# Free design templates to browse, then swap in your own Mark [Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/templates-on-your-mark) A template saves you the layout work, then usually leaves you looking like everyone who used it. Gradiently's templates are drawn on Marks, so one button puts your own look underneath the words. ## The short version - Every Gradiently template is drawn on a Mark, a living gradient and material background, rather than on a flat stock image. - The whole template library is free to browse, search and preview, and using a template in your own design is part of Pro. - Swap in my Mark redraws a template's layout on a Mark you hold, so the colours, material and light become yours while the composition stays. - Because a Mark renders live at every size, a template keeps its look from a tall story to a wide slide instead of being cropped. - Members can publish their own designs as templates, which appear in Explore and on the member's profile. If you are looking for **free design templates**, Gradiently's whole library is free to browse, search and preview: finished layouts for posts, stories, posters, menus, cards and wallpapers, each drawn on a Mark, a living gradient and material background rather than a flat stock image. Putting a template into your own design is part of Pro. What makes them worth a look is one button, **Swap in my Mark**, which redraws a layout on a Mark you hold so it arrives in your look instead of the one everyone else started from. This page is about that swap and how to get the most from it. For a tour of everything the template library does, read the full [templates guide](https://gradiently.design/guide/templates-guide); if Marks are new to you, start with [what a Mark is](https://gradiently.design/guide/what-is-a-mark). ## What is free and what is Pro It is worth being exact, because "free templates" means different things on different sites. In Gradiently, looking is free and building with a template is Pro. | What you want to do | Free | Pro | | --- | --- | --- | | Browse, search and filter every template | Yes | Yes | | Open a template's page: its size, its Mark, who made it | Yes | Yes | | Design from a blank page with any unclaimed Mark | Yes, up to 3 designs | Yes, unlimited | | Start a design from a template, or add one in the Studio | No | Yes | | Export | PNG or JPG at 720p with a small watermark, on a Mark you own | Up to 4K, no watermark, every format | Browsing costs nothing, so you can find the right layouts and the right Mark before you decide anything. That split is deliberate. Browsing freely lets you judge the library properly, and the Free plan still lets you design from scratch with any Mark nobody has claimed. The plans themselves are laid out in [Gradiently free vs Pro](https://gradiently.design/guide/gradiently-pricing-explained). ## How to find a template worth starting from Templates live in [Explore](/explore). Search with the plain words you would use to describe the job: *menu*, *launch*, *wedding*, *hiring*, *pink*. Then narrow the results with the filters. - **Made by** separates templates crafted by Gradiently from ones members have shared. - **For** groups them by purpose: launches, events, shops and offers, food and drink, quotes and creators, business, wellness and places, occasions and wallpapers. - **Size** finds the format you need, from stories to business cards. - **Colour** and **Look** (light or dark) sort them by feel, which matters less than you think, because you are about to swap the Mark anyway. > **Choose the layout, not the colours** Judge a template on its structure: where the headline sits, how much room there is for your words, whether the hierarchy suits your message. The colours belong to its Mark, and the Mark is the part you replace. ## How Swap in my Mark works 1. **Open the template's page** It shows the design large, its format and size, the Mark it wears and who crafted it. 2. **Choose Swap in my Mark** The same layout is redrawn on a Mark you hold. The composition stays; the colours, material, light and type voice become yours. 3. **Compare with Back to its own Mark** Flip between the two to check the layout still works in your look. Darker Marks and lighter Marks can shift the balance of a page. 4. **No Mark yet? Find one first** If you don't hold a Mark, Gradiently points you to the [Market](/market). [Finding and claiming a Mark](https://gradiently.design/guide/how-to-claim-a-mark) explains how to choose one. 5. **Use this template** With Pro, this makes a new design from the template and opens it in the Studio. The template itself is untouched. A portrait café post announcing an autumn menu, drawn on the template's original Mark The template as published, on its own Mark. The same café menu post redrawn on a different Mark, with the layout unchanged After Swap in my Mark: the same layout in your colours, material and light. A template page also tells you who owns the Mark it wears. You can use the template whoever holds that Mark; ownership only decides who can export with it. That is exactly why the swap matters: your own Mark is the one you can export with. ## Why a swapped template stops looking templated Templated work is easy to spot because most people change the words and nothing else, so the same background turns up in thousands of feeds. On a social post the background is most of the surface. Replace it with a Mark that has exactly one owner, and the most visible part of the design is now something nobody else can export. The wider argument is in [template fatigue](https://gradiently.design/guide/template-fatigue). ### Looks templated - Only the headline changed - The template's own colours, kept as they came - One layout every week, so the feed repeats - A square post stretched into a story ### Looks like yours - Your Mark swapped in before anything else - Words rewritten in your own voice, at your own length - Three or four layouts rotated on the same Mark - Each size laid out again for its shape Rotating layouts on one Mark is the quiet trick. Your audience learns the look, not the template, and each post still feels new. [Using social media templates well](https://gradiently.design/guide/social-media-templates) has more on keeping a set consistent without repeating yourself. ## Templates in every size Explore's Size filter covers posts, stories, squares, posters, pins, wallpapers, slides, thumbnails, business cards, banners, headers and link previews. A Mark renders live for each shape instead of being cropped from one picture, so a look that works on a portrait post holds on a tall story and a wide slide. - Post 1080×1350: 1080 × 1350 - Story 1080×1920: 1080 × 1920 - Square 1080×1080: 1080 × 1080 - A4 poster: 2480 × 3508 - Slide 1920×1080: 1920 × 1080 - Business card: 1050 × 600 Six template formats drawn to scale. The same Mark fills each one, with its light placed for that shape. Once one version is finished you rarely need a second template for another platform. With Pro, Copy to sizes lays the design out again for each format you pick; [one look, every size](https://gradiently.design/guide/one-look-every-size) explains how. ## Adding a template inside the Studio You don't have to leave a design to use a template. Open **Templates** on the Studio's left rail and pick one: it is made again for your Mark at your page's size and lands as a new page after the one you are on. If your design is a single empty page, the template fills it instead. Photos you uploaded stay, and one Undo takes the whole template away again. A vertical story for a café hiring a barista, laid out from a template on the brand's Mark A hiring template added as a new story page, already on the design's own Mark. This is the fastest way to build a set: a launch post, then a story and a hiring card from templates, all wearing the same Mark from the start. Once it has landed, its pages, layers and text work like any other design. And if you make a layout others could use, you can [publish it as a template](https://gradiently.design/guide/publish-a-template) yourself. ## FAQ ### Are Gradiently's design templates free? Browsing, searching and previewing every template is free. Starting a design from a template, or adding one in the Studio, is part of Pro. ### What does Swap in my Mark do? It redraws a template's layout on a Mark you hold, so the colours, material, light and type voice become yours while the composition stays the same. ### Can I use a template if someone else owns its Mark? Yes. You can always use the template; only the Mark's owner can export with that Mark, so swap in your own before you export. ### Do I need a Mark to use the swap? Yes, the swap uses a Mark you hold. If you have none, Gradiently points you to the Market to find and claim one. ### Will adding a template replace my photos? No. A template added in the Studio lands as a new page and your uploaded photos stay, and one Undo removes it again.