Digital printables—those printer-friendly tools, templates, or downloadable art prints you can find across the ecommerce realm—are one of the easiest and most flexible ways to add a revenue stream to your bank account.
For brands with an extensive physical product portfolio, digital printables can be a low-effort way to court price-sensitive customers. Or they can be used as a complementary offering, like printable stickers to use on a new planner. If you’re an independent creative with an eye for graphic design, printable products are an easy way to generate passive income without quitting your day job. You can design an in-demand asset once, then sell it repeatedly across the online platforms of your choice.
Learn how to make money selling printables, and explore printable ideas to get started.
What are digital printables?
Printables are a type of digital product. Digital printable sellers create standalone assets such as professional templates, chore charts, or party games that they sell repeatedly in a digital format. Customers can print it on their own printable after purchase or, in the case of products like full-color artwork or large-format banners, submit the digital file to a third-party printing service.
Selling printables online comes with serious benefits. Since transactions don’t include physical products, sellers aren’t required to manage inventory or pay shipping fees. That means each product listing can be sold an unlimited number of times, giving it the potential to generate repeat, uncapped revenue as a digital download. Your overhead costs are just those associated with initial asset creation and any selling fees.
How to make printables to sell
- Conduct market research
- Design products
- Test your printable
- Consider bundling
- Choose your platform
- Write instructional copy
- Sync platforms and start selling
Ready to enter the world of printable products? The specific steps you need to take can depend on your background, target niche, what tools you have, and more. There are a few commonalities, and these steps can help you get started:
1. Conduct market research
Even if you already have an idea of what you’d like to design and sell, conducting market research when launching your printables business can help you understand the best places to spend your effort. It can also help you take advantage of an existing audience or customer base. Depending on the niche you plan to enter, your market analysis might include:
Browse competitor offerings
This step may be your most market-specific one. Find other creators and businesses selling what you want to sell, and take stock of their approach.
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How many printables do they sell?
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What downloadable formats do they offer?
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How large is their social media presence?
Try to identify gaps in the market to position your own work.
Look for trends
If you’re not sure which printables niche you’ll start with, check the bestselling lists or categories on digital marketplaces such as Etsy or Redbubble. Look at search engines to discover popular or trending categories.
Pricing research
Take note of how competitors price their printables, and ways you can increase cart size through discount incentives, bundles, and relevant upsells at checkout. For example, you could offer printable stickers to someone already purchasing an organizational template or planner. Your pricing needs to be sustainable and bring in revenue, but you also don’t want to be wildly off the mark.
2. Design products
When it comes to designing printables, you can hire freelancers, build an in-house team of designers, or create assets yourself.
If you’re working with freelancers or an in-office design team, be sure they understand the nature of the digital file—that you, as the seller, will own the final rights. Ensure they’re using properly licensed images or graphics in their work. You can look for a freelance artist or designer on a platform like Upwork or Fiverr.
If you are the digital product designer yourself, you can create your assets using any number of professional graphic design software applications (e.g., Adobe Creative Cloud, GIMP, or Canva). Then download your finished files in the correct file format for customers. You can source public domain and royalty-free stock images through stock photo sites like Unsplash, Shutterstock, and Pexels. Many of them offer premade graphic elements for adding easy flourishes to templates and form-based printables.
3. Test your printable
It’s a good idea to test your printable files before making your product listings live. You can do this yourself, or enlist the help of a group of friends and family to be a second set of eyes.
Follow these best practices:
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Ensure the downloaded file is a PDF at a resolution of 300 dpi or above.
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Print on both a home, office, or library printer if available (or send to friends to test), and through a professional printing service.
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Use different types of paper thicknesses and finishes, and note any discrepancies or quality issues.
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Check for any misalignment, bleeding, or trim issues on the printed product.
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Check for any typos or errors you overlooked in the design process.
4. Consider bundling
Because single printable files often sell for a few dollars apiece, thematic or complementary bundling allows you to upsell customers on larger packages. You can combine single-file downloads with other, curated assets to realize a higher per-transaction price.
For example, you could design and sell a professional bundle of different operational templates for small-business owners. Or create a themed party bundle that combines customizable invitations with decorations and party games, wedding planning checklists, etc.
5. Choose your platforms
Once you’ve narrowed down the style of printables you’ll create and your target audience, it’s time to choose how you’ll sell to them. To do that, you can open your own online store on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, post products to marketplaces like Etsy, Redbubble, and Gumroad, or some combination of both.
A Shopify store is more customizable than an Etsy business, allowing you to showcase your full product portfolio and design a more comprehensive branded experience. On the other hand, on a site like Etsy, you can prioritize discovery through an existing audience already looking for specific products.
