TAKE STOCK: 30+ Background & Stock Image Sites

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One of the roughest parts of web design, or even writing a daily personal blog, is finding quality images you can use without fear of copyright violation. We've gathered together 30+ sources for backgrounds and stock photo sites for you. Now, you can concentrate on design and writing without fear that the image you're using isn't really free to use.

Backgrounds

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Background-Graphics.com - Free seamless background graphics that only suggest a backlink as thanks for the use. Available to use on both personal and commercial sites.

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Background Image Maker - Allows you to generate backgrounds for your website in different patterns and colors.

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GamingTextures.com - Hundreds of textures you can download and use for your backgrounds.

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Gradient Image Maker - Select two colors and auto-generate a gradient background for your use.

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Kollermedia.at - Offers over 250 background-patterns for you to use free of charge.

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Pixel Patterns - Over 900 free pixel patterns for you to use for on your site. Most are available for both commercial and personal use.

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SquidFingers - Over 150 patterns you can use with your site, the author requests a backlink as thanks.

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StripeGenerator.com - Generate striped backgrounds and then download your CSS ready file.

Stock Photos

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AarinFreePhoto.com - The site has over 900 photos. The photos are free to use, but you must credit the author.

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Alamy.com - A search engine for nearly 10 million stock photos, prices can be a bit high, but the quality is excellent.

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DesignPacks.com - Free design packs that contain 15 commonly themed, high res images.

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DreamsTime.com - Over 1.7 million stock photos for as low as $.26 each.

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Flickr.com - Search for Creative Commons licensed photos that you can use on any site.

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Fotolia - Over 2.3 million stock photos, royalty free, and reasonably priced.

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FreeFoto.com - Over 100,000 free photos for your use, only requires a link back.

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FreePhotoBank.com - Over 4,000 free to use photos. If you use any, link back to the source.

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FreePixels.com - Over 3,000 free photos for you to use on personal and commercial projects so long as you provide a link back.

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FreeRangeStock.com - Free membership, free photos, all with a minimum size of 2400 X 1600 pixels.

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FreeStockPhotography.com - Over 800 free to use photos that anyone can download quick and easily.

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FreeWebPhoto.com - Over 800 images for your use with link back attribution.

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ImageAfter.com - Free images and backgrounds that range in size from 1600 x 1200 to 2560 x 1920. All are usable on personal or commercial sites.

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iStockPhoto - No free images here, but all images come in multiple sizes, are crisp & clear, and offer different levels of licensing.

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MorgueFile - A stock photo site offering completely free photography for your creative pursuits.

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OpenStockPhotography.com - A search engine to go through all of the Wikimedia Commons images, which as of April 2007 was over 1.3 million.

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Photogen.com - Offers 60 pages of completely free stock photos for your use on any kind of project.

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PixelPerfectDigital.com - Over 5,500 free stock photos including textures for background use.

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Sierrastock.com - A stock photo site that allows you to search by content or color.

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Stockvault.net - Over 8,000 royalty free photos for your personal and education related projects.

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Stockxpert - Royalty free pictures for as low as $1.00 for 800x600 images.

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SXC.hu - one of the best (and biggest) repositories of completely free stock photography on the net.

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VintagePixels.com - Over 900 vintage photos that are free to use an that anyone can add to.