Creative Commons Licenses Explained for Designers
For paid design work, only three Creative Commons options are generally usable without a fight: CC0, CC BY and, if you can release your result under the same terms, CC BY-SA. CC BY-ND also allows commercial use, but only of the untouched original. Anything marked NC is limited to uses "not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation," and anything marked ND cannot be shared once you adapt it.
That is the working rule. The rest of this page explains why, using the license text itself rather than the icons, and covers the situations library guides tend to skip: a CC illustration recolored into a logo, ShareAlike art merged with your own drawing, credits on a T-shirt, and the rights a CC license never touches. If you only need the quick license-name table, our design asset licensing checklist has one; this guide goes underneath it.
A note on scope: this is general information. The Creative Commons 4.0 licenses are written to work internationally, but how a court reads terms like "adaptation" depends on local copyright law, and nothing here is legal advice for a particular project. The site disclaimer applies.
The seven tools at a glance, from a designer's chair
Creative Commons publishes six licenses and one public domain dedication. The license overview page describes each; the table below translates those descriptions into the questions a designer asks before placing an asset in a layout.
| Tool | Commercial use | You may share a modified version | Credit required | What it asks of your own output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CC0 1.0 | Yes | Yes | No | Nothing |
| CC BY 4.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your adaptation's license must not stop recipients complying with BY |
| CC BY-SA 4.0 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Adaptations must be released under BY-SA (this version or later) or a compatible license |
| CC BY-ND 4.0 | Yes | No | Yes | You may only share the work unadapted |
| CC BY-NC 4.0 | No | Yes, non-commercially | Yes | Adaptations stay non-commercial in practice |
| CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | No | Yes, non-commercially | Yes | Adaptations must be BY-NC-SA, this version or later |
| CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | No | No | Yes | Unadapted, non-commercial sharing only |
The overview page defines the four elements in one line each: BY means "Credit must be given to you, the creator"; SA means "Adaptations must be shared under the same terms"; NC means "Only noncommercial use of your work is permitted"; ND means "No derivatives or adaptations of your work are permitted."
How the 4.0 legal code is put together
Every CC 4.0 license has the same skeleton, and knowing where things live makes the deeds easier to check. Using the CC BY 4.0 legal code as the reference:
- Section 1, Definitions. "Adapted Material" is material "derived from or based upon the Licensed Material." "Share" means providing material "to the public by any means or process that requires permission under the Licensed Rights." The Licensor is whoever is granting the license.
- Section 2, Scope. The grant is "worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, irrevocable." Section 2(a)(2) says the license does not apply where an exception or limitation, such as fair use, already covers your use. Section 2(a)(4) allows technical modifications needed to use the work in any medium or format. Section 2(a)(6) says nothing in the license lets you imply endorsement. Section 2(b) carves out moral rights, publicity, privacy, patent and trademark rights.
- Section 3, License Conditions. Attribution in 3(a); ShareAlike, where present, in 3(b).
- Section 5, Disclaimer. The Licensor offers the material "as-is and as-available."
- Section 6, Term and Termination. Rights end automatically on a breach and reinstate if you fix it within 30 days of discovering it.
Two consequences matter more for designers than anything else in the document. First, the license is non-exclusive, so whatever you build from CC art, others can build from the same source. Second, the license comes "as-is," so it is only as good as the uploader's right to grant it. A photo someone else posted under CC BY without owning it gives you nothing.
NonCommercial: why client work is the hard case
The CC BY-NC 4.0 legal code defines NonCommercial as "not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation." The only example the definition itself gives is digital file-sharing of licensed material for other material, which counts as non-commercial as long as no money changes hands.
The CC FAQ adds the point most people get backwards: the test is about the use, not the user. In CC's words, its definition "does not turn on the type of user." A nonprofit can make a commercial use, and a company can make a non-commercial one.