Selling printables on sites like Etsy may allow you to find traction more quickly, but Etsy sellers rely on the site’s search results to surface their products. Selling digital printables on your own site allows you to curate and present packages in context. You can also position them alongside physical products—though you’ll have to draw customers in through smart marketing techniques.
6. Write instructional copy
Giving the customer clear instructions that lead to smooth, seamless downloads and high-quality printed results. This is one of the best ways to guarantee the kind of customer satisfaction that generates five-star reviews and repeat business. Mention somewhere on your product page that customers will not receive a physical product with their purchase, but will instead download a file. It’s best practice to include step-by-step instructions for how to download—either on the page, linked out, or in a detailed follow-up email.
In your instructions, explain:
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What. The file or files they will receive, both the size and format. If you offer customizable products, how will they provide the relevant personalization details? Is there any sort of limit on the number of times they can download or use the asset?
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When. When they’ll receive it, whether immediately after purchase or via email with a delay, for example.
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Where. Where they’ll receive it, whether they download it from that page or an emailed link, for example.
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How. How they should go about downloading and printing their file, either through recommended printing vendors or at home, for example. You can also give guidance on paper quality and required size.
7. Sync platforms and start selling
Once you’ve established which platforms you’ll use to design and sell, there are a few tools that can help you streamline the communication between them:
Marketplace Connect
Many sellers get started with an Etsy store, where they test their wares and find their target audience before opening up a store on a dedicated ecommerce website like Shopify. After you launch, you may choose to keep both stores live, since they offer different benefits and audience reach. Shopify Marketplace Connect lets you manage listings for both your Etsy printables business and your ecommerce website in one central location.
Canva Connect
If you do most of your design work in Canva, there’s an easy way to sync your designs—and your store’s brand and product images—between the platform and your Shopify store. Download the Canva Connect app to export or import your printable designs directly to Shopify, rather than downloading and uploading files manually.
Types of digital printables
Looking for inspiration? Here are just a few ideas of the many printable product paths you could choose:
Planners
Planning printables run the length of the organizational spectrum, from day planners and seasonal calendars to to-do lists and chore charts. The best printables in this category use clear, easy-to-read fonts and typography, and have an eye for intuitive chart design.
Many brands in this space sell physical products alongside digital ones, like Day Designer and Archer & Olive. Both offer templates and printable planner accessories, such as stickers and labels, alongside physical products for those who like a little flair with their organization.
Décor
Printable home décor can include products such as printable wall art, customizable posters, and gallery wall bundles. For entrepreneurs who aren’t drawing or painting their own designs, selling printables in this category may require skillful navigation of public domain images. It can also involve negotiating licensing agreements with artists or copyright holders so you can sell reproductions of artwork to your customers.
Because many printables in this category are often intended for large-format printing, it’s important to include detailed instructions for third-party printing services. This ensures customers print a high-quality image.
Coloring pages
Unique coloring pages are popular with both kids and adults, offering a diverse and enthusiastic audience. This category can include pages targeting general customers or subcategories such as educators looking for educational printables to use in their classrooms. Product bundling may be particularly attractive, pairing themed or seasonal pages, or even offering a discount if customers purchase a certain number of pages.
Work-related materials
Some professional moments require proper formatting and style, from résumés for job applications to project proposals, freelance contracts, invoices, and more. Printable templates, charts, and accessories (such as business cards) to facilitate professional productivity and networking can be a lucrative niche.
Trendy Fox Studio, for example, offers everything from welcome book templates for Airbnb hosts to email marketing guides and business plan templates for specific industries.
Events and party paraphernalia
Printable stationery, event and wedding invitations, and party décor like gift tags and banners—as seen on Oh Happy Printables, Make Me Digital, and more ecommerce sites—allow you to channel a love for typography and graphic design into a customizable download. These items are ideal for customers looking for quality products at a more affordable price point.
A big piece of this category is product personalization. You could provide customers with an editable file format that allows them to insert their names, event details, and images before printing. Or you could collect that information from customers and personalize products on their behalf.
How to make printables to sell FAQ
How do I create my own printables?
To create your own printables, you can either hire freelance graphic designers to help you or design your own using software. Depending on the style of printable you’d like to create, you may find it helpful to use existing templates as a starting place.
Can I use Canva to create printables?
Yes, you can use Canva to create printables, along with other professional design tools like Photoshop and InDesign, and free alternatives such as GIMP.
What is the best platform to sell PDFs?
One of the best ways to sell printable PDFs is through a multiplatform approach, which creates multiple revenue streams between your own website and seller accounts on third-party marketplaces such as Etsy or Redbubble.
