This article contains affiliate links. If you sign up through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
How to Sell Printables Online: From First Design to Automatic Delivery
Printables are digital files (usually PDFs) that customers download and print at home: planners, budget trackers, wall art, party invitations, classroom resources, checklists. They are one of the lowest-cost products you can sell online because you make a file once and it sells again and again with nothing to ship. This guide takes you from choosing what to make to setting up automatic delivery, with the licensing checks that beginners most often skip.
What sells as a printable
The categories below are consistently popular with buyers. The best results usually come from a specific angle inside one of them rather than the category itself.
| Category | Examples | A specific angle that stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Planners and trackers | Daily planners, habit trackers, meal plans | A planner for one situation: new nurses, first-year teachers, ADHD-friendly layouts |
| Budgeting | Budget sheets, debt payoff charts, savings challenges | Themed challenges (a holiday fund, a first apartment) |
| Wall art | Quote prints, nursery art, botanical prints | A cohesive set of three to six that fit one room style |
| Events | Invitations, games, signs, place cards | Full matching kits for one type of event |
| Education | Worksheets, flashcards, chore charts | Resources for one age and one skill |
| Business | Invoice templates, social media planners, price lists | Tools for one kind of small business |
| Home | Cleaning schedules, pantry labels, moving checklists | Labels that match a popular container brand's sizes |
Buyers of printables are often searching for a very specific thing, which is why "wedding seating chart template, greenery style, 8.5x11 and A4" sells and "template" does not.
Tools you need
- Design software. Canva (free tier is enough to start), Affinity, Adobe products or Google Slides all work. Many sellers never leave Canva.
- Fonts and graphics with a commercial license. See the next section. This is the step that matters most.
- A way to make mock-ups. A photo of the printed sheet on a desk, or a mock-up template, so buyers can picture it.
- A place to sell with digital delivery. A marketplace or your own store (covered below).
Licensing: read this before you design anything
Printables are easy to make partly because so many fonts, illustrations and templates are freely available. Most of them are not free to resell. Three checks before you use anything:
- Fonts. Many free fonts are licensed for personal use only. You need a commercial license for anything you sell. Font sites usually state this on the download page.
- Graphics and photos. Clip art, icons and stock images each have their own license. Some allow use in products you sell; many forbid it or require an extended license. Keep a note of where each element came from.
- Templates inside design tools. Design apps typically let you sell designs you create but not their templates resold as-is, and not their stock elements as the main feature of a product. Read the tool's content license.
Also avoid characters, brand names, logos and song lyrics you do not own. "Everyone does it" is not a defence when a takedown arrives, and marketplaces close shops over it.
Making a printable people can actually use
- Design at print size: US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) and A4 for an international audience. Offer both when you can.
- Keep margins of at least half an inch so home printers do not cut off edges.
- Export as PDF for anything that will be printed. Offer a PNG or JPG only for wall art.
- Print it yourself on a home printer and fill it in. You will find the box that is too small every time.
- Include a short "how to print" page in the download. It cuts support messages dramatically.
Pricing printables
Single printables commonly sell for about $2 to $8; bundles and full planners for $10 to $30; large kits or editable templates for more. There are no material costs, so your price covers your design time, your marketing time and the platform's fees. A useful habit is to think in bundles: a budget sheet sells for $3, but a set of twelve monthly sheets plus an annual overview sells for $12 and takes little extra work.
Where you sell changes what you keep. A $5 printable on a marketplace charging about 10% to 12% in combined fees nets around $4.40; the same file in your own store at 2.9% plus 30 cents nets about $4.55. At low volume the difference is small; at hundreds of sales a month it adds up, which is why many printable sellers eventually run both.
Where to sell and how delivery works
Marketplaces
Etsy is the best-known marketplace for printables and brings shoppers who are already searching for them. You upload the file, and the marketplace delivers it after payment. Fees are per listing and per sale. Other marketplaces and creator platforms also handle digital goods; compare fees and audience before you commit. Etsy Alternatives for Sellers lists the main options.
Your own store
On Shopify, digital delivery works through an app. Shopify offers its own free Digital Downloads app at the time of writing, and several third-party apps add features like download limits and license keys. You attach the file to the product, and the customer gets an email with a download link as soon as they pay. The Basic plan is $39 a month, or $29 paid yearly, with a short free trial and a promotional first few months at the time of writing, and payment processing is 2.9% plus 30 cents per sale. Turn off shipping for digital products so customers are not asked for a shipping method. Our digital products guide covers the general setup.
See how Shopify handles digital products
Presenting a printable so it sells
- Main image: the printable printed and styled on a desk or wall, not a flat screenshot.
- Second image: a close-up showing the detail and quality.
- Third image: what is included (pages, sizes, formats) as a simple graphic.
- Description: file types, sizes, number of pages, whether it is editable, and a plain statement that it is a digital download with nothing shipped.
- Usage terms: personal use only, or whether small-business use is allowed.
A first-month plan
- Choose one narrow niche and make a set of five related printables.
- Check every font and graphic license and keep a list.
- Print and test each file. Fix what does not fit.
- Create mock-ups and write descriptions.
- List them on a marketplace, your own store, or both, and place a test order to confirm delivery.
- Pin each product on Pinterest with a clear title. Printable searches are strong there and pins keep working for months.
- Make the sixth and seventh products based on what gets saved and clicked.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a designer to sell printables?
No. Clean layouts, readable fonts and a useful purpose matter more than artistic skill. Many best-sellers are simple.
Can I sell printables made in Canva?
Generally you can sell your own designs made in the tool, but you cannot resell its templates unchanged or make its stock elements the product. Check the current content license, which changes over time.
How do customers get the file?
Automatically. Marketplaces deliver digital files after payment; on your own store a digital downloads app emails the link. You do not send anything by hand.
Do I charge sales tax on digital products?
Some US states tax digital goods and some do not, and rules change. Marketplaces usually handle it for you; in your own store, review the tax settings. This is general information, not tax advice.
Should I offer editable versions?
Editable templates (for example via a design tool's share link) sell at higher prices and suit invitations and business documents. Start with print-ready PDFs, then add editable versions once you know what sells.