It’s no secret that visual assets are essential to creating viral blog posts. High-quality, eye-catching images are crucial for attracting and engaging readers. In fact, a blog post without images is simply incomplete.

However, despite the clear importance of images in content marketing, many writers struggle with copyright issues. But don’t worry! We’re here to simplify things with this comprehensive guide to blog images, covering:

• Sourcing free images for blogs (completely free, no attribution required)
• Creating custom graphics with text overlay
• Adapting blog images for social media Let’s dive into the world of visual content!

Free Images for Your Blog: Open Source Options

Content creators, rejoice! Numerous websites offer downloadable, royalty-free images and clip art perfect for blog posts. Here are two of our favorites for finding free images:

Pixabay

Pixabay is a dream come true, offering restriction-free images for your blog. You can use Pixabay photos commercially without attribution – it doesn’t get any better!

Pixabay’s convenient search function helps you find ideal images from a vast, high-quality selection, making it an essential resource for free blog visuals.

MorgueFile

MorgueFile is similar to Pixabay, though with a slightly smaller selection. MorgueFile also provides open-source images for commercial use without attribution requirements and features a handy search tool.

More Attribution-Free Image Resources

These websites, like those above, offer free downloadable images for your blog posts, allowing commercial use without attribution.

However, these sites lack a search function, offering a “take it or leave it” approach. But with high-quality photos often provided by generous photographers, there’s little room for complaint! These open-source images are ideal for general visuals rather than specific topics due to the absence of search functionality.

Gratisography: offers free blog images from photographer Ryan McGuire. While lacking categories or sorting, it’s a great source for high-quality, general-purpose visuals.

Snapographic: boasts a beautiful collection of free, high-resolution photos from photographer Thomas Mühl. A key advantage is the categorization, albeit broad (animals, abstract, architecture, landscape, nature, textures, things), making it easier to filter photos. The entire collection is available for download for 10 euros.

99 Free Images from UsersThink: UsersThink provides a collection of 99 free images, requiring no attribution. Simply provide your email address, and they’ll send you the entire set! This collection features many general and tech-related photos, suitable for various blog post topics.

New Old Stock: offers vintage photos from public archives that are now open-source and free to use. This site has unique options, but be prepared to search, as there’s no categorization.

Picography: features stunning, high-resolution, attribution-free images. While there are no categories, you can subscribe for monthly new photo updates.

Unsplash: offers breathtaking photos – you’re guaranteed to find something you love within 30 seconds, or your image is free…! 😉 A big shout-out to the generous photographers sharing their work for free. 10 new photos are added every 10 days, so check back often (or subscribe!).

Split Shire: showcases more fantastic, free-to-use images from photographer/designer Daniel Hanescu. As a bonus, this resource includes categories for easier browsing.

Life of Pix: Life of Pix is another repository of copyright-free, public domain photos, offering a vast selection for free photo sharing. While lacking sorting options, it’s a treasure trove waiting to be explored.

Little Visuals: Sign up with Little Visuals to receive 7 new free high-resolution images in your inbox weekly! You can also browse their impressive collection of free downloadable pictures on the website.

Believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg! Discover even more free blog photo websites at Verve, the source of some of these highlighted platforms.

Free photo sharing sites like Flickr can also be used to source creative commons images.

These images can be used for free on your blog, as long as you adhere to the creative commons license restrictions, which typically involve attributing the original work and following other minor stipulations.

Free Blog Graphics and Vectors

Besides free photos, many websites offer royalty-free clip art and free vector graphics. Vector graphics are advantageous because they can be integrated into larger projects, such as infographics.

Unrestricted Stock: offers a great selection of free vectors and icon collections. While the selection is limited, everything is 100% free, with no attribution required.

Vecteezy: Vecteezy hosts a vast collection of free vector graphics for personal and commercial use. However, attribution to Vecteezy and the contributor, when applicable, is required. Vecteezy is a favorite for sourcing free infographic elements due to its extensive selection.

