Finding the right photo, icon, or font can be pretty challenging for graphic designers. It requires patience and hard work, along with the time spent finding the right resources for the design assets. Besides, some resources can cost a lot, and not all designers can afford to pay extra for quality icons or images. So, to make your job a little bit easier, we’ve gathered 70+ free essential resources for graphic designers here.
Whether you’re just starting your career in graphic design or already have some experience, this list can help you find the right design assets quickly and without spending any money. Some of the resources listed here have both free and premium plans; some are entirely free. But regardless of that, they all offer high-quality materials for graphic designers. Make sure to bookmark this list so that you will always easily access it from anywhere.
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Free Stock Photos
Photos comprise a big part of most graphic design projects. High-quality photography can always add something extra to a design. So, designers always need resources with decent, high-quality photos. And here, you can find all the essential stock photo websites. Remember to save these websites when you use their photos, as some require them to be referenced.
Pexels
This is one of the best free photo stock sites out there. Pexels offers a lot of royalty-free, high-quality and stand-out images, which designers can use for any project. Besides, this website also offers free stock videos. You can download images and videos in different sizes and formats from this site. Plus, they have a section called leaderboard where you can find the best contributors and photographers.
StockSnap
This is another great place to find the best photos for graphic design projects. You can browse photos from StockSnap’s different categories, so you won’t face any trouble finding what you need. Also, you don’t need to credit the creators, though it will be appreciated.
Unsplash
Unsplash is a high-quality stock photo website powered by a community of photographers. Anyone can download images from this website for commercial and non-commercial purposes. You can also upgrade to Unsplash+ and benefit from the unique member-only content. But even without the upgrade, you can find a lot of decent-quality, unique photos here.
Burst
On Burst, you can find free, high-resolution images from various categories, from business to beauty and fitness. Besides these, you can also find here background images and textures. So there are plenty of good materials here.
Free Nature Stock
As its name suggests, on Free Nature Stock, you can find free, high-quality nature photos. Besides photos, here you can also find nature-related videos and vectors. So whenever you need something related to nature, you can find it here.
New Old Stock
This is a very unique stock photo website, as it contains vintage photos from public archives. If you need anything retro, you can use this website. But note that you may need to link to the original photo and mention the institution’s name for some photos. Before using a photo, make sure to check its rights.
ISO Republic
Here you can find thousands of high-resolution stock photos available for free download. You can browse from different categories and collections they have to find the photo you need. Besides, this website also contains lots of high-quality videos.
Freepik
Freepik is one of the most famous free photo stock resources out there. It contains images from different categories, illustrations, icons, fonts, mockups and other resources. It has free and premium versions, but note that when using a free version, you need to mention the creator.
Pixabay
On Pixabay, millions of high-resolution photos are available for free download and without attribution required. You can also find videos, music, illustrations, and GIFs on this website.
Free Illustrations
It’s great when you have time and resources to design illustrations from scratch, but sometimes graphic designers cannot do that. Here are some good resources if you need to find quality illustrations for free download.
Humaaans
This website contains mix-and-match illustrations of people with a design library. Here you can find illustrations of people wearing different clothes, hairstyles, etc. And best of all, you can make changes and design humans however you like for free.
DrawKit
DrawKit offers lots of free high-quality illustrations, updated weekly. There are 2D and 3D illustrations, icons, animations and mockups on this website. DrawKit has both free and premium illustration packs, with premium starting at 10$, which is relatively inexpensive.
Blush
On Blush, everyone can create and customise illustrations made by designers all around the world. You can choose from different styles and themes and then customise them however you want.
Open Peeps
This is a library of hand-drawn illustrations, which you can mix and match to create more customised illustrations. You can use these illustrations for any purpose you want, completely for free.
UnDraw
UnDraw is a constantly updated project featuring illustrations of people in different scenarios. You can download them in SVG or PNG formats without attribution. Best of all, you can use their colour image generator to make the illustrations more tailored to your project.
Lukasz Adam
Here you can find lots of free SVG illustrations, available for both personal and commercial use, without any attribution required.
