Pixabay is an excellent example of current public domain content. Not only can you enjoy using it, you can become a contributor as well.
Steps
1. Pixabay.
Pixabay has over 1.6 million images and videos shared by their community. Start by going to the site and looking through the amazing quality and quantity of public domain content available from this site. If you like the offerings, sign up for free.
2. CC0.
All content on the site is shared via Creative Commons CC0. This allows people to waive their rights and place their work into the public domain. This allows other to build upon, enhance and reuse their works for any purposes without restriction. Learn more about CC0.
3. Photos.
You can find photos of just about anything on Pixabay. While content may be CC0, any images with people in them must have a release for each person in the photo. The creator gave up their rights, not the people in the image. You can still use these images for inspiration. Take note of the number of photos with and without people in them.
4. Illustrations.
Illustrations are usually line art that’s been saved in a bitmap format. They may be drawn, digitally created, or photos you can adjust in a bitmap program like Photoshop, Photopea or Sumo Paint. Illustrations that are in JPG format will look better when printed. Download an illustration and try making some adjustments to the illustrations you find.
5. Vector.
Vector images are those that are drawn. If they are PNG files, they will compress colors better and look good online. The vector part is the SVG file. This can be read by Illustrator, Inkscape or other vector editors. Since these are mathematically-based drawings, they can be scaled to any size and look good. Check out the following tutorial for working with SVG graphics.
6. Video.
The videos are clips in MP4 format. While browsing, you can mouse over an image to see the clip without needing to select it to do so. Look through the video clips available on Pixabay.
7. Bitmaps.
Downloads are free. You need to know what you’ll be doing with the image to make sure you have the right resolution. For bitmap (resolution dependent) downloads, the smaller file sizes will look good for online and app applications. If you want to print, you want to get the highest resolution possible. I tend to download the highest resolution possible so I can adjust it later as I need to. Open the different file sizes on your computer and print them to see the differences.
8. Organize.
As you download items from the site, you may need to think about organizing them. If you’re just downloading one or two images for a project, you can keep them with the other pieces of the project. However, if you’re creating a small library for a project and have a couple dozen images, you may want to organize them to find the right one faster. This might include naming files and making an organized file structure. Look into how you might organize the files you download.
9. Support.
Want to support your favorite creators? You can follow them on the site. You can also buy them “coffee.” This is Pixabay’s way of allowing you to make a donation to those people who provide work you want to use. It encourages them to keep sharing. Click on the icon telling you more about the creator before deciding to take additional action.
10. Contribute.
We take many more pictures than we will ever use. Pixabay is a great way to show the world your skills in photography and graphic creation. When you upload your image to Pixabay to share with others, you must agree to the following:
- I only upload images I own the rights to, and not any purchased or copied images.
- I agree that my images are released under Creative Commons CC0.
This means that you own the rights to the images and you are putting them into the public domain. Find a few images you would like to share with others.
NOTE: Uploading 10 images to Pixabay allows you to get rid of the ads when you’re on the site.
Badge and Supplement Files
Member Level
- EP_Badge List_Pixabay_larajla — list of badge items
- EP_Badge Set_ Pixabay_larajla — list of badge set and related badges
- EP_Supp_List_ Pixabay_larajla — list of supplements for the badge
- SUPP_BPG_ Pixabay_2in_12up_larajla — generic badge printable
- SUPP_ Pixabay_Journal_larajla — badge journal
- SUPP_ Pixabay_Planner_larajla — badge planner
Supplement Fun
- N/A
Sites to Explore
- pixabay.com
- pixabay.com/en/blog/posts/a-tutorial-for-working-with-scalable-svg-graphics-2
- creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0
Get the infographic here > larajla blog post
Get the PDFs of the badge program / supplements here > Full badge PDFs