Open Images

Finding images online that you can freely use in your projects, presentations and assignments can be challenging.  This guide outlines how to find images, different types of licensing and how to properly attribute any image that you use.

Why use an Open Access Image?

• All Open Access images can be used for non-commercial educational purposes.

• Some Open Access images can be used even for commercial purposes.

• Many Open Access images are published in a digital format so you can easily find them on-line.

• You don't have to worry about copyright when using open images, as long as you follow the rules use and for attribution, if the works are licenced under Creative Commons licences.

• Open Access images can be used in public facing student projects like posters, conferences, blogs, your portfolio as long as you follow the rules of the licences.

• You can even remix and build upon some Open Access images depending on the license terms. So they are a great choice for inclusion in creative projects.

• Images in the public domain also are often considered open and many can be found on the web.

This guide has been created by the Toronto Metropolitan University Library and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License unless otherwise marked.