Searching for Images

There are two ways to access Google Image Search, shown in Figure 24.1. You can click the Images link on any Google search page, or you can go directly to images.google.com.

Figure 24.1. The home page for Google Image Search.

Basic Searching

For most users, searching Google Image Search is as easy as entering your query into the search box and clicking the Search Images button. Nothing to it.

You can, of course, use any of Google's advanced search operators within your query. Of particular use is the filetype: operator, which you can use to limit your search to JPG or GIF image files.

Advanced Searching

If you want to fine-tune your image search, the best way to do it is to use the Advanced Search page. When you click the Advanced Image Search link on the main Image Search page, you see the form shown in Figure 24.2. From here you can fine-tune your search in a number of ways:

Figure 24.2. Fine-tuning your search from the Advanced Image Search page.

Note

Learn more about advanced search operators in Chapter 2, "Searching the Web".

• Find results. Narrow your search by searching for all the words, the exact phrase, any of the words, or for pictures not related to the words

• Size. Search only for images that are small, medium, or large in size

• Filetypes. Search only for JPG, GIF, or PNG-format files

• Coloration. Search only for black and white, grayscale, or full-color images

• Domain. Search only for images within a specified domain or website

• SafeSearch. Apply moderate, strict, or no filtering to the image search results

The Advanced Image Search page is great if you're looking for images of a particular file typefor example, if you're looking only for JPG images. It's also good if you're looking for a larger or higher-resolution picture for print purposes (both of which are likely to be of a larger file size), or a smaller or lower-resolution picture for web use (both of which are likely to be of a smaller file size).

This begs the question, of course, of how small is small. Or how large is large, for that matter. The answers to these questions are detailed in Table 24.1.

Table 24.1. Google Image Search Size Parameters

Size	Approximate Dimensions (in pixels)
Small	150 x 150 or smaller
Medium	Larger than 150 x 150
	Smaller than 500 x 500
Large	500 x 500 or larger