Free POD tools by Philip Anders
Add a distress texture to your design
Worn, vintage grain punched straight out of the artwork — free and print-ready.
Free · no watermark · your designs stay on your device
Vintage-looking merch sells, and the difference between a flat AI design and a vintage one is usually texture: fine grain, speckle or a torn edge that lets the garment show through.
MerchForge punches the texture out of your design rather than painting it on top. Those areas become genuinely transparent, so on a print the shirt colour comes through — exactly how real distressed prints look.
Pick from built-in grains, specks, spatter and frame textures, or upload your own. It's free and runs in your browser.
How it works
- Step 1Drop your design
One design or a whole batch.
- Step 2Tick Texture and pick a style
Hover any texture for a large preview. Subtle grains, ink spatter, light specks or full frame textures for poster-style art.
- Step 3Download print-ready files
Transparent where the texture cut through. Add Resize to export at Amazon Merch 4500×5400 in the same pass.
What you get
- Texture is punched OUT — the shirt colour shows through, not a grey overlay
- Built-in grains, specks, ink spatter and distressed frames
- Upload and reuse your own texture file
- Applied before resizing, so the texture reaches the artwork's edges
- Combines with background removal, halftone and Amazon Merch resizing
- Free, no watermark, runs on your device
Common questions
Does it paint grey on top of my design?
No — it cuts the texture out. Those pixels become transparent, so on a printed shirt the garment colour shows through, which is what makes a distressed print look real.
Can I use my own texture?
Yes. Upload any texture image — black-on-white or transparent both work — and it's remembered for future runs.
Will it work on a design that already has a background?
Yes, but tick Remove background too if you want the texture holes to be transparent rather than showing the old background colour.
What are the frame textures for?
Full-bleed, poster-style art. They cut a distressed border into all four edges of the artwork instead of scattering grain across it.
Opens the free MerchForge tool with the right settings selected.