If you sell printables, stickers, cards or clipart, the licence on the papers you use is not a detail - it decides whether you are allowed to sell what you make. Here is what the terms actually mean.
The three things a licence controls
Can you sell the finished item? A junk journal, a card, a sticker sheet you designed using the paper. This is what commercial use permits.
Can you sell the file itself? Almost never. Reselling the digital pack as a digital pack is prohibited under practically every licence, including generous ones.
Do you have to credit the artist? Some licences require attribution on the listing. Others do not. Check before you build a shop around it.
Personal use only
You can print it, use it in your own journal, give a finished item to a friend. You cannot sell anything made with it. Most free downloads found on blogs fall here, whether or not they say so - if no licence is stated, assume personal use.
Commercial use
You can sell finished physical or digital products made with the paper. Usually with two limits attached:
- No reselling the files as-is, or as part of another digital pack
- Sometimes a cap on the number of units you may sell
Read for that unit cap. A licence that permits 200 sales is a different business from one that permits unlimited.
Extended or unlimited commercial
No unit cap, and often permission to use the design in print-on-demand. This is what you need for a POD shop, because POD is technically unlimited by nature.
Where people go wrong
Assuming free means free to sell. It does not. These are separate questions.
Using images found through a search engine. Search results are not a source. The image belongs to whoever made it, wherever it turned up.
Assuming public domain art is safe in any form. The original 1890 botanical plate may be public domain. A modern scan, restoration or recolour of it can carry its own rights. Check what you are actually downloading.
Not keeping a record. Save the licence text with the files. Two years later you will not remember which pack allowed what, and a marketplace asking you to prove your rights will not wait.
The practical rule
If you intend to sell, only use material that states commercial use in writing, and keep that statement. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a shop and a takedown notice.
Everything in this shop, including the free paper set, includes commercial use with no artist credit required - you may sell what you make, but not resell the files as a digital pack.
MORE GUIDES
Free junk journal printables: what to check