How To Create Amazing Blog Images [Resources]
If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you should include a relevant blog image for all of your posts.
Images are helpful all around — they help with engagement, shares, and even Google rankings. I’ve even talked about using images in tweets before to boost performance.
I’ve accumulated tons of links to great free blog image resources for years. Unfortunately, these links have been scattered everywhere:
- Bookmarks (in several browsers)
- Evernote notes
- Emailed links to myself
- Even written physical sticky notes
Then last weekend my wife was assigned the task of creating a brochure for work. She asked me about the tool that I like to use for Twitter images.
I started to answer her, but then I realized that there were just too many good resources to leave her with just one.
So instead I started compiling my master list of all my favorite blog / social media / brochure / invitation / etc. image tools and resources.
After I had gathered all the links together, I simply emailed them to her. But then I realized that it was an awesome list, one worthy of being shared with you, here.
The Ultimate List of Blog Image Tools
So here it is, my ultimate list of image creation tools, image editors, free stock imagery sources, infographic creators, some miscellaneous resources, and the one premium tool that’s actually worth paying for. This isn’t just another list of every single image creation tool out there. These are the services and resources that I’ve hand picked. These have stood the test of time (at least until Saturday, May 16, 2015) and are the easiest to use.
All-In-One Image Creation Tools
Canva
Canva is awesome. I’ve even talked about it before as one of my favorite blogging tools. It’s been my go-to tool for creating blog and social media images for a long time now.
It’s on a sort of “freemium” model, with the option to buy images within the platform for $1.00. However, for as long as I’ve been using it, I still haven’t spent any money on it (mostly thanks to the resources below).
Canva has a very simple user interface. You can choose a template then drag icons, text, backgrounds, and even your own images onto your template.
It comes packed with tons of fonts and style options so that you can create a unique image for every blog post.
If you’re not already using Canva, I highly suggest you start. It’s awesome, it’s free, and it will make your blogging so much easier.
Pablo
One of Buffer’s side projects, Pablo is a new all-in-one image creator.
Pablo’s options are limited purposely, in order to help you keep image creation to the necessities. The tagline for Pablo couldn’t be more fitting — “Design engaging images for your social media posts in under 30 seconds”.
You can add headline text, a sub-headline, logo, and a background photo. There are a few minimalistic styling options, but nothing too crazy.
Everything here is about creating a simple image really fast.
Photo / Image Editors
PicMonkey
PicMonkey is a really easy to use free online photo editor. To get started you select what you want to do:
- Edit
- Touch Up
- Design
- Collage
It doesn’t really matter which option you select, as you’ll just start off in a related area of the editor interface.
Once you’re in the interface, you’ll see dozens of options for basic edits, effects, touch ups, text, overlays, frames, textures, and themes. There are so many things you can do in PicMonkey, there’s no excuse for not making your images the best they can be.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a more advanced online photo editor. It has options for layers, filters, smart “wand” selections, and more. If you’ve used apps like Photoshop or Pixelmator before, you’ll feel right at home with Pixlr.
While this app does have a bit of a learning curve compared to Canva or PicMonkey, it also has a lot of power, enabling more advanced image editing.
Free Stock Images
TheStocks.im
The Stocks is basically a stock image aggregator.
You navigate different stock imagery sites using the links on the left bar. You might notice that some of the links there are also included below, as there is some overlap.
Overall, it’s a great place to find lots of different stock imagery styles. Most of the time, I don’t even have to leave this website to find an image I like.
Unsplash is one of my favorite stock image sites and is included first in the list, for good reason.
The one nuance is that there isn’t an overall search function, because it is simply pulling in a bunch of different websites. Luckily, some of the sites like Pexels (see below) have their own search.
Because everything is royalty free you don’t have to worry about paying or anything like that.
Unsplash
As I mentioned above, Unsplash is one of my favorite stock image sites. I just really like their photography style and the quality of their images.
They have outdoor photos as well as more classic indoor stock photography. They’ve also recently added a search function which makes it much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.
10 new photos are added every 10 days, so make sure to keep checking back in for new awesomeness.
Pexels
Pexels is my go-to site if I have something in mind to find, or even if I just want to browse some awesome images.
The search function is really good and lets you find exactly what you’re looking for, if they have the image in stock.
