Public domain & CC0 sources for KDP covers, printables, and everything you sell.
Wikimedia Commons is the single biggest free-license media library on the web - individual files carry tags like CC0, public domain, CC BY, or CC BY-SA, shown next to every file. Start from the categories below, or use Commons search and filter by license. Attribution-friendly by design, and every page tells you exactly what you can do.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commons main search | Everything: filter by license and media type. Searching a period term like "botanical plate" or "anatomy" works well. | Per-file license tag; filter for CC0/PD. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |
| Commons public domain category | Category-of-categories for files marked public domain. A shortcut vault. | Various PD tags, all clear. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain |
| Commons CC0 category | Files explicitly released CC0 by their uploaders. The cleanest possible tag. | CC0 - no attribution required. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CC-Zero |
| Botanical illustrations | Thousands of period botanical plates and illustrations, from the Biodiversity Heritage Library and beyond. | Mostly PD and no-restriction tags; check the per-file tag. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Botanical_illustrations |
| Herbals | Category of digitized herbal manuscripts and book pages - the plants-as-medicine tradition from the medieval era onward. | Predominantly PD; check per-file. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Herbals |
| Seed catalogs | Illustrated seed and nursery catalogs: stylized florals and fruit with gorgeous period typography. Printables gold. | Predominantly PD; check per-file. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Seed_catalogs |
| Anatomy | Anatomy drawings across centuries, including Gray's plates and engraving-era work. The vintage-anatomy section picks its best Commons categories. | Predominantly PD; check per-file. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Anatomy |
| Audubon's Birds of America | John James Audubon's bird plates - the most famous vintage natural-history art. | PD (first published 1827-1838). | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:John_James_Audubon |
| PD image resources master list | Wikipedia's meta-list of public-domain image sources, maintained by editors. The rabbit hole of last resort. | Meta-list; verify each source. | CHECK | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_image_resources |
Period botanical art - florilegiums, herbals, seed catalogs, Audubon-era natural-history plates. This is the classic "plain English" cover look: strong linework, muted color, lots of negative space, and text-friendly backgrounds.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biodiversity Heritage Library | Massive digitized library of historical natural-history books, including the famous florilegiums. Partner or resident collections are tagged with rights. | Books are pre-copyright; digitized plates are released under CC or no-known-rights tags - check each item's page. | SAFE | https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ |
| BHL collections browse | Browse BHL by theme (i.e., "women in natural history", expedition set, taxonomy). Easiest way into the good plates. | Same as BHL above. | SAFE | https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/collection |
| BHL on Flickr | The BHL's Flickr account posts curated, ready-to-use vintage plates. | Flickr account posts under CC0/PD designs - verify tags on the photo page. | SAFE | https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary |
| BHL Flickr albums | The BHL's Flickr albums are curated by theme (botanical art, marine species, gardening, "Her Natural History"). The fastest way to download-ready plates. | BHL posts these for unrestricted reuse; verify the license tag on each photo page. | SAFE | https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/albums |
| Biodiversity Heritage Library items with full-page plates | Use BHL search for a plant name with "Images" filter, then open the plate pages. | See BHL note above. | SAFE | https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/search?searchTerm=botanical&search_type=all |
| NYPL Digital Collections | New York Public Library's massive catalog - botanical, decorative, and vintage illustration materials with explicit rights statements per item. | Items tagged "public domain" are SAFE ("no known restrictions" also common - CHECK unless the tag says PD). | CHECK | https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/ |
| Old Book Illustrations | Curated scans of illustrations from 19th-century books. Small site but nicely themed for period covers. | Original vintage artwork is PD; site asks for attribution where possible ("source credit"). | SAFE-ATTR | https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/ |
Anatomy engravings and plates that read as "classic medical illustration" - perfect for healthcare-adjacent titles (nursing, wellness, medical history), coloring books, and classroom-style printables. These are education/inspiration only; never use imagery to imply medical advice.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gray's Anatomy plates (1918) | The classic 1918 "Anatomy of the Human Body" plates on Wikimedia - 1,247 drawings of the standard reference edition. | PD (US publication 1918). | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gray's_Anatomy_plates |
| Historic anatomical plates and drawings | Pre-20th-century anatomy art: Leonardo studies, Persian anatomical figures, early engraved plates. | PD; per-file tags confirm. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Historic_anatomical_plates_and_drawings |
| Anatomical plates and drawings | Page-style plates from historical anatomy atlases (Eustachi, Cheselden, Valverde, and friends), organized by source. | PD; per-file tags confirm. | SAFE | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Anatomical_plates_and_drawings |
