When it comes to searching for CC-licensed images, there are lots of websites and public repositories to go with. But the hunt for the perfect image usually never stops at one source. Generally, we go through multiple sources one-by-one looking for the image that can satisfy the needs. And, this process of going through multiple sources manually is time-consuming.
This article covers a free online tool to search for CC licensed images. The name of this tool is CC Search and it is launched by the Creative Commons community. This tool fetches the data from over a dozen sources and shows that at one place. On top of that, it packs very convenient filters to further narrow down the hunt for the perfect image.
Also read: 5 Free Websites To Find Non-Attribution Creative Commons Images
Search Images with Creative Commons Licenses: CC Search
CC Search is a free aggregation tool that helps you find images from publicly available repositories of open content. At the homepage, this shows you top categories along with top picks of the day. It has a search bar at the top where you can type a keyword to find relevant images.
When you search a keyword, this tool shows the total number of available photos related to your keyword. The results show you thumbnails in a grid layout sorted by relevance. By hovering the mouse cursor over the thumbnail, you can view the licensing of an image along with the source and image title at the bottom of the thumbnail. It also gives you a button to add the image to your list for later.
CC Search offers three filters to narrow down the hunt for the perfect picture. This lets you refine your search results with the help of the following filter options:
Provider
- 500px
- Animal Diversity Web
- Behance
- DeviantArt
- Digital Museum
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Flickr
- New York Public Library
- World Register of Marine Species, and over a dozen more
License
- CC0
- Public Domain Mark
- BY
- BY-SA
- BY-NC
- BY-ND
- BY-NC-SA
- BY-NC-ND
License Type
- CC-licensed works only (no PD)
- All Public Domain (PD)
- Commercial use permitted
- Modifications permitted
From the results, you view an image by clicking the thumbnail. This opens the full-size image from where you can save it from the right-click context menu. Alongside the image, you get the detailed information about the image covering image title, creator (with link), license, source, and dimensions of the image. Below that, it gives you the image attribution with links to the original source. From here, you can copy the attribution as HTML or text and use along with the image.
Search Creative Commons licensed images here.
Closing Words:
CC Search is a convenient and time-saving tool to search Creative Commons licensed images on the web. By having this tool, you no longer have to visit various websites manually hunting down the perfect image.
