Frequently Asked Questions

Email Preferences

• 1. How can I update my email preferences?

  You may opt-in or out from our newsletter in My Profile

Searching

• 2. Is membership free?

  Of course it is! We encourage you to sign up and join the community!

• 3. How long does the account activation process take?

  After signing up, you should be receiving the account activation e-mail within minutes.

• 4. I didn't receive my account activation code or password.

  If you didn't receive any e-mail after requesting your account info you can try requesting it again on the Forgot pass page, but in 99% of the cases your ISP, your company and their "spam" filters or policies are to blame. We absolutely don't recommend signing up from ISP's like AOL or Verizon for example. If you're not getting our e-mails please contact your ISP or the IT department at your company to fix the issue and have your account info sent again, or if it's not possible, contact us.

• 5. I can't log in / I forgot my password, what should I do?

  You can retrieve your username and password by typing your e-mail address on the Forgot pass page. After submitting the form you should receive your account information shortly. Please take a close look and try again. Make sure you have cookies enabled and your firewall settings are OK. If you don't receive your account information, please contact us. You'll probably need to change your e-mail address.

• 6. How can I change my username / password?

  Unfortunately you can't change your username. You can change your password at My account / Profile. Type the same new pass twice and it will be changed.

DOWNLOAD / IMAGE USE RELATED QUESTIONS

• 7. Are these images really free?

  Yes, they are free as long as you stick to the rules in the Image license Agreement. Also, in some cases you may need to notify the artists about using the images and sometimes you need to give credit to them. You can see these restrictions under the image previews, right next to the Download button.

• 8. Can I use these images for...

  You can use the images for almost anything. Of course, there are some no-no's and restrictions. Please check the corresponding part of the Image license Agreement or read this more simple explanation.

• 9. Can I get permission to use image #xxxxx?

  You need to get permission from the artist who uploaded it. Freeimages is only hosting the images. Click here to read more about getting permissions and contacting users.

• 10. How can I search for a photo by its number of file name?

  Just paste the number or the filename into the search box on the left, and you'll get to the photo preview page.

• 11. How can I contact an artist?

  If you would like to contact one of the artists you can send a message either by clicking on the little mail icon beside the nickname of the artist or by clicking on the "Contact user" button on the top of the artists' profile page. Click here to read more about contacting users.

• 12. I contacted a user but I got no reply. Can you help?

  Please note that we have no control over the artists' images, e-mail accounts and response time so we cannot guarantee that all of them will get back to you in a timely manner or at all. We can't contact them for you.

• 13. I can't find a photo I downloaded or not allowed to view it again.

  We have no control over the images of our artists. They come and go. If it's not there any more, it has probably been deleted from the site. Always make a note of the artist's username when you download a file from our site so that you can contact the person later if there's an emergency.

• 14. When I try to download a file I get a webpage.

  When you click download, the high res photo appears in a HTML page. On Windows you can save them by right clicking on them and selecting Save as, while on Mac you can save them by CTRL - clicking on them and selecting Save as. If you use Internet Explorer and it wants to save a BMP file, please empty your browser cache and try again!

• 15. Do you have a lightbox / favourites feature?

  Indeed we do. Please go to Browse / Lightboxes to take a look. You need to be logged in to use it. Add your favourite images and users! More information here.

CONTRIBUTOR QUESTIONS

• 16. How long does it take to approve my images?

  This may take a few hours / few days depending on how many images we have in the queue. The administrators checking your images are volunteers who do this in their free time. Thank you very much for your patience.

• 17. Why did my images get rejected?

  Photos are usually rejected due to excessive noise, blur, logos or trademarks etc. but there are a number of other reasons as well, and there are certain topics we don't like that much. If you want to know the rejection reason for a specific image just hover over the orange dot next to the image at My photos. You can learn more about upload rules here and we explain rejections here.

• 18. Can I sell my images on freeimages?

  No, you can't. It's against the site spirit and it's not allowed by the Terms of use. If you'd like to earn money with your images you can iStockphoto. They accept photos, illustrations, audio, and footage as well!