| Anatomical models | Period anatomy models - wax, ivory, papier-mache - photographed in museum settings. | Per-file; check tags, some modern museum photos are CC BY. | CHECK | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Anatomical_models |
| Internet Archive | Search 19th-century anatomy atlases (Cheselden, Albinus, Cowper). Download the original plate scans yourself. | Pre-copyright scans; uploaders declare PD - check the item page. | SAFE | https://archive.org/ |
NASA imagery is world-class and effectively copyright-free: as a US government agency, most NASA-created material is not copyrighted in the US. Covers, interiors, and printables especially benefit from the high-res originals. Attribution is customary (and NASA requests its logo treatment be respected), not legally required.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NASA Image and Video Library | Central NASA collection (photography, video, audio) with a usage guidelines panel. | NASA's rule: generally not copyrighted / mostly unrestricted; media queries filter to "unrestricted" items. Non-NASA content keeps its own license. | SAFE-ATTR | https://images.nasa.gov/ |
| NASA image use guidelines | The formal page explaining what is unrestricted, what is not, and the attribution NASA requests. | NASA policy reference. | SAFE-ATTR | https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/ |
| JPL Photojournal | Jet Propulsion Laboratory's photojournal of planetary and mission photography, with PIA-numbered, freely reusable press-quality images. | Most items PD / "not copyrighted" per JPL's note; individual pages vary - check. | SAFE-ATTR | https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/ |
| NASA Scientific Visualization Studio | Animations, stills, and data visualizations of Earth and space science. | SVS work is generally free to use ("no copyright claimed" on most items); verify per item. | SAFE-ATTR | https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ |
| NASA Earth Observatory | Surreal satellite imagery of Earth (dust storms, auroras, river deltas) that makes for nearly pre-made cover backgrounds. | NASA/EO imagery is free to use with a courtesy credit; foreign-partner data may differ - check each image's usage note. | SAFE-ATTR | https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images |
| Gateway to Astronaut Photography | Astronaut photography of Earth back to the Mercury era. | Arranged as "not restricted" - courtesy credit requested. | SAFE-ATTR | https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ |
| Hubble (STScI) site | Hubble photos and imagery, long the classic space-cover favorite. | NASA/ESA imagery, generally free/reusable with credit; the site hosts its own usage statement. | SAFE-ATTR | https://hubblesite.org/resource-gallery/images |
| National Air and Space Museum collection | Space photography, artifacts, and Presidential-era aeronautics imagery from the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. | Museum marks rights per object ("Free" - no known copyright restrictions); check tags. | CHECK | https://airandspace.si.edu/collections |
The Library of Congress digitizes at museum quality and explicitly curates "Free to Use & Reuse" sets so you never need to guess. For KDP covers and printables, LOC is one of the few sources where the licensing question is usually answered before you ask it.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free to Use & Reuse sets | Curated LOC sets (vintage postcards, WPA posters,19th-century photography, botanical illustrations) pre-cleared for public use. | LOC states these sets have "no known copyright restrictions or are otherwise free to use." | SAFE | https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/ |
| Prints & Photographs Online Catalog | The main LOC image catalog: photos, posters, drawings, and historical prints. | Rights statements are shown on every item; "No known restrictions" items are safe in practice (CHECK the tag). | CHECK | https://www.loc.gov/pictures/ |
| LOC collections hub | All LOC digitized collections: Americana, music, newspapers, maps, and more. | Rights vary by collection; check the rights advisory on each collection page. | CHECK | https://www.loc.gov/collections/ |
| Chronicling America (historic newspapers) | Digitized US newspapers 1756-1963. Great for vintage typography, headlines, and print ad textures. | LOC's "no known restrictions" standard for the newspaper content; ads may include third-party art - check what you embed. | SAFE | https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ |
| Gardens set (F2U) | LOC's Free-to-Use Gardens set: historic gardens, greenhouses, and botanical scenes, 1800s to now. | Part of "Free to Use & Reuse"; no known restrictions. | SAFE | https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/gardens/ |
| LOC copyright guidance | The P&P "Copyright and other restrictions" page - the authoritative reference if you ever need to document a decision. | Reference page. | N/A | https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/195_copr.html |
| WPA posters | Depression-era WPA poster art (F2U set): bold color, strong type, American-made classic. | No known restrictions (LOC WPA posters set). | SAFE | https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/wpa-posters/ |
| Nurses and Nursing set (F2U) | A whole F2U set of nursing imagery across the decades - a warm fit for healthcare-worker titles. | No known restrictions within F2U sets. | SAFE | https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/nurses-and-nursing/ |
| Classic Children's Books set (F2U) | Turn-of-the-century children's book illustrations, pre-cleared in the F2U program. Loved by coloring-book and planner publishers. | No known restrictions within F2U sets. | SAFE | https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/classic-childrens-books/ |
