Pixabay

The more pictures you find online, the more difficult it gets to decide whether this picture can be legally used or not. And yes, it's not too difficult if you are ready to pay for high-quality images, because there are some awesome stock photo sites that have you covered. But in case your pockets are not too deep, or even if you are doing something on a shoestring budget for a pro bono cause, then you will want a source of pictures that's high quality, and also not expensive at all. And Pixabay.com, the site we are reviewing today actually exceeds those requirements because not only are the pictures high quality, but they are free as well!

Pixabay is an international community of photographers that share their pictures within a Creative Commons license. This site is headquartered in Germany, and is promoted by the team of Hans Braxmeier and Simon Steinberger.

Unlike many other free image sites, which call themselves copyright-free, Pixabay is a copyleft site. What is a copyleft site? This is a site offering people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative works created later.

Follow these steps to search for pictures on Pixabay.com:

1. Launch your web browser and open the Pixabay site, as shown in Figure 1, below. You may at this point in time sign up for the site. Doing so is not mandatory but it is certainly helpful and recommended.
2. 
   Figure 1: The Pixabay home page
2. Once you have signed and logged in, enter your search term in the Search box, highlighted in red within Figure 1, above.
3. We searched “beach umbrella” and retrieved results, as shown in Figure 2, below.
4. 
   Figure 2: Search results
4. Do note that the top row of search results are not from Pixabay; these are from other providers and are clearly labeled as Sponsored images, as highlighted in red within Figure 2, above. Clicking on any of the thumbnails within this area will take you to a paid stock photo site. For the free pictures, you can click on any of the thumbnails in the subsequent rows.
5. We clicked on one of the thumbnails, and this opens up the page for that particular picture, as shown in Figure 3, below.
6. 
   Figure 3: Picture page on Pixabay
6. Notice that you will see a larger preview of the picture, plus smaller thumbnails of similar pictures below the preview. Additionally, you can download the picture itself in several sizes, as listed on the right, shown in Figure 3, above. Select the size you want and click the prominent Download button—this will let you download the picture to your computer.