LibGuides: Public Health 103-01 (Ramírez, Spring 2025): Communicating Data Visually

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons (CC) is 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" ("What We Do").

CC licenses provide a way for people to share their work and make it available for others to build on and reuse. See the CC website for more information and details about CC licenses.

Here is a wiki on best practices for how to give attribution (credit) to images with CC licenses.

Stock Photos

Just a few sites to find stock images, though there are many other options. Make sure to properly attribute images if needed.

CC Search Provides users with the ability to search for content with Creative Commons licenses from a variety of databases offered by independent organizations, including Wikimedia Commons, SoundCloud, Pixabay, Google Images, etc. Users can also limit results to content that can be used for commercial purposes and/or modified, adapted, or built upon. As Creative Commons does not have control over search results, users should double-check to see that the content is under a CC license by following the links. The new Beta CC Search, with new search filters and one-click attribution, allows users to search across a variety of vetted open sourced content through one single interface.
Morguefile "[A] community-based free photo site, and all photos found in the Morguefile archive are free for you to download and re-use in your work, be it commercial or not."
Pexels A library of 40,000 free high-quality stock photos, which can be used for both personal and commercial purposes. All photos are covered under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, and attribution is not required. Users can search for images or can also browse by color, popular photos, popular searches, photographers, and categories (summer, abstract, city, fashion, etc.) Every image can be downloaded in a variety of sizes, and each photo also has suggestions for similar images. Those who sign up for accounts receive 40 additional photos to download and can upload their own photos to the Pexels community.
Pixabay Features over 1.1 million photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and videos that can be used for commercial and noncommercial purposes. All content is licensed under Creative Commons. Users can search by media type, orientation, pixel size, color, and categories ranging from animals, architecture, religion, music, beauty/fashion, and people. Images can be downloaded in a variety of sizes, and each image also provides users with suggestions for similar images.
Unsplash A searchable library of free high-resolution digital photographs that can be downloaded and used for any purpose, both commercial and noncommercial. In addition to searching for images, users can also browse the most popular collections by topic or the results of trending searches. Unsplash also has a Chrome extension, so each new tab provides a new photograph, which can also be downloaded. Users who create accounts can make private or public collections and receive announcements, recommended photos, resources, tips, etc.

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