Where to Find Images for Your Print on Demand Merch?

With most stock photography agencies offering vector libraries, the possibilities for print on demand entrepreneurs are endless. You get an idea that can be edited and personalized at will or printed right away.

At first glance, it may seem that you have two options: pay for the service or download free images for t-shirts. Don’t fall for the false statement that you can implement ideas on any product without restrictions by simply downloading free designs. Often, things are quite different: you cannot use images on several POD products without making changes and tagging the authors.

Let's take a look at some game-changing sites. So further, we will talk about where to buy images for t-shirts.

Table of contents

Where to look for an inspiration?

Conclusion

Where to look for an inspiration?

For your design to be accepted by the audience and have positive feedback, you should constantly replenish your assortment with new things. So, track trends and create new designs! Of course, some of them may take longer than usual. There's a way out if you use free images easily converted and presented as new mockups. Given the commercial component, print on demand products are subject to copyright. Therefore, we will further discuss where to better download images and how legally you can place them on things in your online store.

Unsplash

This website rightly ranks first on our list - it is truly one of the highest quality free services that offer global image searches. Its privilege is to download and use materials for free for commercial purposes.

Please note that you agree not to sell copies of photos without prior modification by using this resource. It's not just about retouching but also resizing, incorporating creative elements, hand lettering, photoshop remixes, illustrations, and other examples that are not easy to reproduce.

Freepik 

Freepik for print business has a huge library of photos and graphics on a variety of topics. Here you can utilize a free tariff plan by downloading any material. It is worth noting that the cost of membership is low, and this is a significant advantage over sites like Printful, or CaféPress, where you can buy satiated designs for a lot of money. 

In the FAQ section, Freepik notes that the print on demand rules have been greatly simplified. The use of images is possible only as secondary elements or background, and the basis of the composition should be your work. Also, you cannot apply more than one vector or image; otherwise, it will be considered the main element. Remember, changing the orientation or color won’t be enough when modifying the downloaded content. 

Another exciting feature of the site's policy is the ban on printing ornaments on clothes or any other item - it will be considered a primary object.

Pixabay

It offers stunning user-generated content covering almost every area of aesthetics. There are over 1 million images here, and you can download them for free. But what about printable images for t-shirts and their commercial use? Under the Pixabay license, you can download, copy, modify and adapt pictures for free and sell them successfully online. However, you may not distribute materials in the form of digital content (such as wallpaper for a website), posters, or any other physical product without adding extra elements.

In addition, you should ask for approval if you decide to print photos of people, brands, and organizations. These items are subject to copyright.

Death to Stock Photo

With the rise of free stock photos, the market is becoming saturated with staged footage. Creative content is now king: Death to Stock Photo offers unique and unconventional photos. The free version doesn’t provide the function of searching for the images you need; you can only view the collection. The premium subscription expands search capabilities and access to libraries. 

Interestingly, all materials are licensed "do whatever you want" with which you acquire lifetime use. The resource puts art first and is intended primarily for artists, entrepreneurs, and all people who create value in the world. Therefore, for POD owners, this resource will become a valuable tool to inspire top graphics on shirts.

Print Design Mistakes You Should Better Avoid

Gratisography 

You can find great print on demand ideas here. All of them are entirely free to download and without any copyright restrictions. You can do almost anything with these images, but you can only legally print on any object after making modifications. 

Sharp, funny, a little silly, and rare photos that are only on this resource can be perfect for developing your merch project. 

Vecteezy

Vecteezy offers a freemium mode specifically for free print on demand designs. You can use numerous images for free, depending on the license. According to the policies, you can apply materials for any POD products for free, provided that the link is indicated and not exceeding 50 sales. The Pro version allows 100,000 sales without attribution, but the extended version allows unlimited sales. Professional subscription includes premium images from the contributor community.

Kaboompics

It is a themed site filled with sensitive and inspiring high-resolution photos and filters by subject, orientation, and color scheme. Quite unusual for a site of this type.

The resource is entirely free and provides the ability to download pictures in a non-standard size. Registration is not required here.

The choice of photos on the selected topic here is impressive: for example, on the query "city," you can find more than 80 photos.

Pexels

The resource is one of the largest libraries of free images. The Creative Commons Zero license assumes that photographers and artists give up their copyright and don’t require credit. For a POD entrepreneur, this means standard rates for stock photos and interesting, unique works. In addition, you are not limited either in sales, products, or the placement of designs. To print a picture legally, you need to change it.

Canva

That is a free platform created specifically for graphic design: here, you can make any visual content, edit it and use templates for every taste. The tool is handy for lay artists. Practice more, and you will succeed!

Placeit

Here you will find a huge variety of graphics for t-shirt printing. It is uniquely home to mockup libraries on the Internet. So you don't have to pay a lot of money for popular designs at all - you can find them here and download them for free. 

Conclusion

Of course, we can continue the list of these platforms indefinitely, but we decided to take you on a short trip to the best ones. In the print on demand business, creativity is so powerful that the pool of designs needs to be constantly replenished. Sometimes, ideas can run out, inspiration disappears, and in this case, we cannot do without the sites we’ve discussed above. Firstly, your budget will be saved, and, secondly, the desire to create will only increase. Get inspired and create beautiful pieces of art!