Open Doodles
Open Doodles is another great resource of illustrations, which you can copy, edit, mix and customise to create what you need for any purpose.
Free Stock Videos
Videos are another essential resource for designers; they are more time-consuming and require more resources to create on your own. That’s why we added free video resources here too.
Vimeo
Besides being one of the popular platforms for watching videos, Vimeo also offers some good stock videos that you can download for free. Created by Phil Fried, it contains videos donated by nearly 30,000 community members.
Coverr
This is another great resource for free stock video footage. You can browse from its multiple categories and collections to find what you need. Attribution is not necessary but appreciated.
Adobe Stock
Adobe Stock offers a lot of free high-quality videos from different categories like business, people and nature. On Adobe Stock, you can also find other helpful assets, like images or templates.
Mazwai
Mazwai offers free stock videos hand-picked by video professionals. They have multiple categories of videos here. Note that you may need to credit the author when using a video.
Videvo
Videvo has both free and premium options for stock videos, which you can use for various purposes. Make sure to credit the author if you use the free version.
Mixkit
On Mixkit, you can find free stock videos, music, sound effects and video templates. Videos are available for commercial and non-commercial use. No attribution is required.
Free Music and Audio
Sometimes, graphic designers may need to add music or sounds to their projects. Here are some good resources for that.
Free Music Archive
Free Music Archive is one of the best resources for royalty-free, high-quality music. You can use music from this website on YouTube, podcasts and for many other purposes, but there are some limits. Make sure to check their license information.
Bensound
This is another great website to download royalty-free music for different purposes. Note that you need to credit the website and can’t use the music for podcasts, audiobooks or songs.
Uppbeat
Here you can find free music and sound effects from different categories and genres. It’s safe to use Uppbeat’s music on different platforms (as long as you’re producing content for an organisation with up to 10 employees), and you won’t have any copyright issues. They also have a premium plan for those who want more freedom and more unique music.
Free Icons
Icons are small but essential elements for every graphic designer. They are used everywhere on digital platforms, so designers frequently look for high-quality and inexpensive icons. We picked some of the best platforms where you can find free and high-quality icons.
The Noun Project
This is many designers’ favourite website, as there are more than 5 million icons on this website that you use for free but with attribution. If you want to edit icons and make them more customised, you can use their pro options.
Flaticon
Here you can find lots of royalty-free flat icons for commercial and personal use. Note that attribution is required. You can also become a premium member and benefit from more unique icons and icon collections.
Simple Icons
On Simple Icons, there are more than 2000 SVG icons for famous brands available for free download. If you want, you can also make a contribution to this website and add your icons.
Ionicons
This is another great resource for quality icons that are open-source and free to use. There are 1,300 icons on this website, crafted for web, iOS, Android, and desktop apps.
Free Icons
Free Icons is considered one of the largest databases of icons. One important thing that sets this website apart is that its icons are available in many formats – PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and BASE 64.
Animaticons
This is a unique library of animated GIF icons, which you can download for free and use for commercial purposes. There is no limit to the number of times you can use the icons and how long you can use them.
Icons8
Icons8 has an extensive collection of all kinds and styles of icons. You can browse from their multiple categories of icons to find what you desire. This site has both free and paid plans. With the free plan, you need to link to the website when using the icon.
Iconmonstr
Here you can find numerous collections of various icons, free for commercial and non-commercial use, without attribution required. The site offers both icons and iconic fonts in various formats.
Free Fonts
Fonts are another essential asset in graphic design that can also be quite pricey. Graphic designers can spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect font. So, look no further, as we’ve collected some of the best free font libraries.
Google Fonts
This is probably the most popular font library that even non-designers may use. Google Fonts offers an extensive library of open-source fonts with different styles that you can use for various purposes, commercial use, and even on logos.
FontFabric
FontFabric is a brand that creates fonts and custom typography for various brands. It also offers a selection of free fonts that anyone can download. Here you can find lots of unique and interesting fonts.
Use & Modify
This website contains a collection of “beautiful, classy, punk, professional, incomplete, and weird typefaces”. They are open-source, so you can download them for free and modify them as you want.