They have plenty of high resolution, professional quality images, all royalty free. Most of the images here are outdoors, but there is also a good mix of other stock imagery.
Most of the images are great for blurring out slightly and overlaying some text for a blog post image.
PhotoPin
PhotoPin has a great search function and tons of images pulled from the Creative Commons.
Because the images come from the Creative Commons, in most cases you’ll need to give photo credit. Luckily, PhotoPin makes this super easy.
When you click to download an image, you can select the image size you want and PhotoPin automatically generates HTML code for attribution. This way you don’t have to worry about formatting or anything. You can just upload the image to your site and add the attribution with it.
PhotoPin is supported by premium images which show up at the top of search results pages, but there are plenty of free images as well.
Pixabay
Pixabay has nearly 400,000 images in their repository, and all of them can be used without any worries. You don’t need to add attribution, and you can use them in work where you’ll be paid.
When you perform a search, the first few images are sponsored by Shutterstock. They’ll have a faded out watermark. However, all of the rest of the images are totally free for use.
When you click in to an image, Pixabay even gives you more information such as the photographer, type of camera used, camera settings, and more.
Pixabay’s huge inventory and ease of use definitely makes it one of my favorites.
Infographic Creators
easel.ly
As the URL suggests, easel.ly makes creating infographics very easy. You start off with either a blank slate or a pre-built template.
From there, you can customize your infographic. There are options to add new objects, backgrounds, shapes, text, charts, or your own images.
The interface is simple and easy to use to create awesome looking infographics.
Update: Canva has added infographic templates, so you might want to try those out as well.
Miscellaneous
Blurgrounds
Inspiration Hut has provided a great free resource for background images.
The images are very simple abstract blends of two or three colors. They are great to use when there isn’t an applicable stock image, or when you don’t want to use a plain solid color background.
So far they’ve released 120 variations, all free for you to download and use in your projects.
Subtle Patterns
Sometimes an image or colored background just doesn’t meet my design needs. In that case, a pattern may fit the bill.
Subtle Patterns has 400 nicely designed stock patterns for use on your website, images, or anywhere else you may need the use them. They also have a Photoshop plugin ($11.99) so that you can easily feed all of the patterns into your Photoshop panel.
Iconfinder
Icon Finder has been a lifesaver for me many times. There are some cases where Canva just doesn’t have the right icon, or in the right style.
The service includes 525,000+ free and premium icons in a multitude of styles. The filtering system is very easy to use, and you can easily find just free icons.
The One Paid Tool That’s Actually Worth It
99designs
Up to this point, all of the resources I’ve mentioned have been free, or at least “freemium”. However sometimes you just need to shell out a little cash to get a truly premium result.
One good example of this would be for your website logo. Your website logo is a permanent and prominent fixture on your website. Because of this it is often wise to invest some money into making it the best possible.
99designs is an awesome and affordable service. For as low as $299 you can have professional designers compete to win your favor.
Best of all, the process is really easy.
You just sign up, post your request, choose a design package, and then amazing designers from all over the world will send in their version for your logo or graphic.
Then you get to choose the one you like best and the winner gets the money, while you get the downloadable high quality file.
It’s a great system for website owners like you and me. We get to have an awesome graphic, but we also get ideas.
While you can only download the graphic you chose as the winner, you can of course look at the other options. This gives you the opportunity to think of other graphics to design in the future. It can also teach you about various design styles that you can try to mimic.
I recommend the free tools above for normal everyday blog images. However, I advise using 99designs for logos and other prominent graphics because of their intrinsic value.
The link above to 99designs is an affiliate link, so I do make a small commission if you use it, at no extra cost to you. If you do wind up signing up through my link, thank you so much in advance!
Summary
There are hundreds, if not thousands of image and graphic creation tools available online.
However, many of those tools are difficult to use, overly monetized, or outdated. In addition, there are many cases where stock photos provided on a site have confusing attribution policies or use cases.
Because of all this, the list above is my personally curated blog image resource list. And now it’s yours to do with as you like.
So when you’re writing your next blog post, keep these tools in mind. You could even bookmark this page so that you can always come back to it whenever you need it.
If you use any awesome tools that I’ve missed, give me a shout. Otherwise, go forth and make awesome images!
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Originally published at smartwebsitemarketing.com on May 19, 2015.