Our reading for freelance and agency work
CC does not publish a ruling on paid design commissions. Our reading of the definition, applied to typical briefs, is below. It is interpretation, not CC guidance, and where it says "risky" the safer move is to choose different art or ask the creator for a separate license.
| Situation | Our reading of NC | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You are paid by a company to design an ad using NC art | Outside NC | The use is directed toward the company's commercial advantage, and toward your fee |
| You are paid by a charity to design a fundraising poster | Risky | The client is a nonprofit, but your fee and the fundraising goal both point toward monetary compensation |
| Volunteer, unpaid poster for a community event with free entry | Likely within NC | No fee, no sale, no commercial advantage sought |
| Personal portfolio study using NC art, not for sale | Likely within NC | No compensation; but a portfolio that markets your paid services is arguable |
| Class assignment, never published commercially | Likely within NC | Educational and unpaid |
| T-shirts or prints for sale, even at cost | Outside NC | Selling copies is directed toward monetary compensation |
| Mockup on a client pitch deck you are paid to produce | Outside NC | The pitch is part of a paid engagement |
Two practical points follow. NC art should be filtered out of any asset folder that client work draws from, because it is easy to forget where a texture came from. And the creator of NC work can always grant you a separate commercial license; Section 6(c) of the legal code lets a licensor offer the material under other terms without ending the public license.
NoDerivatives: cropping, recoloring and the logo problem
The CC BY-ND 4.0 legal code lets you reproduce and share the work "in whole or in part," and lets you "produce and reproduce, but not Share, Adapted Material." In other words, you can make an adapted version for yourself, but you cannot put it in front of the public. The legal code says so directly: "You do not have permission under this Public License to Share Adapted Material."
What counts as an adaptation? Three anchors from CC's own materials:
- Format changes are not adaptations. Section 2(a)(4) says that technical modifications needed to use the work in a medium or format "never produces Adapted Material." The FAQ confirms that format changes "are not considered adaptations even if applicable law would suggest otherwise." Converting a PNG to WebP or resizing for a screen sits here.
- Whether something is an adaptation otherwise follows copyright law. The FAQ says whether a use creates an adaptation "depends primarily on the applicable copyright law," with translation and turning a novel into a screenplay as examples.
- Creative changes are adaptations. CC's recommended practices for attribution describe a change that is creative rather than mechanical as producing an adaptation, and note that ND licenses do not permit sharing one.
Applied to common design operations:
| Operation on ND art | Likely status | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Export to another file format, resize for display | Not an adaptation (2(a)(4)) | Use freely, credit as usual |
| Crop to a different aspect ratio | Depends on local law; CC asks you to indicate the crop | Credit with "cropped from original" and consider avoiding ND for heavy crops |
| Placing the image unchanged beside your own text in a layout | Unclear in the license text | Keep the image visibly separate and unaltered |
| Recolor to brand palette | Creative change, likely adaptation | Do not share; pick a BY or CC0 image instead |
| Redraw, trace or vectorize into a logo | Adaptation | Not permitted to share under ND |
| Add type over the image in a poster | Possibly adaptation, depending on how integrated | Treat as risky under ND |
For logo work, the answer is short: ND art cannot become a logo, because the logo would be a shared adaptation.
ShareAlike: when your own artwork gets pulled in
The ShareAlike condition in the CC BY-SA 4.0 legal code, Section 3(b), has three parts. If you share Adapted Material:
- your "Adapter's License" must be a Creative Commons license "with the same License Elements, this version or later, or a BY-SA Compatible License";
- you must include the text of, or a link to, that Adapter's License;
- you may not impose "additional or different terms or conditions," or technical protection measures, that restrict what recipients can do under the Adapter's License.
The Adapter's License is the license you apply to your own contributions in the adaptation. So if you paint over a BY-SA photo and share the result, your brushwork goes out under BY-SA too. That is the whole bargain, and designers sometimes discover it only after delivery.
Compatible licenses
CC's compatible licenses page lists two outside licenses for BY-SA 4.0 adaptations: the Free Art License 1.3 (declared compatible October 21, 2014) and GNU GPLv3 (declared compatible October 8, 2015, one-way only: BY-SA 4.0 adaptations may go out under GPLv3, not the reverse). For BY-NC-SA 4.0, adaptations may use BY-NC-SA 4.0 or later, and no outside license is designated.
Where SA collides with design business models
- Exclusive client deals. A client who wants an exclusive license or a full assignment of a design built on BY-SA art is asking for something the third condition forbids, because anyone receiving the work must keep the BY-SA freedoms. Ownership of your contribution can move, but the BY-SA license on it travels too.
- Template marketplaces. Selling a template that adapts BY-SA art under a marketplace license that limits redistribution adds restrictive terms. That conflicts with Section 3(b)(3).
