Tips on searching images for printing

A good picture is worth a thousand words. Whether used along with text and other visual elements or individual, the images are often central elements for printing materials. It is therefore important that the images used have a higher quality. Below are some tips that will help you find the desired image with good quality in the shortest time.

Google Images

Everyone agrees that Google is the largest search engine in the world and you’ve probably used Google to search images. The folks at Google have improved their search engine for images and added a number of features that made Google Images the first candidate for images search. Google domination is because their results are often adapted for the user’s need.

Search using text

The classic method of using Google Images is to press certain key words to find a picture. And with this simple search, the results can be very good if you follow a few simple tips:

• You will get much more results if use as search terms english words (for translations from other languages can be used translate.google.com).
• Use singular words as search terms, of general sense and synonyms for the word you are looking for more varied results.
• You can increase the accuracy and effectiveness of your search using Google” search operators”. To search for a picture after an exact phrase put the search terms in quotation marks. If you put a minus sign in front of a search term, in the results displayed you will not find images that correspond to that term. The sign “|” replace the ”or” and the results will contain images for one or the other term.

How do I find an image of the desired size?

If you want to search for an image that must have certain sizes – for example a picture for your computer wallpaper or a picture big enough to print – use the option Size, that you can find under the More Tools menu. This option allows you to filter the results so you can see only the images to the desired sizes. If the exact size of the image does not matter you can use more general terms like large or medium. You can also get more accurate results by choosing higher than / larger than to find images that have at least a certain size. If you do not know exactly what size your image should have for an excellent print, you can consult our article How many pixels we need for a good print ?.

Other Google Images options

More Tools menu contains other options that can facilitate finding the desired image. If you want your image to predominate in a particular color or black and white, you can use the Color option. Also, Google will provide the Type option, with which you can search photo type images, graphics, animations etc.

Search for an image using another image

Search Engine by pictures from Google is a great way by which you can find more information about an image. At the same time, you can use this option to find a desired image at a resolution much better. To upload an image in the search engine, you can use three ways. The first way consists in entering the URL in Google Images page with the option Search by picture (the  camera icon btton). Also with this option you can specify an address of your computer and the image will be loaded from there. A third variant consists in “drag and drop” where the user simply pulls the image in the Google Images window.

Use Rights

ATTENTION! Google Images and other search engines for pictures help you find the best online images, but that does not mean that the found images can be used for any project. Many of these images are copyrighted and may be used only for personal use. If you intend to use them in projects or products that are not personal, make sure that does not violate the law. For this you can use Usage Rights and select the desired option and the results will be filtered properly.

Free Images and with use rights

If you find too difficult the search on Google or if you want to be sure that images found will not create problems in terms of usage rights, you can use one of the sites below that provides free images that are not copyright protected.

• Pixabay offers free images without copyright. You can copy, modify, redistribute and even use these images for commercial purposes. In addition you do not need to register.
• Free Images has a gallery of over 350,000 images arranged by category. Downloading is simple and the registration is not needed.
• MorgueFile contains images uploaded by many artists that can be used for various projects by users. A short registration is required and the site requires the users to credit the author when possible.
• Public Domain Pictures has a wide variety of images uploaded by amateur photographers. The site requires registration.
• Wikimedia Commons is a database that contains over 20 million images that can be used freely by any user.

Images of the highest quality

If your project requires one or more high quality images, the recommended solution is to use specialists in the field: sites with stock images. Images of high quality which are suitable for almost any project can be purchased at most times very good on sites like: iStock, Dreamstime, Shutterstock, Fotolia or Bigstock (to name only a few). Once the images purchased can be used for both personal and commercial projects.

Whatever the way you  search to find a picture, you have to keep always in mind that pictures are often the most important role in a graphic. If you have any questions about design, do not hesitate to contact us, we are always willing to help.