Openverse Showcase Screensaver
The Openverse Showcase screensaver shows a rotating gallery of openly licensed photographs from Openverse, the search index of Creative Commons and public-domain media, read live in your browser. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Openverse Showcase screensaver works
The saver reads the source described above and draws it on a canvas — no account, no tracking.
A rotating gallery of openly licensed photographs from Openverse, the search index of Creative Commons and public-domain media, read live in your browser. Every image shows its creator and licence, which is the condition most of them are shared under.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours and any options can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
How open licensing is tracked
Openverse is a search tool for openly licensed and public-domain media, with images and audio among its content. It was previously known as CC Search and was conceived and built at Creative Commons; it is now a WordPress project, with its code in the WordPress GitHub organisation. Its catalog stores metadata about works held by other repositories, so each result links back to the original source.
Each item carries licence information, for example CC BY, which lets others reuse the work, including commercially, as long as they credit the creator; CC BY-SA, which also requires remixes to be licensed under the same or a compatible licence; or CC0, Creative Commons' public-domain dedication. Other licences, such as CC BY-NC, allow only noncommercial use. This is why creator and licence appear alongside each picture here.
Licence data is only as reliable as the source supplying it, and mistakes can happen, for instance when someone uploads another person's work under a licence they had no right to grant. The gallery rotates through results, so what appears is a sample, not a ranking of quality or popularity. Check the source page before reusing any image in a way that matters.
A worked example
A rotating gallery of openly licensed photographs from Openverse, the search index of Creative Commons and public-domain media, read live in your browser. Every image shows its creator and licence, which is the condition most of them are shared under.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Every number on screen comes from the live source — nothing is simulated.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the source named on this page and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- What does CC0 mean?
- CC0 is a Creative Commons public-domain dedication. A creator uses it to give up rights as far as the law allows, so the work can be reused without conditions.
- Is every image here safe to reuse commercially?
- Not automatically. Some Creative Commons licences, such as CC BY-NC, allow only noncommercial use, so check the licence on each item.