By skyforbes 
Updated: May 2025
I’ve been selling digital downloads on Etsy for almost a decade. It’s revolutionized my business by providing consistent cash flow at high profit margins, which is why I often recommend learning how to make and sell printables if you’re looking for a new way to make money from home.
Printables/digital products are files that the customer downloads and prints themselves or uses with digital software. Think printable art files, planner and journal pages, coloring books, games, kids crafts, and eBooks. If you’re unsure of what kind of digital products you could make, check out my list of 20+ types of digital products you can sell on Etsy for inspiration.
Once you’re ready to start creating and selling, here’s everything I want you to know as you get started making and selling printables on Etsy.
(This post contains affiliate links.)
How to Make Digital Products to Sell on Etsy
The idea of making your own printables to sell on Etsy might sound intimidating if you have no design experience, but it’s actually not that difficult once you learn the basics and make a few items that can be used as templates to “rinse and repeat” the process.
My preferred software for creating printables is Canva, which will work great for most types of designs. It’s great for beginners and you can make so many types of products using the free version (although I recommend Canva Pro which costs $12.95 per month). I like to buy commercial use fonts and graphics from Creative Fabrica and store them to use in Canva.
PicMonkey is another design website that’s simple to use and will accommodate most kinds of products. I use PicMonkey most often for quick photo edits and to create mockups for my product images, but it can do much more than that.
Planify Pro is designed specifically for creating printable planners, low-content books, and even fun products like printable sticky notes. If you have any interest in selling planners, journals, or similar products, Planify is exactly what you need.
You could even make your printables using Google Docs or a Microsoft Office program like Word or Excel. This is more ideal for things like worksheets or spreadsheets instead of wall art.
Finding Fonts and Graphics for Commercial Use
The internet is filled with millions of fonts and graphics that can be used to create commercial designs. My best-selling designs are either simple text quotes, or text combined with graphics from a site on this list. Regardless of where you buy or download them, it is crucial that you make sure they are clearly allowed for commercial use, which means they can be used in designs you intend to sell. Here are a few of my favorite sources:
Creative Fabrica – loads of free and $1 fonts, graphics, and craft vectors made by designers and artists around the world. Sign up for their email list and you’ll get a free commercial use font every week, along with a regular rotation of free and cheap graphic bundles. Some of my favorite, most-used fonts come from here. I’ve had the all-access plan for several years which allows me unlimited downloads of anything on the site.
Creative Market – Their commercial use licenses are a little more costly, but they have plenty of high-quality fonts and designs as well.
Sidenote: You could even sell your designs on those two websites if they offer the type of digital products you make.
Font Squirrel – They scour the internet for free commercial use fonts, so this should be one of your first stops if you’re looking for something fast and free.
Unsplash – Free high-quality stock photos for commercial use by photographers from around the world.
Your Frugal Friend – Sasha sells a growing selection of free and paid templates that you can modify in Canva and sell in your shop.
Also check out my template bundles for selling party invitations, announcements, and dictionary wall art.
Check Trademarks Before Creating Designs
Before you start coming up with your printable design ideas, it is CRUCIAL that you check you’re not violating any trademarks with the phrases you’re using. You can learn more about trademarks through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, and perform a search through TESS, the Trademark Electronic Search System.
This is important because Etsy reserves the right to close your shop after too many violations if they think you’re too much of a risk on the platform. Trademark violation applies to FAR more than just the obvious like Disney, Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc. People and businesses trademark common phrases you’d never expect to be trademarked. I once sold a shirt that said “polite as fuck” and got a trademark infringement notice because some company (who just happened to have the money and resources to do this) trademarked the phrase “polite as” and used it to wipe out their competition.
I’ve seen this happen with a lot of common phrases on Etsy – Dog Mom, Boy Mom, and Bullet Journal get a lot of shops in trouble. You also can’t use “onesie” to describe that, uh… child’s leotard, and you can’t use the phrase “at a glance” to describe that calendar that has the whole year at a… gander, I guess.
