21 websites for free illustrations

What do you do when you need a good looking and free illustration? Do you have a favorite place where to find and download them?

Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

In any case, we have carefully prepared a list to help you choose the most appropriate illustrations. If you need a source of free illustrations, this may come in handy.

Too lazy to read? Go straight to the list!

Illustration and modern web

Look at web design today. Graphical elements are an important part of the overall user experience.

It doesn't matter if your web project needs simple icons or full-fledged illustrations. Adding some graphics can improve the design and the user experience.

Why have illustrations become such a prominent trend in web design anyway? It's because they can easily convey the purpose of a product or service through well-chosen visual elements.

Unlock the potential

Ready-made illustrations save you time, especially when you need to create a design quickly. They're also a great source of inspiration.

Of course, you can use illustrations for more than just web design. They can be used in presentations, videos, or just about anywhere where a picture is worth a thousand words.

Where to find free illustrations

We have selected the following websites where you can download illustrations and icons for free.

Many of these sites offer illustrations as vectors (curves). This is a great advantage because you can scale the images up or down without losing quality. Unlike bitmap (raster) images.

Vector or bitmap?

Vector images have an advantage over bitmaps. They are flexible and therefore do not lose their quality even if you enlarge them beyond their original size.

Bitmap images are made up of a large number of small, equally sized pixels. These are folded into a grid (columns and rows) to represent the image. Photos taken with a mobile phone or digital camera are examples of such bitmap images.

Choosing web image formats

Deciding which type is better always depends on the type of image and its use. For illustrations, it is usually better to use some vector format. Because you can resize the image and not only that. You can also easily modify the illustration itself, including colors, individual lines and curves.

For vector images on web pages, the most common format used is SVG, which is now understood by most browsers. The resulting images are small in size and sharp on all devices and screens.

Raster graphics are suitable for photographs. PNG and JPG are the most commonly used formats for web projects, although new formats are also emerging. Unfortunately, they may not yet be fully supported by all browsers.

Websites where you can download free illustrations for commercial use

Below is a list of sites where you can download the illustrations free of charge and without attribution. Although you don't have to credit the author, it's important because it shows respect for the creators' efforts.

Oh, did we mention that you DON'T need to create an account? Cute!

Always remember to make sure that the downloaded work has either a Public Domain or CC0 license.

  1. unDraw
  2. Ira Design
  3. Iconmonster
  4. ManyPixels
  5. Illustration
  6. Big Heads
  7. Open Peeps
  8. 3D Bay
  9. pixabay
  10. Illu-station
  11. Lukasz Adam
  12. Tabler Icons
  13. Heroicons
  14. Feather
  15. Pimp my drawing
  16. Public domain vectors
  17. Doodle Ipsum
  18. Old book illustrations
  19. Open Clipart
  20. Lineicons
  21. Ultima

Don't forget the story

Web graphics work best when they're consistent with the story you're trying to tell your audience.

Therefore, the illustrations you choose should always reflect the type of service or product you offer. Use visuals as an additional form of communication that appropriately complements the text.