Use and Compress Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash Images on your Website

If you are on a shoestring budget or if you are looking for a one-off stock image to use, the websites to choose from are ever-growing. From Pixabay and Pixels to Unsplash, the alternatives won’t leave you hanging.

One consideration with stock images is their size: high quality images are usually big in size as well. If user experience is a priority—as it should—using these images is not just about finding them, but also about delivering them as fast as possible. ImageRecycle’s compression is one solution to help you compress images from Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash and other stock image websites for your WordPress blog.

Using Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash Images on your WordPress Blog

Getting free stock images is the least of your concerns. Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash are huge repositories of free stock images for use anywhere. Downloading images can be as simple as visiting either of the three websites, looking up the subject of the image you need, downloading an image and using it on your WordPress blog.

Even easier, if you think you might be using Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash regularly, look them up in WordPress’ plugin repository. There, you will find official or unofficial plugins that not only let you browse and download stock images, but automatically import them into your WordPress media library.

The next headache is the one that most concerns your readers. Many stock images are not pictures taken by a smartphone, but they are often taken by professionals on high-end devices. That quality translates into large images and a proportionate size.

Size and quality do not have to be a compromise. Images are often unoptimized or contain redundant information that you can do without. ImageRecycle is a tool that automatically looks for unoptimized images, or images that can be compressed by removing information you are not likely to need in the future. As a result, you can do away with size while leaving the quality untouched.

Compressing Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash Images on your WordPress Blog

If you prefer to browse, download and import stock images from Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash manually, you are in full control over where the images are imported. On the other hand, if you want to use ImageRecycle on stock images imported from a plugin, you might find some stock images are not immediately available to be compressed.

Images might be missing because while some plugins save stock images immediately to your WordPress media library, others store them in a different folder. In such cases, you will need to find the path where the plugins store these images, usually from the plugin’s settings. Then, head to ImageRecycle’s own settings and add that path to the Include folders option so that ImageRecycle knows where to look for them.

With that issue aside, you can compress your Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash stock images as you would any other image you upload to your WordPress media library. Head to the ImageRecycle page from the Media menu, select the stock images you want to compress and optimize them, either individually or in bulk. Note that if you have updated the Include folders option, you may need to Index images from this same page.

Just how much compression will be applied to the images depends on various factors. For example, if the stock image is predominantly of the same color, then compression will reduce its size substantially. The compression factor also depends on the type of compression you choose.

You can compress stock images either with lossy or lossless compression. Lossy compression can reduce stock image sizes by up to 80%. Lossless compression can reduce image sizes by up to 20%, but these images can be reverted back to their original, uncompressed state, unlike with lossy compression. You can read more about the difference between lossy and lossless compression in this article.

Compressing images is not just about saving server space. More importantly than that, it is about making it easier for your readers—whether on desktop or mobile—to access your WordPress blog. With ImageRecycle, there is always a way to improve user experience by compressing images, regardless if you are using your personal media library, or stock images from Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash.