What gets listed, and what the tags mean.
PicRefs is an index, not a library. We don't host images, mirror collections or embed anything. Every entry is a link out to the institution that owns the material, with a short note on what it's good for.
What each rights tag means for you
CC0Dedicated to the public domain. Download it, modify it, sell work made from it. No permission, no attribution required. The safest category by a distance.
Public domainOut of copyright, effectively the same freedom as CC0, but some institutions attach requests or conditions of their own and rules can vary by country. Check the individual object page before commercial use.
FreeThe site is free to browse and use as reference, but the images stay under someone's copyright. Study from them, measure them, draw from them. Don't republish or resell the photographs themselves.
Reference onlyCopyrighted photography, usually auction or commercial. Look at it, learn from it, use it to get a shape right. Do not download and redistribute, don't photobash it into work you sell, don't treat it as stock.
Two things worth saying plainly. Some sources have mixed licensing per item — iNaturalist is the clearest example, where the licence sits on the individual photograph. And drawing something accurately from reference is normal practice; copying a photograph closely enough that the photograph is recognisable in your work is a different question. Where the line sits is your call, not ours.
How a source earns a place
Real photographs onlyInstitutional archives and photographic records of real objects. There is no upload button anywhere in this index, which is what keeps generated images out — not moderation, just the absence of a way in.
Depth, not one good shotMultiple angles, high resolution, or documentation attached: dimensions, materials, construction. A single flattering hero image isn't reference.
Stable and publicArchives that stay online. Rotating shopfronts and pages that vanish after a sale don't qualify unless the archive persists.
Rights you can actually readIf we can't tell you what you're allowed to do with the images, it doesn't get listed.
Links get re-checkedEvery entry carries the month it was last verified. Anything that breaks, moves behind a paywall or quietly loses public access gets fixed, re-tagged or pulled.
Nobody pays to be hereNo sponsored listings, no paid placement, no affiliate ranking, no ads. Paid sources appear only when they're genuinely the best option, and they're labelled paid.
Submitting a source
The best submissions are the ones nobody thinks of as art resources: dealer inventories, scientific specimen databases, conservation records, technical manuals, municipal photo archives. Those tend to be the highest quality and the least indexed.
Not affiliated
Institution and company names are used descriptively to identify their collections. PicRefs has no affiliation with, endorsement from, or partnership with any organisation listed here.
Design prototype. The sources on the main page are real and were verified while building this. The board saves nothing permanently, and the monthly re-checking described here is a statement of intent rather than a running system.