Free tools for POD print on demand
Are you looking for free tools for your POD business? We’ll share the tools we use in our POD shops.
Free graphic software
We use Inkscape and Gimp for our graphic designs and effects.
Inkscape is a vector graphics editor (like Adobe Illustrator), which is free and open source and can be used with Linux,Windows and MacOS X. It is used for artistic and technical images like clip art,logos,cartoons and typography. Inkscape uses SVG file format that allows images to be supported by many applications.
We use Inkscape for making designs for print on design images and to edit images we use on our websites.
If your not familiar with vector graphics or designing images, there are many YouTube video tutorials for Inkscape, our favorite is Logos By Nick YouTube channel, Nick does a good job of explaining how to do things in Inkscape and Gimp.
For photos and other images we also use Gimp (like Adobe Photoshop) for image retouching and image editing. Gimp is a free and open source raster graphics editor. You can learn all you need to know about Gimp through YouTube tutorials.
We use gimp to remove backgrounds form photos and to save images as either JPEG, PNG and GIF.
What’s the difference between Inkscape and Gimp?
Vector images are created mathematically from geometric formulas and raster images are created by rows and columns of dots known as pixels. Although vector and raster images are very different, they complement each other.
Images made as vectors can be scaled up without lose of crisp lines, where as raster images tend to blur when scaled up.
Gimp recommends Inkscape as a a component in a workflow for graphic design work and these are both free tools for POD business.
Free SVG
Source of public domain clip art in SVG format. They have 55k SVG images available at freesvg.org
Check out our post on Free online side hustle for POD print on demand.
Canva
Canva is an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere. It can be used for free with limited features. To unlock premium features requires payment.
We use Canva for designing pins for Pintrest and social media designs. Follow the link to Canva by clicking any of the Canva words in this post.
Free tools for Rebubble
We use Redbubble Popular Tags for researching which tags are popular for Redbubble POD niches.
This can help with finding the best tags for your Redbubble items.
Free tools for Merch by Amazon
Productor for Merch by Amazon is a free Google Chrome extension that all Merch by Amazon sellers should have.
Has many features to help with researching your items for sale and keywords. It has the ability to resize designs for different items on Merch by Amazon from T shirts to pop sockets to hoodies. Productor for Merch by Amazon helps you with trademark and copyright infringement which can get your Merch by Amazon account closed.
Many of the features are as good as any you can get with paid for tools for Merch by Amazon.
Definitely a great help to anyone using the Merch by Amazon platform, we love it.
To get Productor for Merch by Amazon, go to Googles app store and download it.
Free print on demand fulfillment partner
Printful is a free online fulfillment partner that can provide 100s of products for your designs and then ship your orders to your customers. Printful will make your products and ship them for you, you don’t have to pay for anything. You are charged a fee which is deducted from your orders profits, there by providing a efficient and cost effective way of producing your products.
Check out our post how-to-create-a-free-print-on-demand-pod-online-store to follow the steps required to set up a free online store with Printful.
Conclusion
These are a few of the free tools for POD we use in our business over several platforms. All of these are excellent alternatives to software you have to pay for, with plenty of tutorials on YouTube if you need to learn how to use them.
If you have any suggestions to add to these, please let us know at admin@lotaincome.com
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