In today's digital landscape, the power of visual content cannot be underestimated. Whether you're running an e-commerce business, managing a social media account, building an app, or running a blog, captivating images are essential to engage and captivate your audience. However, the process of acquiring or producing images can often be challenging, with copyright restrictions, time constraints, and creativity limitations.
Thankfully, technology has come to the rescue with innovative solutions that streamline image production and automate processes. One such solution is the use of image APIs, which are revolutionizing the way we create visuals. In this article, we will explore five image APIs that you should consider incorporating into your projects to elevate your visual content in 2024.
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1. Lorem Picsum
Lorem Picsum is a free image generation API that allows you to generate random images with custom dimensions and filters.
The Picsum.Photos API allows developers to generate images with specific dimensions, formats, and effects. Whether you need a square thumbnail, a high-resolution banner, or a blurred background image, the API offers a range of customization options. By tailoring the image generation process to your exact requirements, you can ensure that the visuals seamlessly integrate into your project, resulting in a visually appealing and cohesive user experience.
The API works in a simple way. To request an image, you construct a URL with specific parameters. The structure of the URL follows the format: https://picsum.photos/{width}/{height}. Replace {width} and {height} with the desired dimensions of the image in pixels. For example, to generate a square image of 500x500 pixels, the URL would be https://picsum.photos/500/500.
It's easy to use and requires no coding knowledge, making it perfect for non-technical users who want to create stunning visuals without breaking a sweat.
2. Unsplash Image API
The Unsplash Image API grants you access to an expansive library of high-resolution images, featuring an impressive variety of themes, styles, and subjects. From breathtaking landscapes to exquisite still life compositions, the Unsplash Image API ensures that you can find the perfect visual assets to enhance your projects. With millions of curated images at your fingertips, you can effortlessly discover and incorporate captivating visuals that align with your unique vision.
The Unsplash Image API is free to use and offers a generous rate limit of 5,000 requests per hour. The API also provides a range of customization options, including image size, orientation, and quality. You can also filter images by category, color, and collections.
Unsplash provides Software Development Kits (SDKs) to simplify the integration process across different platforms and programming languages. These SDKs include:
- PHP (unsplash/unsplash-php)
- Ruby (unsplash/unsplash_rb)
- Javascript (unsplash/unsplash-js)
- iOS (unsplash/unsplash-photopicker-ios)
- Android (unsplash/unsplash-photopicker-android)
The Unsplash Image API has gained widespread popularity and is leveraged by numerous prominent websites across different industries. Some notable examples are Medium, Trello and Dropbox. The API is also used by a variety of mobile apps, including the popular photo editing app VSCO.
Currently, over 20000 applications are powered by the Unsplash API.
3. Remove.bg
The Remove.bg API is a powerful and user-friendly solution designed to automatically remove backgrounds from images using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms. The API allows developers to integrate this background removal feature into their applications, websites, or workflows, making it simple and efficient to create professional-quality images with transparent backgrounds.
The Remove.bg image API works by processing the input image and identifying the subject or foreground elements, while accurately distinguishing them from the background. The AI model then removes the background, resulting in a clean image with a transparent background, which can be easily used for various purposes, such as graphic design, photo editing, online stores, and marketing materials.
The API includes a number of parameters to customize the background removal process. The documentation provides detailed information on how to use the API and its various features, including sample code in multiple languages, as well as libraries Ruby, PHP, Node.js and Python.
There is a free plan available, but it is limited just to 1 credit and 50 free previews per month. Pay as you go plans start at €1.99 / image and there also subscription plans available, which lower the price per image to as low as €0.14 / image.
4. Generated Photos
Generated Photos is a stock photo library that features a vast collection of AI-generated human faces. The API allows developers to integrate these images into their projects, making it easy to create visually appealing content with minimal effort.
The Generated.photos API works by utilizing advanced AI algorithms and deep learning models that have been trained on a vast dataset of real human faces. These models can generate a wide variety of synthetic faces with different ages, ethnicities, genders, and facial expressions. Users can input specific parameters or filters, such as hair color, eye color, and emotion, to fine-tune the generated images according to their needs.
Their images are suitable for a variety of applications and excel in situations where obtaining or licensing real images is challenging. These include medical advertisements, criminal proceedings, apps, and redistributed software.
There is a free plan available for using low-res generated photos with attribution and only for non-commercial use. The paid plans start at $19.99/month for 15 high-res images.
The API however, is more expensive, with the cheapest plan starting at $250/month for 1000 images.
5. DocsFold Image API
DocsFold is the ultimate solution to automate your image and PDF document generation. With their REST API, you can create social media images, banners, and PDF documents from reusable templates without breaking a sweat. Plus, you can also integrate our API with Zapier for seamless automation.
The API and integrations make it easy to create stunning visuals without any design skills. Simply choose from our customizable templates, send a request to the REST API and let DocsFold handle the rest. You can easily modify the fields in the template by sending different parameter values in each request. The API will generate images and PDF documents for you, saving you valuable time and effort.
What’s more, DocsFold offers a free plan to help you get started. You can enjoy image auto-generation via REST API with no upfront costs.
Don’t let manual document generation hold you back. Take your business to the next level with DocsFold, the easy and efficient way to automate your visual content. Try it now and see the results for yourself.