- Print-on-demand. Selling merch is permitted under BY-SA, since commercial use is allowed. But the design itself must be available under BY-SA, so others may print the same shirt.
Worked example: a collage
Inputs, labeled as an illustration: a poster combines one BY-SA 4.0 photo of a mountain (recolored and masked), one CC0 texture, and an illustrated figure drawn by the designer. The photo is adapted, so the poster is Adapted Material of the BY-SA photo.
- The designer must license the poster under BY-SA 4.0 (or later) or a compatible license, and say so.
- The CC0 texture brings no conditions.
- The figure is the designer's own work, but as part of the adaptation it is now shared under BY-SA.
- If the designer wants to keep the figure under all-rights-reserved terms, the clean route is to swap the BY-SA photo for a CC0 or BY photo, or for a licensed stock image.
US copyright law keeps the layers apart: Section 103(b) of the Copyright Act limits a derivative work's copyright to the new material its author added and grants no exclusive right in the borrowed material. The designer therefore still owns the figure. What SA controls is the license that ownership goes out under when the adaptation is shared.
Putting CC art inside a client's logo
Even with BY or CC0 art, a logo built on someone else's openly licensed image has three weaknesses that a commissioned mark does not:
- Non-exclusivity. The source stays available to everyone. A competitor can start from the same illustration tomorrow.
- Thin ownership. Under 103(b), the client's copyright covers only the new contribution, not the underlying art. Our companion guide on who owns a design and how assignment works explains what the client can and cannot receive from the designer.
- Permanent attribution, for BY. A BY-based logo carries a credit obligation wherever it is shared, unless the licensor asks for removal.
Creative Commons itself says it "does not recommend using a CC license on a logo or trademark" (CC FAQ). That statement is about licensing a logo under CC, not about using CC art inside one, but the reasoning points the same way. For a brand mark, commission original artwork or start from type whose license allows logo use; our guide to free fonts suitable for logos is a reasonable starting point.
Attribution done properly: TASL and placement by medium
Section 3(a)(1)(A) of the 4.0 legal code asks you to keep, where the licensor supplied them, the creator's identification "in any reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if designated)," a copyright notice, a notice referring to the license, a notice referring to the warranty disclaimer, and a link to the material where reasonably practicable. Section 3(a)(1)(B) adds that you must say if you modified it and identify the license. Section 3(a)(2) lets you do all of this "in any reasonable manner based on the medium, means, and context," and treats a link to a page holding the information as one reasonable approach.
CC's recommended practices condense this into TASL: Title, Author, Source, License. An incorrect credit, in CC's example, is "Photo: Creative Commons," because CC is neither the author nor a license name.
Credit lines by medium (fresh examples)
These examples use invented names and titles purely to show the format.
Website hero image, adapted: "Harbor at Dawn" by Mira Okafor (link to source page), cropped and color-graded by Northline Studio, licensed under CC BY 4.0 (link to license deed). Placed in a figure caption or a credits section linked from the footer.
App or UI: a "Credits" or "Open-source and media licenses" screen reachable from Settings or About, listing each asset with TASL. Individual screens do not need on-image captions if the credits page is reachable and complete.
Social post: the credit goes in the caption text, not only in alt text: "Illustration: 'Paper Birds' by J. Ren, CC BY 4.0, link in profile" when the platform strips links from captions, with the full TASL on the linked page. CC's attribution page warns against relying on alt text or metadata such as EXIF alone.
T-shirt or merch: a small credit on a sewn label, hang tag, or inside print, plus the full TASL on the product listing page. For hard copies, CC suggests printing the full URL so people can find the source.
Print brochure or book: a credits block on the colophon or imprint page, one line per work, with printed URLs.
Video or motion piece: a credit in the end card and in the description; CC's page recommends credit within the media and in the description box.
A design containing several CC works: credit each work separately so it is clear which credit belongs to which asset.
Three rules sit around all of these. Do not word the credit so it implies the creator endorses the client (Section 2(a)(6)). If the licensor asks, remove the credit where reasonably practicable (Section 3(a)(3)). And credit the author, not the website you found the work on, unless the author asks for the site to be credited.
