How to Find Images to Use on Your Web Pages

By Susan Brumbaugh, Co-Owner, Aphids Communications

Finding images on the Internet is fairly easy. It seems like most web pages have them. However, as the copyright laws for web pages and materials work themselves out, you should be careful about the images you download and use on your web pages. If you go to a web page and see an image you like, you should e-mail the contact person for the web site and ask for permission to download and use the image before you take it. You should ask for permission even if the web page does not contain a copyright statement. Copyrights on web pages are IMPLICIT. This means a web page and its contents are copyrighted, whether or not the author specifically states on the page that the contents are copyrighted. The only time you should feel free to download an image without asking is when the author states that the images are in the "public domain".

The best place to find images in the public domain is by visiting web sites that maintain graphics archives. Many have search engines or have the images subdivided into categories. Many of these archives will have downloading instructions you can read or will have compressed files containing multiple images available for you to download.

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