I've had some interesting conversations with clients recently about using images and fonts on their websites. One client, at the start of our project, casually mentioned wanting to replace all the photos on her site because she had grabbed them from Google—screenshots, even! Another client had paid a significant amount for her website, only to receive an unwelcome email requesting she pay for licensing the font used on her site. Needless to say, she wasn't too happy with her web designer (and no, it wasn't me! 😉).

I've seen extremes: people who are afraid to use any image they didn't personally photograph, and others who think anything found online is fair game. The truth lies somewhere in between. When using images for your website, you'll want to make sure you're using properly licensed stock photography. Fortunately, there are many excellent resources available. There can be a lot of nuance to this (specific licenses and uses, but we’re going to keep this simple).

Where to Find Stock Photography

Here are some great options for finding images. While some services like Adobe Stock have paid plans, many offer free options (Adobe Stock even lets you download 3 images per day for free):

• Unsplash: https://unsplash.com

• Pexels: https://www.pexels.com

• Pixabay: https://pixabay.com

• StockSnap.io: https://stocksnap.io

• Burst: https://burst.shopify.com

• Kaboompics: https://kaboompics.com

• Adobe Stock: https://stock.adobe.com

Services like Adobe Stock and Envato Elements (which is also worth mentioning) go beyond just photos—they provide icons and other graphic elements for your site as well.

What About Fonts?

When it comes to fonts, Squarespace includes many built-in options that should give you plenty of variety. However, if you're looking for something different, Google Fonts (fonts.google.com) offers a huge selection of free fonts that can be easily integrated into your website. Just keep in mind that implementing custom fonts requires some CSS knowledge, and your site's appearance can quickly go sideways if you're not familiar with font properties and fallbacks. Unless you're comfortable with web development, it's usually best to stick with your platform's built-in font options.

If You Don’t Want to Do It Yourself…

If you’re in the middle of sprucing up your website right now, I’m sure you know what a pain it can be—even just the images and fonts. If you want help, reach out for a Website Update from My Digital Maven.