Seamless Patterns

I wrote this tutorial from the suggestion and explanation of my friend, Fawn.  Any similarity to another tutorial is purely coincidental.  We claim the copyright to my written tutorial. You are free to do whatever you please with what you make, but please do not take my tutorial.  Do not send the tutorial through email.  Only share my link.

This tutorial is intended for a beginner to learn about making seamless patterns for pattern fills..  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

To do this tutorial you will also need Photoshop CS or CS2.  You may download a free trial at Adobe.

Remember to save as a .psd file often!

**If you use PSP, you can use this tutorial to take your jpg pattern fills from PSP and convert them to pattern fills for photoshop.

You can make your pattern anyway you like, but this tutorial shows you how to make the fiber pattern fill that was used to make the background for this web page.

You can just use your selection tool to crop the part of an image that you want to use a s a fill (then skip to Step  5)

OR

create a pattern from scratch as described below.

1.  Open a new, transparent image, size = 200 by 200

2.  Edit > Fill the image with a color of your choice.

3.  Filter >  Renders  > Fibers.  Apply these settings:  Variance = 17.0, Strength = 6.0

4.  If you want to change the color of the pattern:  Layer > New Adjustment Layer> Hue & Saturation. Place a check in the Colorize box, then play with the numbers to change the bottom bar to the color of your choice.

5.  Layer > Merge Down.

6.  Now we will store this pattern:  Edit > Define Pattern

7.  Give the Pattern a name.

8.  Now we will test the pattern for it being seamless.  New, transparent image, size = 650  x 650 pixels

9.  In the new image, Edit > Fill.  Set Use = Pattern, and pick the pattern you created from the Custom Pattern menu.  It is probably the  last one listed.

10.  This is what my image looks like when it is filled.  You can see that it is NOT seamless because you can see the lines where the pattern starts and ends.  So it needs some more work.

11.  Save the pattern piece (first image)  as a PSD image.

12.  Open up Image Ready.

13.  In Image Ready:  Filter > Other > Tile Maker

14.  Choose Blend Edges, Width = 15 (this may be changed) and CHECK Resize Tile to Fill Image.

15.  Save the image.  File > Save.

16. GO BACK to PHOTOSHOP, and open the newly saved version of the pattern.

17.  Edit > Define Pattern (to store the new pattern)

18.  Now click on your test image and Edit > Fill, Use Pattern and choose the new pattern ( last one).  Your pattern should now be seamless-- no lines telling where the pattern begins and ends.

19.  Now we will save the pattern preset, so that you can share the pattern with someone else.  Edit > Preset Manager.

20.  In the drop -down menu, choose Patterns.

21.  Click on the pattern you want to save, then click Save.  Give it a name.

Now the pattern is saved in your pattern presets, so that you can reuse that pattern in future projects.

If you want to use the pattern for a background on an email or web page, click on the pattern image in Photoshop.  Then save it as a JPG:  File > Save As.  Change File Type extension to .JPG.