Bottom line: Cover your ass and check TESS first, it’s not worth the trouble and possible shutdown (and the fury when you find out “Oh Ship!” is trademarked). Here’s my full post on avoiding trademark infringements as a seller.
WORRY LESS ABOUT A NICHE AND MORE ABOUT GETTING PRODUCTS LISTED
One of the biggest things I see holding new sellers back is the question of whether or not you need a niche. I will say that a niche is helpful because it can help cut down on overwhelm when you know you’re catering toward “real estate agents” rather than “literally everyone on the planet”. However, I don’t want your niche to hold you back from creating other products you might be inspired to create.
Etsy is a volume game in the beginning, so getting as many (QUALITY) products listed in your shop as possible to increase your visibility and make more sales is most important. If you’ve made some printables for real estate agents but you’re now inspired to make something for new moms, do it and list it! The more products you have, the more chances you have to be seen. What you need to do next is pay attention to your shop stats to see what listings are getting the most love and use that information to make more listings. You might inevitably fall into a niche by using this information to make new products based on what people want. This is what happened with my shop – at first I listed whatever I was inspired to create, but over time it turned into a political shop because 90% of my sales were my political products.
File Delivery
When someone purchases a printable from your shop, the files are automatically made available to download in their account. You don’t have to send them anything or do anything unless they message you with a question.
You can include up to 5 files with your digital downloads. The file types needed may vary depending on what you’re making, but in most cases, I recommend including a PDF. PDFs are easier to print and more difficult for someone to modify to resell. All of my printables include a JPG and PDF because some printing companies don’t accept PDFs and vice versa – it’s better to give people options when you can.
With Canva, you can download JPG, PNG, SVG, standard PDFs, and high-resolution print PDFs.
Naming Your Files
When you save your files and get them ready to upload to Etsy, make sure you name them so that they’re easily identifiable and your customers can easily find them once they’re downloaded.
Most people download things and never bother to rename them, so if you sell a meal planner page titled IMG_2019_01_05.PDF it will be a lot harder to search for than if you name it MEAL PLANNER PAGE 1.PDF. It’s a simple but important detail that your customers (and your inventory management) will appreciate.
Include Detailed Download Instructions
If there’s one thing you’re going to learn
Start with your listing description, which should include everything your customer needs to know:
- That this is a printable/digital item and nothing will be shipped to them
- File type and size
- Ideal printing sizes, methods, and other recommendations (if relevant)
- Disclaimers, such as:
- No refunds on digital downloads
- Not for commercial/resale use
- Colors may vary depending on monitor settings
Since I sell a lot of wall art, I suggest to my customers that if they don’t want to print at home, they can print at a store like Costco or Walgreens, or use an online printer like Mpix or VistaPrint.
You can also include a tip sheet as one of your downloadable files that includes everything they need to know. Title it
Improve Listing Images With Mockups
Mockups are the easiest way to bring your products to life. PlaceIt has mockups for just about anything you could make, including picture frames in room settings so people can envision what your product looks like framed.
I’ve also purchased Mockups from fellow Etsy sellers, Creative Fabrica, and Creative Market.
Where to Find the Best Mockups for Your Online Store
SEO: LEARN IT AND USE IT
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important tools for anyone selling anything online. It’s the practice of using specific keywords, tags, and descriptions to tell search engines what your product is, so it’s included in as many search engine results as possible. Without SEO, you have to do ALL the work to attract customers, and without it, you’d be better off flushing your money down the toilet than spending it on ads. Whether you have one item or 1,000 items in your shop, this is the most important factor to your success. I have a whole post on Etsy SEO tips, tricks, and best practices, which you can read here.
I know how overwhelming it can be to start making your first printable, so this list includes my most-recommended courses, tools, and templates that you can use to learn more and create your first product.
12 Canva templates to make fillable
Make Printable Games Using ChatGPT
Free Guide to Creating Seasonal Products
ePrintables: The most comprehensive course for learning how to make printables of all kinds.
Ready to open your shop? Use my seller referral link here and we’ll both get 40 free listings ($8 value).
Related Posts:
20+ Digital Products You Can Sell on Etsy