a bit easier.

Pixabay

Pixabay is probably the biggest of all these websites, in fact, Pexels and Unsplash have accounts on Pixabay, offering up a selection of some of their website’s photos, too.

However, as it is a much larger website, it can sometimes be a hit or miss for finding the photos you may be looking for. They do have a search engine that you can customize enough that you should be able to find the photos you’re looking for.

Along with royalty-free photos, Pixabay also offers video footage, illustrations, and vector graphics.

StockSnap.io

StockSnap.io is definitely one of my favorites, it boasts a gorgeous array of images. I haven’t found myself using this website that often, a lot of the photographers on StockSnap.io also have accounts on Unsplash.

If you’re looking to just join one of the websites as a beginner, I’d probably go with this one. Out of all of the websites, it seems to have the best quality control. This does mean it doesn’t boast quite the same variety, but it’s still pretty broad.

Pexels

I don’t often use Pexels, as the interface is a little more confusing than that of the other websites, but I still vastly enjoy it.

My style when making book covers tends to be more simplistic, so Pexels is the first place I go. It holds a broad assortment of simple pictures that still how immense power and beauty.

I wish you the best of luck with your future projects.

Stay Safe.

Elisa

Have you seen my latest post about Camp NaNoWriMo? Need prompts?