Textures can make interesting backgrounds for web sites, but they are also great for use in creating custom images with interest, depth and of course, texture. There are literally thousands of sites where you can find textures, but here are 13 that I check first when I need inspiration, something unique, high quality and low cost.
1. deviantART - A community of artists and enthusaists who submit and share their art. deviantART contains thousands of textures, tiles, backgrounds and images - some are free, some for purchase.
2. Bittbox - Definitely one of my favorite sites for graphic design extras. Bittbox has a nice collection of free Photoshop brushes, fonts, and recently they have added some free textures, too.
3. UrbanDirty - Huge collection of free stock textures for your artwork, desktop, and viewing pleasure.
4. CGTextures - Amazing collection of free textures for use in print and web.
5. GrungeTextures - Free high resolution textures, backgrounds, photos and digital art for use under creative commons license.
6. TextureKing - Growing repository of high quality texture photos that are free for personal and professional use.
7. Texture Library - Good variety of textures from fabric to circuit boards and everything in between.
8. Free3dsTextures - Creative commons license collection of interesting textures
9. Free seamless textures -Tutorials on how to create seamless texture images and a gallery of textures to download.
10. ImageAfter - Free high resolution textures of metals, floors, skin, wood, rock, walls etc for personal or commercial use.
11. Got3d - Free and for purchase textures. The free textures are photographer’s surplus that are free to use but cannot be resold.
12. StockXCHNG - One of my favorite resources for free stock photography also has a good selection of textures.
13. And don’t forget Flickr! Using various search terms, you can find large collections of textures and backgrounds you can download on Flickr. (How to use and understand Flickr images)
More 13’s:













where I share my favorite tips, tools, reviews and commentary on web design, marketing, blogging, new media and related topics. For more about this site and the voice behind it, check out my









7 Comments»
Leah Maclean
10. April 2008 | 02:10 hThanks for putting this list together Char
A great resource that I know I will come back to again and again (thanks also for the mention).
Joni
10. April 2008 | 08:14 hThanks, Char.
john
10. April 2008 | 12:11 hAny chance of adding my new site www.freegraphicscentre.com as it contains thousands of cost free images for imemdiate download including textures, grunge etc
Thanks
John
Phil Nash
10. April 2008 | 14:43 hNice one Char, these will come in use! I only had one place I knew about for textures and I will be needing some soon. Thanks!
Loren
10. April 2008 | 23:25 hI also use Flickr. Search “textures” under the creative commons and there is a ton of different ones to use for free.
I hadn’t heard about most of these. Thanks
Internet Marketing Blog
13. April 2008 | 20:45 hThanks for sharing this.. these are some great texture websites
Rob Cubbon
12. May 2008 | 12:46 hThanks, Char, great idea for a post. It’s amazing how many times I need textures not images!