Open Clipart. Open clipart may not have the most visually appealing interface, but it proves that looks can be deceiving. It offers 100% free clip art with unlimited commercial use, all in the public domain and requiring no attribution. While the clip art might not always be stunning, there are hidden gems to be found!

With this extensive list, you should have plenty of free blog image options. But our journey doesn’t end here – it’s time for Phase 2!

Customizing Blog Post Photos: Creating Text Over Image Graphics

While simply adding high-quality, free images to your blog posts will enhance visual appeal and engagement, you can take it a step further with minimal effort and maximize their impact.

Text Overlay Images: Why They’re Awesome

Creating custom text overlay graphics for your blog posts offers significant benefits:

• Enhancing your blog’s professional appearance
• Increasing content credibility and trustworthiness
• Boosting click-through rates from social media
• Increasing shares and likes

Studies show the positive impact of images alongside social media posts. Custom title panels promoting your article with these images practically guarantee a surge in engagement metrics.

Brian Dean, aka Backlinko, highlights the significance of design in an OkDork guide on creating content that drives traffic (one of the top articles featured in our Top 31 Online Marketing Articles collection).

Brian emphasizes the value of investing $15-20 per post for a high-quality custom image, a practice he follows for every Backlinko post.

Here’s the best part: you don’t have to spend a dime! Excellent, high-quality tools are available to help you create stunning text image overlay visuals for your blog quickly and easily.

Custom Blog Post Image Generators

Let’s explore some fantastic text-over-image apps for creating captivating custom cover images for your blog.

Share As Image

Featured in our post on the best social media promotion tools, Share As Image makes creating text-on-image graphics incredibly simple.

Install the Chrome extension, highlight an image, click the bookmarklet, and your image will appear in a pop-out box with various customization options.

What’s great about this tool is that you don’t even need to download an image. Visit a site like Pixabay, and start customizing your blog pictures directly within your browser!

Share As Image lets you customize images with:

• Fonts: Choose from over 50 stylish fonts.
• Filters: Enhance your images with 16 Instagram-like filters.
• User-friendly interface: Easily customize text size, alignment, border colors, and background blocks.
• Multiple text fields: Use different fonts for different text sections.
• Image download: Download an SD version of your custom image.

For $8/month, unlock even more features with PRO:

• 1000+ Free Stock Photos: Access high-quality stock photos directly within the app.
• Add Your Own Logo: Replace the “Share As Image” logo with your own.
• HD Image Download: Download high-resolution versions of your creations.
• Templates: Utilize pre-designed templates and save your custom ones.
• Unlimited Photo Storage: Store and edit your custom images whenever you want.

Let’s break down how to create a custom text-on-image graphic with Share As Image:

Step 1: Choose an Image

Visit Pixabay and select your desired image.

Let’s say we’re feeling inspired by seagulls and want to feature this majestic bird. Right-click and select “share as image” or click the bookmarklet after installation.

Step 2: Add Text

Add your text, adjust the size using the slider, and experiment with font styles and colors. This design comprises six text boxes, each customized with different fonts, colors, and sizes for optimal placement and visual appeal.

Step 3: Apply Filters

Explore the filter options. While a particular filter might be visually appealing, it’s essential to ensure it doesn’t compromise text readability. In some cases, choosing your filter before finalizing your text is advisable.

Step 4: Save and Share

Hit “save and share” to share your text-on-image graphic on social media or download it for your blog post.

Even if you’re not using the pro version, browsing through Share As Image’s templates can provide valuable design inspiration.

Impressive, right? Create your free account at Share As Image and click “try it for free” (below the Buy Now button). Once you create an image, you’ll be prompted to create an account and install the bookmarklet.

Canva

Canva is another excellent free text-over-image generator for creating professional-looking blog post graphics.

Canva is a game-changer, empowering you to create designer-quality visuals. Key highlights include:

• Extensive library of layouts and templates: Choose from a vast collection of pre-designed templates (which you can customize).
• Over 120 fonts: A wide array of fonts to suit your style.
• Stunning text stickers, graphics, and buttons: This is where Canva truly shines.
• Image upload: Use your own images.
• No Canva watermark: Enjoy watermark-free creations.

