It’s a fact, nobody can get enough textures. It is like collecting stamps, or Photoshop brushes. The inner components of a texture is usually a source of inspiration for new designs or layouts. This is a showcase of 50 free textures that you can use for your personal and commercial designs.
At the time of writing, all these textures are licensed under the Creative Commons BY: license which basically allows you to use them in commercial projects, but better be safe than sorry, go and double check the texture download page to see if the license has changed or if the author has special requirements.
The images in this page are small previews of large high resolution files. Just click on each image and you will be taken to the download page.

One of the best free stuff Graphic Designers can find on the Web for free are high resolution backgrounds and textures. Long gone are the days when you had to buy very expensive CDs in order to obtain good quality backgrounds for your design projects.
By that time, marble and granite textures were all the rage. But now it seems that paper is becoming the new king. Lots of Web Designers are embracing the delicate look of a piece of paper with a subtle shadow. And if it is torn or folded, much better.
This gallery shows some paper backgrounds I collected from different sites. If you would like to add some nice effects to some of these textures, you can read a tutorial I wrote about creating paper folds and creases to paper textures in Photoshop. (more…)