License versions: what changed and why it matters
Plenty of art online still carries 2.0 or 3.0 licenses. CC's license versions page lists the differences; these are the ones that change what a designer must do.
| Point | 2.0 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title required in credit | Yes | Yes | No (recommended if supplied) |
| Link (URI) | Only if the work carried copyright or licensing information | Required | Required if reasonably practicable |
| Must indicate changes | Read the deed | For adaptations | For any modification, trivial fixes aside |
| Automatic reinstatement after a breach | No | No | Yes, if fixed within 30 days of discovery |
| Sui generis database rights | Read the deed | Silent in the international license | Licensed alongside copyright |
| Jurisdiction | US-drafted generic plus ports | International "unported" plus ports | International, no ports |
| ShareAlike upgrade path | Same license, a later version, or a port | Same, later versions, ports, or CC-designated compatible licenses | Same, later versions, or CC-designated compatible licenses |
Two practical effects. With a 3.0 work you must include the title if one was supplied, and a missed credit has no built-in 30-day cure in the license text. And because BY-SA 3.0 lets adaptations go out under a later version, you can release a collage built on BY-SA 3.0 art under BY-SA 4.0. The FAQ also notes that 3.0 and earlier ported licenses "sometimes contain small differences from the international license," so read the exact deed linked on the source page.
Irrevocable means both sides are stuck with it
The 4.0 grant is irrevocable, and the FAQ says CC licenses "are not revocable once granted unless there has been a breach." For designers this cuts two ways:
- As a user, a creator cannot later withdraw the license from material you obtained under it. Keep a dated record of the license as it stood when you downloaded the asset (a screenshot or saved page), because the creator can change the terms offered for future downloads or stop distributing, and Section 6(c) confirms that doing so does not end the license you already have.
- As a creator, releasing your own icons, patterns or textures under CC is permanent for copies already out. Choose with that in mind. If you might want to sell exclusive rights later, a CC release forecloses that.
The breach rule is also worth knowing. Using the material outside the license, for example without the required credit, ends your rights automatically. Under 4.0 they come back if you fix the problem within 30 days of discovering it; under older versions there is no such reinstatement in the license.
What a CC license does not clear
A CC license, and CC0, deals with copyright and similar rights. Several other permissions stay outstanding:
| Right | What the CC text says | What it means for a design |
|---|---|---|
| Trademarks | BY 4.0 Section 2(b)(2): not licensed. CC0 Section 4(a): no trademark rights are waived | A CC photo of a branded product does not let you use the brand in a way that suggests affiliation |
| Publicity and privacy | BY 4.0 Section 2(b)(1): not licensed, except the licensor waives its own to the extent needed. CC0 Section 4(c): the affirmer does not clear other people's rights | A CC photo of a recognizable person in an ad may need that person's consent |
| Moral rights | BY 4.0 Section 2(b)(1): not licensed, waived only as far as needed to use the work | In countries with strong integrity rights, distorting a work can raise issues the license does not settle |
| Patents | Not licensed (BY 4.0 Section 2(b)(2), CC0 Section 4(a)) | Rarely relevant for graphics, sometimes for product designs |
| Third-party content inside the work | Not addressed; the work comes as-is (Section 5) | A CC photo of a mural may include someone else's copyrighted art |
The CC0 1.0 legal code says the same about itself. It waives copyright and related rights to the extent the law allows, falls back to a broad irrevocable license where a waiver is ineffective, gives no warranties, and leaves trademark, patent, publicity and privacy issues where they were. Our icon licensing guide shows how that plays out with CC0 brand-logo icon sets.
A CC licence only covers the work it is attached to. A fan drawing of a character is a separate adaptation of someone else's copyrighted art, and a CC-licensed texture underneath does not clear it; the fan art guide walks through that boundary.
Decision table: use case by license
The rows below are common briefs; the cells are our reading of the license terms above, not CC rulings.