Openly licensed icon libraries. Icons are the workhorses of printables, instruction pages, checklists, and covers: clean strokes, no photographs, no licensing surprises. All sets below are MIT, ISC, Apache-2.0, or CC0 (per set as noted) and all are commercial-safe.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bootstrap Icons | 2,000+ glyphs in the Bootstrap style; SVG and webfont. Clean, rounded, very "guide book". | MIT. | SAFE | https://github.com/twbs/icons |
| Tabler Icons | 5,000+ stroke-based SVG icons, consistent 24px grid. Huge and harmonious. | MIT. | SAFE | https://tabler.io/icons |
| Lucide | Community fork of Feather with 1,500+ icons; treeshakeable. | ISC (equivalent to MIT). | SAFE | https://lucide.dev |
| Feather Icons | The minimalist 24px stroke set that started the trend. Small but timeless. | MIT. | SAFE | https://feathericons.com/ |
| Phosphor Icons | 9,000+ icons in six weights (thin to fill); playful yet coherent. | MIT. | SAFE | https://phosphoricons.com/ |
| Heroicons | Tailwind's hand-drawn-flavored icon set; polished outline/solid pairs. | MIT. | SAFE | https://heroicons.com/ |
| Material Symbols | Google's ever-expanding icon family; variable weights and fills, huge coverage. | Apache-2.0. | SAFE | https://fonts.google.com/icons?icon.set=Material+Symbols |
| Font Awesome Free | The classic icon library; free tier is large and production-ready. | Icons: CC BY 4.0 (SVG/inline attribution or license note); brand icons CC0; code MIT. Commercial use is fine. | SAFE-ATTR | https://fontawesome.com/search?o=r&m=free |
| Simple Icons | 3,000+ brand/logos as SVGs (GitHub, Telegram, etc.). Use for tech stacks and social rows. | CC0 for the icon assets; trademarks belong to their owners - do not imply endorsement. | SAFE | https://github.com/simple-icons/simple-icons |
| Octicons | GitHub's own icon set; perfect for "developer workflow" books and tutorials. | MIT. | SAFE | https://github.com/primer/octicons |
| Iconify | Universal front-end for 200,000+ icons across every major open set, with license filters. Great scout tool. | Per-set licenses; filter your search. | CHECK | https://icon-sets.iconify.design/ |
| Game-icons.net | 4,000+ bold, thematic icons (swords, potions, dice, spaceships) for gaming covers and FFXIV-adjacent fun. | CC BY 3.0 - attribution required. | SAFE-ATTR | https://game-icons.net/ |
Museums around the world have quietly released millions of works as CC0 or public domain. These are the highest-curation art sources on this page: expert lighting, professional scans, and every object page states the rights.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smithsonian Open Access | 5+ million objects (art, history, science, specimens) with 4.5M+ tagged CC0. Includes the natural-history plates that pair with BHL. | CC0 on tagged items - verified per object page. | SAFE | https://www.si.edu/openaccess |
| The Met Open Access | The Met's public-domain holdings (all eras) as CC0, with high-res downloads and an easy "public domain" filter. | CC0 on "Open Access" items. | SAFE | https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection |
| Met open-access policy page | The Met's formal policy statement, useful if you ever document your rights decision. | Policy reference. | N/A | https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/open-access |
| Art Institute of Chicago | Hundreds of thousands of works with IIIF high-res downloads; enormous public-domain share. | Rights panel per work; PD/CC0 items clearly marked. | CHECK | https://www.artic.edu/collection |
| Rijksmuseum Rijksstudio | Dutch Golden Age masters, botanical still lifes, decorative arts; famously CC0-friendly. | Public-domain works offered CC0; per-item panel. | SAFE | https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio |
| Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access | Full collection released CC0 (one of the first museums to go all-in) with high-res downloads. | CC0. | SAFE | https://www.clevelandart.org/open-access |
Discovery tools and open-license photo sites. These are where "CHECK" discipline matters most: they aggregate many licenses, so the eleven-second habit of reading the license tag on each image is what keeps your products safe.
| Source | What's inside | License notes | Safe to sell | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Openverse | One search box across a billion CC and PD works from museums, Flickr, and Commons; filter by license. Shows attribution strings automatically. | Aggregates open licenses; filter to CC0/PD or read each result's license. | CHECK | https://openverse.org/ |
| Pixabay | Millions of free stock photos, vectors, and videos. Contributor-submitted, so license terms are site-level, not item-level. | Pixabay Content License: commercial use in products allowed; no redistribution "as is" (standalone stock-like use); no model releases for people. | SAFE-COND | https://pixabay.com/ |
| Pexels | High-quality modern stock photos and video, very "cover-friendly". | Pexels License: free for commercial use in products; no redistribution as stock. | SAFE-COND | https://www.pexels.com/license/ |
| Unsplash | Beautiful modern photography with generous terms. | Unsplash License: free commercial use in products; primarily forbids re-selling as competing stock and some logos/trademarks. | SAFE-COND | https://unsplash.com/ |
| PublicDomainPictures.net | Contributor-uploaded images verified as public domain (or CC0). | Site states images are free to use (PD/CC0); check the per-image tag. | CHECK | https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/ |
| Openclipart | Classic clipart community; every upload is CC0 by site policy. Not period art, but friendly cartoon style. | CC0 across the whole site. | SAFE | https://openclipart.org/ |
| PICRYL | Public-domain media search engine across many institutions; made for browsing by era and topic. | Site states permission for reuse is not required; verify tags on the item page. | CHECK | https://picryl.com/ |