By Tracy Wright, MAED | February 24, 2015
Finding the right graphic for your trainings and presentations can be a tricky and time-consuming task. Some images have costs associated with them. Others are free to use but may have “strings attached.”
In my attempt to avoid a lot of the hassle around image search, I’ve mostly used what Microsoft Office had to offer. I’d search directly within PowerPoint or Word. This worked well in the past, but it won’t in the future.
In a recent NPR story we learned that Microsoft has said, “Goodbye to Clip Art.” Microsoft closed up the Office.com Clip Art and Image library of over 100,000 images and are now sending customers to the Bing search engine to hunt for images.
An Internet search on “free clip art” or “free images” will yield MANY results. There are a lot of no-cost sites for images and graphics. And there is a wide range of stipulations on use. Be sure to check out the “fine print” when searching for and grabbing that perfect picture.
Think through how to choose the right images for your presentations. Whether your images are free or not, there is an art to getting the right art.
We’ve listed a few blog posts and websites addressing free images below. Check these out and let us know if you end up using any of these sites. Tell us what you liked or disliked about them. Were they easy to search? Did you find useful images for your work? Did your downloads go smoothly?
Remember to share your experiences with us!
Tracy Wright, MAED, is a Project Director at ETR. She is a skilled distance learning, eLearning and professional development specialist. She has also served as a health education teacher in both middle and high schools.