Canva’s free plan is incredibly generous, offering a vast selection of high-quality graphics and stickers.

Explore some of Canva’s amazing free stickers.

There’s a minor catch – some Canva elements are paid (additional graphics cost $1). However, avoiding paid elements is easy unless you require specific images or graphics. The only area where the free selection might seem limited is backgrounds. However, solid color backgrounds often work better when utilizing Canva’s impressive buttons, lines, and sticker elements.

Free elements are clearly marked. Paid elements are unmarked (a $1 notice appears when hovering over them). Layouts with paid photos will have a Canva watermark, indicating their cost.

Canva is very user-friendly – simply drag and drop elements onto your canvas, then resize or rotate them as needed.

Canva offers various other editing features, including:

• Transparency adjustments
• Graphic layer management for arranging elements
• Adding links to individual elements

A standout feature is Canva’s ability to track your used colors, simplifying color matching (you can even change sticker graphic colors!).

Exporting from Canva is straightforward – download as an image file, export to PDF, or share a link.

Canva also provides helpful interactive tutorials to maximize your experience. They even have guides directly related to the topics covered here!

Share As Image vs. Canva

While both are great tools, Canva is like Share As Image on steroids, offering tenfold the capabilities. While Canva boasts superior customization, extra features, and bonuses, each tool has its place.

Be warned: Canva can be addictive. You can create professional-quality designs that might make people think you hired a designer. However, it can easily become a time-consuming endeavor. Share As Image, on the other hand, is much simpler and faster.

• For sophisticated graphics and extensive customization: Choose Canva.
• For simplicity and speed: Opt for Share As Image.

Other Text Overlay Tools

While Canva and Share As Image are excellent options, other text overlay image tools are worth considering:

• Adobe Illustrator: Adobe’s graphic design software enables the creation of vector graphics for everything from logos to posters. This powerful tool allows artists to create beautiful visuals. While there’s a learning curve, it’s worth exploring for advanced projects. Access it through Adobe Illustator starts at $240/year or download a free trial..
• Skitch from Evernote: Skitch allows you to edit screenshots, add text and graphics to images, and share your creations online. Skitch is user-friendly, free, and cross-device compatible, making it a versatile option.

Finally, let’s move on to the last step…

Sharing Your Custom Blog Images on Social Media

You now have stunning custom images that will elevate your blog posts.

These clickable images can be shared on social media. However, due to varying image size requirements across platforms, your pictures might not display correctly.

To maximize your custom blog images, create different sizes tailored to each social network. Don’t worry; it’s easier than it sounds!

The tools we discussed have built-in features for this purpose!

Share As Image allows you to adjust your image dimensions based on the intended social network.

Create your initial custom blog image, save it, and then use the “back” option.

You can then create different versions using the canvas shape dropdown menu. Switching between sizes might require minor text positioning and sizing adjustments.

Canva allows you to create projects based on specific social media image sizes – how convenient!

Unfortunately, Canva doesn’t allow adjustments to existing project designs, which is a downside. However, if you create your social media images immediately after the original, recreating them in different sizes shouldn’t be too difficult.

Check out our social media images guide, which provides image dimension and sizing information for different platforms. Sometimes, the simplest solution is manually cropping the original image in various ways.

Which Social Sites Need Custom Images?

While you might get away with posting your original custom blog image on some platforms (Facebook allows in-stream thumbnail cropping), others require significant customization.

Twitter image sizing is particularly tricky and deserves extra attention. Uploading any random image won’t work, as Twitter has very specific in-feed image size requirements.

Incorrect Twitter sizing can have awkward results.

However, the effort is worthwhile, as images in tweets significantly improve click-through rates.

Congratulations on reaching the end! It’s been a long journey – we hope you took a break when you needed it! You’re now equipped to create stunning custom text-over-image visuals for your blog posts!

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