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A complete list of free resource sites for designers/programmers
Free resources · Quick reference manual · Selected 70+ sites · All free or with free version · Updated April 2026
Making PPTs, writing articles, building public accounts, making videos—finding materials and finding hair loss?
Today, I have compiled all the most commonly used 70+ free resource sites for designers and programmers, covering seven major categories: image libraries, fonts, icons, illustrations, color schemes, design tools, and prototype tools. **Each site has been verified, all free or includes free versions. Recommended to save for future use. **
All site data comes from internet research (April 2026). License agreements may change at any time. Please double-check each site’s latest license terms before commercial use.
1. Top 15 Free Image Libraries
Finding images is the most frequent need. These 15 gallery covers landscapes, people, food, e-commerce, creative scenarios, and more, all free for commercial use.
| Station | Website | Permission | Highlights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unsplash | unsplash.com | Free for commercial use | Over 3 million high-quality art photos, with no ownership requirements |
| Pexels | pexels.com | Free for commercial use | 3 million+ free high-definition photos and videos, available in 28 languages |
| Pixabay | pixabay.com | Free for commercial use | 4.5 million+ photos/illustrations/vectors/videos/music |
| Reshot | reshot.com | Free for commercial use | 25,000+ non-material-like authentic photos, startup style |
| Burst by Shopify | burst.shopify.com | Free for commercial use | Focused on e-commerce/entrepreneur scenarios, 29,000+ RMB |
| Gratisography | gratisography.com | Free for commercial use | Photos in quirky/fun/creative styles |
| NegativeSpace | negativespace.co | CC0 | 4700+ CC0 high-definition photos, sorted by label and color |
| Kaboompics | kaboompics.com | Free for commercial use | 20,000+ lifestyle/indoor/food photos, with built-in color options |
| StockSnap.io | stocksnap.io | CC0 | High-quality CC0 photos, supports online editing |
| Life of Pix | lifeofpix.com | CC0 | 4500+ landscape/architectural/nature photos |
| ISO Republic | isorepublic.com | CC0 | 6000+ photos and videos, updated daily |
| Morguefile | morguefile.com | Free for commercial use | 400,000+ free photos, a classic 2006 stock gallery |
| FreeImages | freeimages.com | Partially free | 300,000+ classic style photos |
| Nappy | nappy.co | Free for commercial use | Focus on high-quality photos of Black/Brown people |
| Picjumbo | picjumbo.com | Free for commercial use | 6800+ free photos, strong food/nature/people categories |
The three giants of image libraries: Unsplash (the most artistic), Pexels (also rich in videos), and Pixabay (the most comprehensive).
2. Free fonts
Font copyright is a blind spot for many beginners—misuse may lead to legal risks. All fonts provided by the following sites are free for commercial use.
| Station | Website | Explanation | Permission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Fonts | fonts.google.com | 1500+ open-source fonts, available in both Chinese and Spanish | SIL OFL/Apache |
| Font Squirrel | fontsquirrel.com | 100% free commercial font aggregation site | All free for commercial use |
| DaFont | dafont.com | Tens of thousands of free fonts, decorative, handwritten, and pixel styles | Some are free for individuals only |
| FontSpace | fontspace.com | 160,000+ free fonts, designer-reviewed | Most are free for commercial use |
| Fontesk | fontesk.com | High-quality free fonts with strong design sense | Each font is licensed independently |
| 1001 Fonts | 1001fonts.com | Preview paragraph effects and support filtering for commercial use | Can be filtered for commercial use |
| League of Moveable Type | theleagueofmoveabletype.com | Open source font alliance, extremely high quality | SIL OFL |
| Behance Fonts | behance.net/search/fonts | Free font projects uploaded by designers | Most are free for commercial use |
⚠️ Some fonts on DaFont are free for personal use only; commercial use requires separate confirmation.
3. Free icon library
Creating interfaces, PPTs, and blogs all rely on icons. All support SVG format.
| Icon library | Explanation | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| Font Awesome | 2000+ free SVG/Web Font icons | CC BY 4.0 + MIT |
| Heroicons | Produced by the Tailwind team, 200+ exquisite SVGs | MIT |
| Lucide | 800+ icons, supports React/Vue/Angular | ISC |
| Bootstrap Icons | 2000+ SVG and Web Font icons | MIT |
| Tabler Icons | 5600+ pixels with perfect SVG icons | MIT |
| Phosphor Icons | Supports five font weights: Thin, Light, Regular, Thick, and Fill | MIT |
| Ionicons | 1300+ icons, three styles: outline, filled, and sharp | MIT |
| Feather Icons | 280+ minimalist line icons | MIT |
| Iconoir | 1200+ hand-drawn style icons | MIT |
| Boxicons | 1500+ modern-style icons | CC BY 4.0 |
| Remix Icon | 2800+ neutral style system icons | Apache 2.0 |
| Simple Icons | 3100+ brand logo SVG icons | CC0 |
How to choose an icon library? Use Lucide for general projects; Use Simple Icons for brand logos; Use Bootstrap Icons directly for Bootstrap projects.
