15 Free Grunge Textures

• January 3, 2018
• Nick Saporito
• 94 comments

Texture masking is a great way to add character and distinctiveness to your design work, but if you’re anything like me, you probably just manually create textures for each individual project instead of putting together an inventory to draw from when needed. This is an incredible time drain, and I decided it’s about time I put a stop to it.

Grunge Textures

For this post I’ve included a zip folder with 15 different grunge style textures that I created using creative commons images found on the internet, free of charge. Simply download and enjoy. These textures are a great way to add a gritty, industrial, or even vintage appeal to your design work. The designs I’ve compiled are as follows…

Click image to download

Having this folder handy will save you the hassle of having to create a new texture every time you look to use one, and the variety of styles should keep you from getting bored with it for a while.

How To Use with Inkscape

Fortunately, Inkscape makes it very easy to mask textures over an object. Simply place the texture on top of the object you’d like to apply it to, select both objects, then go to Object -> Mask -> Set. If the texture is in true black and white (like all of the textures in this bundle are,) Inkscape will create negative space in your object where the black areas are.

Here’s an example of one of the textures. Notice how it’s all black and white…

And here’s how it looks once I mask it over my emblem logo…

The masking function within Inkscape removed the portions of the emblem where the black portions of the texture image placed on top of it were.

Video Tutorial

To further demonstrate, here’s a tutorial I made in the past where I used texture masking in Inkscape. Skip to the 16:35 mark for the masking part of the tutorial.

Free Download

All 15 textures can be downloaded at this link. This is a free resource — no money, no mailing lists, no survey, no other catch. Simply download and enjoy!

Learn To Master The Software Gain a complete understanding of your favorite design apps with my comprehensive collection of video courses. Each course grants access to our private community where you can ask questions and get help when needed.   81 Videos   11 Modules The Inkscape Master Class Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Inkscape. Add to cart Price: $17   82 Videos   10 Modules The Affinity V3 Master Class Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Affinity. Add to cart Price: $22   98 Videos   7 Modules Illustrator Master Class Tutorials, quizzes and practice exercises for learning every tool & feature in Illustrator. Add to cart Price: $17   70 Videos   9 Modules GIMP Master Class Learn how to use all of the primary tools and features in the GIMP application. Add to cart Price: $17 View All Courses