Images on your website should be useful, not decorative, and must comply with any conditions of use.

When choosing images it's important to find images that:

  • support your content
  • are high quality
  • are owned by UQ or you have permission to use.

You should avoid:

  • original works that don't allow modification
  • photos of people (if you don't have permission to use their image)
  • images with embedded text, as assistive technologies or search engines cannot read these.

Once you've sourced your images, you'll must optimise them for the web.

Finding UQ-related images

There's a few places to search for images depicting UQ:

  • UQ DAM (staff login required) - more information on accessing and using the DAM is available.
  • UQ News – search the articles to see if another organisational unit already has images on your topic. Contact the organisational unit that published the article for permission to use an image.
  • UQ eSpace advanced search – search using display type 'Image Version MODS 1.0'. Once you've selected an image, check the 'Rights' section for copyright information.

Using external images

Avoid using stock images if possible as they can devalue your content. If you need advice on sourcing stock images, contact damsupport@uq.edu.au.

If you can't find suitable content on the DAM, refer to the section below for accessing and using external content.

Using stock images

UQ has a paid subscription to Adobe Stock images for staff to use. These include photos, illustrations, icons and vectors. 

Instructions about accessing stock images are available from Adobe Stock for staff, or contact damsupport@uq.edu.au for further advice.

If staff are using other service providers such as Openverse or Wikimedia commons you are responsible for ensuring they are in the public domain (not subject to copyright) and are creative commons licensed. You must follow the sites’ attribution guidelines.

Provided external images

If you are provided with an image or content from an external source, you must ensure they have the appropriate permissions from the copyright holder.

This must be done in writing, and recorded on the Register of Third-Party Copyright Works on UQ Websites.

If you need help getting permission, or have questions about the copyright status of an image, contact copyright@library.uq.edu.au.

Crediting images

It's your responsibility to understand and comply with any conditions of use associated with images on your website.

If you use an image that you do not own, but have permission to use, you'll need to credit the image by adding a caption below the image. 

Use the following format to credit the image: ‘© 2025 J Smith. Used with permission’.

Credit the image at the bottom of your page if you can't add a caption.