4. Free illustration materials
Good illustrations instantly elevate pages. Supports SVG format with customizable colors.
| Station | Style/Description | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| unDraw | Open-source SVG illustrations, customizable brand colors, unified style | Free for commercial use |
| Stories by Freepik | Dynamic/static story illustrations | Free (subject to ownership) |
| DrawKit | Modern style SVG illustration collection, modular and combinable | Partially free |
| Humaaans | Mixable Character Illustration Component Library (by InVision) | CC BY 4.0 |
| Open Peeps | Hand-drawn style character illustration library | CC0 |
| Blush Design | Artists can create and customize colors online | Free (subject to ownership) |
| IRA Design | Gradient style illustration component library | Free (subject to ownership) |
| Ouch (Icons8) | Multiple styles (flat, 3D, line, etc.) | Free (subject to ownership) |
| Delesign | Weekly updates, customizable main color tone | Free for commercial use |
unDraw is the Unsplash of illustration—completely free, customizable brand colors.
5. Color matching tools
Color schemes are the soul of design. These tools help you quickly generate, browse, and fine-tune color schemes.
| Tools | Website | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Coolors | coolors.co | Spacebar random generation, lock-in fine-tuning, Figma plugin |
| Adobe Color | color.adobe.com | Color Wheel/Extraction/Accessibility Check/Trend Exploration |
| Color Hunt | colorhunt.co | Manually selected color schemes with one-click replication of color values |
| ColorDrop | colordrop.io | Thousands of color options, AI-generated new solutions |
| Huemint | huemint.com | AI-driven color schemes generate for brands, websites, and print prints |
| ColorMagic | colormagic.app | Generate color schemes from text/images/color values |
| ColourCode | toptal.com/designers/colourcode | Mouse movements generate color schemes |
| SuperColorPalette | supercolorpalette.com | Adjust hue/saturation/brightness generation |
Quick color scheme: Coolors (random spacebar) + Color Hunt (directly copy homework).
6. Online design tools
Don’t want Photoshop? These online tools are more than enough.
| Tools | Explanation | Free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Canva | A fully functional online design platform integrating templates and AI tools | Free basic version |
| Photopea | Browser-side Photoshop, supports PSD/XD/Sketch | Free (including ads) |
| GIMP | An open-source image editor with features close to Photoshop | Open source and free of charge |
| Inkscape | An open-source vector graphics editor that replaces Illustrator | Open source and free of charge |
| Vectr | A free online vector graphics editor suitable for beginners | Free of charge |
| Remove.bg | AI cuts out images with one click, removes background in 5 seconds | Free of charge: 1 ticket per session |
| TinyPNG | PNG/JPEG lossless compression, reduced by 50-80% | Free of 20 tickets per session |
| Squoosh | Google-produced image compression, supports WebP/AVIF | Free and open source |
7. Prototype/UI tools
Engaged in app design, web prototyping, and prototype demonstrations.
| Tools | Explanation | Free plan |
|---|---|---|
| Figma | Industry-standard collaborative design platform, UI/UX/prototype | Three free items |
| Penpot | An open-source Figma alternative, supports CSS Grid, and can be self-hosted | Open source and free of charge |
| Mockup World | Lots of free sample templates (mobile/computer/packaging PSD) | Free of charge |
| Smartmockups | Online prototype generator, no PS required | Free basic version |
| Framer | Interactive prototyping and website building tools | Two free activities |
Figma is the industry standard; the free version with three projects is enough for personal use. If you care about privacy and data sovereignty, choose Penpot.
Summary: Only one is selected per category
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📸 Gallery: Unsplash — 3 million+ high-quality photos, the best search experience
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🔤 Fonts: Google Fonts — 1500+ open-source fonts, zero-cost web embedding
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🎯 Icons: Lucide — 800+ exquisite SVG icons, best frame support
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🎨 Illustration: unDraw — open-source SVG illustrations with customizable brand colors
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🌈 Color Schemes: Coolors — Random spacebar color, Figma plugin integration
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🛠️ Design :P hotopea — Browser-based Photoshop, supports PSD format
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📐 Prototype: Figma — Industry standard, with the richest plugin ecosystem
70+ free resource sites, covering the entire process from image search to design. **Recommended to save this and use it directly next time you make PPTs, articles, or videos. **
HyphenTech · Let AI Be Your Superpower · hyphentech.top
🧰 Tools I build
I maintain all of these tools myself. Preview builds are clearly labeled; the release pages are the source of truth for downloads, updates and known limits.
Info: HyphenBox Status: Official releases
A radar for free LLM APIs: availability is re-tested continuously, one local interface for all of them, and keys stay on your machine
Info: LocalBrain Status: Official releases
A multimodal MCP toolbox for local models: TTS, Whisper and video generation in one place
Info: ScreenLex Status: Official releases
Learn new words while you watch shows. Free, for Mac and Windows
Info: HyphenScreen Status: Official releases
Screen recording and smart editing in one: a DaVinci-style timeline, automatic redaction and a check of the finished video before export. Free
Quote: HyphenTech Make AI your superpower Local deployment · Free resources · Self-made software https://hyphentech.top
Late nights and burned API credits went in,a cup of tea comes back out — only if you feel like it.
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