Particularly as a writer but in many other circumstances as well, you might come across the need for an image to complement your writing, presentation, or website. Fortunately, a good number of people post an even greater number of images online that are free to use under the Creative Commons stipulations. Unfortunately, finding these images and being sure to provide proper attribution can be a little complicated and intimidating to some of us. Fortunately, we now have Wylio.
Wylio addresses three issues:
- finding available images
- making them work for you
- Staying compliant with copyright and creative commons usage
Without Wylio you could search Flickr’s CC collection but that only takes care of the first issue. Wylio simplifies the entire process. When you first land on the site, you start off with a keyword search for the image you’re looking for. This will also search Flickr photos that others have uploaded as Creative Commons works (trusting them to use the license validly). From there, you’ll get your listing of pictures with thumbnails so you can easily find the perfect picture.
Once you click on a picture, you’ll get a little pop-up layer to customize the picture. You can choose how the picture aligns with text and the size of the image. You’ll get a live preview below with each change you make. Once you’re got it how you’d like it, you click the ‘get the code’ button.
The code you receive is simple HTML using CSS to implement your customizations. There is no messing around with Javascript or iframes. The image will be hosted by Flickr and you just have to paste the code into your site.
If you do any writing or graphic design, Wylio can help not only search for that perfect image but will also keep you in the copyright clear with the proper attribution. It also simplifies the process of getting the image you want the right size while leaving the hosting up to Flickr. For me, this is definitely a site finding its way to my bookmarks.