Font Squirrel
Font Squirrel is an extensive archive of free, hand-selected typefaces presented in an easy-to-use format. All the fonts here are free for commercial use, so this is a true utopia for all graphic designers.
Dafont
This is another great resource for finding free and open-source fonts. Dafont is another extensive library of fonts, which you can browse by categories such as style, author or popularity.
Font Space
Font Space contains more than 100K of legally licensed fonts, which are free for use. Before downloading, check whether the license is allowed for commercial use. Some fonts here are only available for non-commercial use.
Free Colour Tools
Finding the right colour palettes can sometimes be challenging. The tools listed below can help you to choose the right colours and inspire you to create fantastic graphic design projects.
Coolors
Coolors is a great tool that contains trending colour palettes voted by the creative community. Besides that, you can generate your own colour palettes by choosing one or two or several colours. You just pick the colours you like, and the tool generates the matching colours.
Khroma
Khroma is another colour palette generator tool that uses AI to find the perfect colour combinations. You simply choose the colours you like, and the tool generates limitless colour combinations.
Site Palette
This browser extension helps get the actual colours from a website and generates comprehensive palettes. Site Palette can become a go-to tool for every designer.
Colormind
Colormind is a colour palette generator that uses deep learning. It can learn colour styles from photographs, movies and popular art.
Color Lisa
This is a unique tool, as it gives colours that famous artists used in a particular piece. If you’re a fan of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, this tool will give you the colours the artist used for the painting.
Free Photo/Image Editing Tools
Adobe Photoshop is the number one image editing tool for many graphic designers. But when it’s not within reach, or you need to do something very quickly online, these alternative tools can help you do a quality job without spending a penny.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a photo editor and template designer that you can use for different purposes. It also has a premium version with more features. Perfect for making some quick edits and changes to a photo.
Fotor
Fotor is another great free tool for photo editing that allows you to crop or resize images, add text or even create a design from scratch.
Kapwing
Kapwing is an online collaborative video editor with a free image editing tool. You can use its free membership option or upgrade to a paid one if you need it.
SocialSizes
If you’re tired of looking for the right size for different social media platforms every time you need to create or edit something, this tool is for you. SocialSizes is a collection of free image and video size templates for Figma, Sketch, XD, Photoshop and Illustrator. You can also use their Image Maker to make your image in the right size for any social media.
Colorcinch
Here is another free photo editing tool that gives you access to hand-picked vector graphics, icons and stock photos. You can use Colorcinch to resize or crop images and add effects or overlays to create unique images.
Photopea
Photopea is an advanced photo editing tool that supports various formats such as PSD, XCF, XD, Sketch, and CDR. You can create designs from scratch or upload your images to enhance them.
Free Graphic Design Tools
Graphic design tools can be pretty expensive, especially for beginners. Below, we’ve gathered some budget-friendly design tools. There are really some gems here, so even experienced designers can find something helpful in this list.
Figma
Figma is one of the best design tools that many experienced and inexperienced designers use. Its graphic design tool has everything you need to create logos, presentations, social media graphics, and more.
Vecteezy
Vecteezy is a free design tool that you can use to create vector designs from scratch or use Vecteezy content to customise it and create the perfect graphics for your project.
Blender
Blender is a free and open-source 3D creation suite. This tool will appeal to designers who want to add more 3D graphics to their designs. It’s perfect if you want to learn to create 3D graphics and create something high-quality.
Font Joy
If you’re tired of using all the same fonts again and again, here is an excellent tool for you. Font Joy has made font pairing simpler than ever by generating font combinations using deep learning. You can create the perfect font for your project with this tool.
Vectr
This simple yet powerful free vector graphics editor allows you to edit graphics like a pro. It has AI-powered features to make the graphic creation process easier and faster.
Inkscape
Here is another free graphics editor tool you can use to create professional designs. It’s cross-platform, which means you can use it on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. And best of all, you can export your design in formats friendly to web browsers or commercial printer rooms.
Canva
Canva is an online design tool with a lot of free templates and many other helpful features. It has both free and paid versions, but the free version can be very useful, and you can create a lot of interesting designs with it.
