Free coloring pages or a licensed library: what to know before you print at work
An honest look at both: the terms, the time, the pictures, and what you're allowed to copy.
Free coloring pages can work at work, but only when the site's terms allow it. Many free sites limit their pages to personal or family use, so read the terms before you print a stack for the activity table. Then count the time the search takes, and look hard at who the pictures were drawn for.
None of this means free pages are bad. Some are lovely, and some sites welcome group use. It just means "free to download" and "free to use at work" are not always the same thing.
Read the terms first
Every site is different, so read each one. Look at the bottom of the page for a link called "Terms of use," "License," or "Usage rights." Then look for these words:
- "Personal use" or "family use." This usually means at home, for yourself and the people you live with. An activity at work may not fit, even though nobody pays to color.
- "Non-commercial." Read on. It rarely says whether a care setting counts.
- "Classroom," "group settings," or "organizations." Some sites say plainly that groups are welcome. That's the line you want to find.
- "Credit" or "keep this notice." Some sites ask you to leave their name on every page you print.
A page with no terms at all is still someone's drawing. No terms doesn't mean anything goes.
If the terms aren't clear, write to the site and ask. Save the reply with your activity records. It takes five minutes, and you'll never have to wonder again.
One more check: is the drawing the site's own? Some free sites gather pages from all over. If you can't tell who drew it, you can't tell who gave permission.
Count the time
Free pages cost time. You search, you scroll, you open the terms, you print a test copy, and you check that the lines came out dark. Then you do it again next week.
Thirty minutes a week is 26 hours a year. That's more than three full workdays spent looking for pages instead of sitting at the table with people.
Free pages also rarely come with anything to say. So after the search, there's a second job: thinking of a question that fits the picture and has no wrong answer.
Look at who it was drawn for
Many free coloring pages are drawn for children. Cartoon animals with big eyes, smiling suns, letters to trace. Hand one to a grown-up, and the page says "this is for kids" before you can say a word.
Pages sold as "adult coloring" often swing the other way. Dense patterns and tiny details, made for a long project with fine pens. Beautiful, but hard to finish in one sitting.
The middle is harder to find: grown-up subjects, clear lines, room to breathe. And it's rare to find one drawing in two versions, so the whole table can color the same picture at different levels of detail.
Pages people bring in
Free pages don't only come from websites. A volunteer prints a stack at home. A family drops off a coloring book. Both are kind, and both raise the same question.
A page printed at home under "personal use" terms was printed for that person's own use. A coloring book is one copy for one person. Before you put either on the office copier, check. For a book, look at the copyright page near the front. For a printout, ask where it came from, and look up the site's terms.
The easy rule: hand out the book or the printed pages as they are, and copy only what you know you may copy.
What a license covers
A license answers the terms question once, in writing. Here's what the Tablewell license covers, in plain words:
- One location: one building, or one campus with one name and one address.
- Any staff member or volunteer can print and hand out pages.
- Pages can go to the people you serve, their families, and visitors, at the location or in their own rooms.
- As many copies as you need, on any printer or copier.
- Every drawing in Regular and Bold, with a Story Starter on every page.
- Calendars, newsletters, bulletin boards and handouts in print.
What it doesn't allow: posting pages publicly online, sharing them with another location, or selling them. Each location needs its own license.
The price is $149 a year per location. Money back in 30 days. Keep what you printed. And the free First Pack carries the same terms, for the location named on its cover, with no time limit.
Side by side
| Free sites | A licensed library | |
|---|---|---|
| Terms | Different on every site; read each one | One set of terms, written for your location |
| Time | A search for each activity | The library is ready when you are |
| Pictures | Many drawn for children | Drawn for adults |
| Versions | Usually one | Regular and Bold |
| Something to say | Rarely | A Story Starter on every page |
When free is the right call
Sometimes free is the right answer. If a site's terms welcome group use, the drawings suit grown-ups, and you have the time to search, use it. Give credit the way the site asks.
Whatever you print, give the table something to talk about. The Story Starter on Apple tree and baskets is "When the apple tree was loaded, who got the extras?" It works for anyone who ever had more of something than they could use.
Try it before you decide
Want to see a licensed page on your own table? The First Pack is six drawings with a Story Starter on each, free, with your organization's name on the cover. If your administrator wants the details, here's the page for them.
Free coloring pages for your activity calendar: tablewellpages.com/free