| Use case | CC0 | BY | BY-SA | BY-ND | BY-NC | BY-NC-SA | BY-NC-ND |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paid website hero image, unmodified | Yes | Yes, with credit | Yes, with credit | Yes, with credit | No | No | No |
| Paid social ad, recolored | Yes | Yes, credit and note change | Only if the ad is released under BY-SA | No | No | No | No |
| Client logo or brand mark | Possible, but non-exclusive | Weak: non-exclusive and credit stays | Poor: logo must stay BY-SA | No | No | No | No |
| Merch for sale | Yes | Yes, credit on label or listing | Yes, design shared under BY-SA | Only unmodified | No | No | No |
| Template or UI kit sold with restrictive license | Yes | No, unless the kit license carves the CC asset out of its restrictions (2(a)(5)(B)) | No, conflicts with 3(b)(3) | No, unless the asset is carved out and left unmodified | No | No | No |
| Unpaid community poster | Yes | Yes | Yes, poster under BY-SA | Only unmodified | Likely yes | Likely yes, poster under BY-NC-SA | Only unmodified |
| Personal study, not published | Yes | Yes | Yes | Adapt privately only | Yes | Yes | Adapt privately only |
| Open-source project docs | Yes | Yes | Yes, docs under BY-SA | Only unmodified | Depends on the project | Depends | Depends |
For broader sourcing (where to find assets under each license), our guides to free illustrations for commercial use and free vector graphics compare specific libraries.
Common mistakes and edge cases
- Trusting the uploader. The license is only valid if the person applying it owned the rights. Images of famous artwork, film stills or brand assets uploaded under CC are a frequent problem.
- Not knowing your own remedies. When the roles flip and someone strips the credit from your CC work, the license has ended for them and the use may be infringing; our guide to writing a DMCA takedown notice covers the platform route.
- Treating "free download" as "CC." Many sites have custom licenses with their own restrictions. A CC license is identified by name, version and a link to the deed.
- Credit only in metadata. Embedding TASL in the file's EXIF or alt text is not a reasonable substitute for visible credit.
- Mixing NC art into a shared asset library. It leaks into paid work later. Tag it or keep it out.
- Ignoring the change notice. Under 4.0, any modification needs to be indicated, including crops.
- Assuming CC0 clears a person in the photo. It does not; publicity and privacy rights of others are untouched.
- Licensing your own client work under CC by default. Only the copyright owner can apply a CC license. If the client owns the work under an assignment, the decision is the client's.
- Using ND art "just for the pitch." If the pitch deck goes to the client, it has been provided to someone outside your private use. Whether a single client counts as "the public" is unclear, so the safer choice is a different image.
Questions designers ask about Creative Commons
Can I use CC BY-NC images for client work?
Generally no. The NC definition excludes uses primarily directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation, and a paid commission points in that direction on both counts. The creator can grant a separate commercial license if you ask.
Is cropping a CC image a modification I have to mention?
Yes, under 4.0 you indicate modifications, and CC's attribution guidance shows a short note such as "cropped from original." Whether a crop is also an adaptation, which matters for ND, depends on applicable copyright law.
Do I have to credit CC0 images?
No. CC0 waives the attribution requirement along with other copyright rights. Crediting is still courteous and helps you trace the source later.
Can I sell T-shirts with a CC BY-SA design?
Yes. BY-SA allows commercial use. If you adapted the art, your design must be offered under BY-SA or a compatible license, which means others may legally print the same design, and you must give credit.
What happens if I forget the attribution?
Under 4.0 your license ends automatically when you breach it, and comes back if you correct the problem within 30 days of discovering it. Older versions do not include that reinstatement.
Does a CC license let me use a photo of a person in an advertisement?
Not by itself. The license covers copyright. Publicity and privacy rights held by the person in the photo are not cleared, so commercial use of a recognizable person generally needs separate consent.
Documents read for this guide
- Creative Commons, About CC Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/ (checked October 22, 2026)
- CC BY 4.0 legal code: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.en (checked October 22, 2026)
- CC BY-SA 4.0 legal code: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode.en (checked October 22, 2026)
- CC BY-NC 4.0 legal code: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode.en (checked October 22, 2026)
- CC BY-ND 4.0 legal code: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/legalcode.en (checked October 22, 2026)
- CC0 1.0 Universal legal code: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode.en (checked October 22, 2026)
- Creative Commons FAQ: https://creativecommons.org/faq/ (checked October 22, 2026)
- Creative Commons, Recommended practices for attribution: https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Recommended_practices_for_attribution (checked October 22, 2026)
- Creative Commons, License Versions: https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions (checked October 22, 2026)
- Creative Commons, Compatible Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-considerations/compatible-licenses/ (checked October 22, 2026)
- 17 U.S.C. 103, compilations and derivative works: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/103 (checked October 22, 2026)
Next step
If you are on the other side of the license, releasing your own icons or textures and wondering what you could enforce when someone ignores your terms, start with our hub on registering copyright in design work, the step that sits underneath every enforcement option.