Piktochart
If you need to create professional infographics quickly, this tool can help you. It has multiple templates you can use to create something beautiful. Besides infographics, Piktochart also allows you to create presentations and videos.
Vista Create
Vista Create is an excellent tool for creating social media visual content. It has templates, animations, audio, assets library – everything you need to create compelling and professional social media content for any platform.
Free Mockup Tools
You’ve finished your project; now it’s time to show it to the clients and your audience. But finding nice, high-quality and free mockups can take a lot of time. So we decided to include mockup tools in our list as well to help you present your works in the best way.
That’s why we have compiled all the essential tactics to help you make the most out of your WordPress website.
Shotsnapp
On Shotsnapp, you can find lots of quality device mockup images for an app or website. Simply choose the one you like, upload your design, make some changes and download your final project.
Screely
Screely is perfect when you need to turn your screenshot into a mockup quickly. All you need to do is to upload your file, and the mockup will be ready! You can choose between different browser options and customise your designs as you want.
House of Mockups
House of Mockups contains a selection of free and premium high-quality, realistic mockups. The freebies are customisable PSD mockups that include device mockups and advertising, billboard and other mockups.
Lovely Mockups
Here you can find many ready-to-use mockup templates, most of which are free. This website’s collection includes device mockups, T-shirts, social media covers and much more.
Mockups Design
On Mockups Design, you can find premium mockups, which are free and easy to download. It has many categories so that any designer can find their perfect mockup here.
Free Screenshot and Screen Recorder Tools
To showcase your design works in the best way, you may also need to make screenshots or videos of them. Of course, you can do it manually, but there are some helpful tools that can also let you edit the screen captures to make them even better.
Easy Screen
EasyScreen is a fast and free screen-capturing tool for creating screenshots and screencasts. You can create demos, video tutorials and many other things with the help of this tool.
GoFullPage
If you need to take a screenshot of an entire page quickly, here is one of the best tools. GoFullPage is a browser extension that you can add to your Chrome and capture any page you need.
ScreenToGif
Here is another tool to record your screen, webcam and sketchboard with an integrated editor. This is a go-to tool for recording some nice GIFs to showcase your work.
Free Design Inspiration Tools
Lastly, we finish our list with creative resources for your design inspiration. We all have days when we feel stuck on a project, and it seems like we can’t finish it. These tools can help you move forward and find new inspiration.
Wix Creative
Wix has a blog where you can find lots of helpful tips and advice on an online portfolio and many other things. Check it from time to time to get the best tips.
Pinterest is a social platform that is a great source of inspiration. Many designers post their works here, so you can find many exciting design projects and generate new ideas.
Dribbble
Dribbble is a community for designers and creative artists who can share their works, create portfolios, etc. And also, it’s a great place to find inspiration, learn about the trends and be aware of what’s happening in the design world.
Behance
Behance is also a showcase of the latest design projects around the world. Here you can search for artists, designers and different design works.
Httpster
Httpster is a platform where you can find web design inspiration. Some of the best web design projects created by designers from all over the world are shared on this website.
Fonts in Use
When you find a font you like on the foundry’s website, you can’t tell how it will look on your project. During these times, simply use this website. Search the typeface you want to use, and see how it has been used in practice, in print and digital design.
Identity Designed
Founded by David Airey, an independent graphic designer from Northern Ireland, this website is dedicated to the design of visual identities. Now it has become one of the best resources for design inspiration.
The Design Blog
On this website, you can find works of designers and design studios from all over the world. The focus of the website is emerging talents, so besides finding good design works, you’ll also learn about new talented designers.
Final Words
So, our list is over. I hope it will be helpful for you. These were all the essential tools we found during our research and that our designers use too.
Don’t forget to bookmark it so that you always have this list on your hand.
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General FAQ
How do graphic designers find inspiration?
Designers use many methods to find inspiration, which include researching on Google and social media, going to galleries and art museums, etc.
Are graphic design services expensive?
Well, it depends on the individual project. If you need a simple illustration or banner design, it won’t cost a lot (though all graphic designers charge differently based on their skills and experience.) We also offer graphic design services; if you want to know about our pricing, just contact us.
