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By Cameron Chapman
When used well, patterns can be a great way to add an extra element to your designs that take them to the next level in terms of aesthetics. Creating your own repeating patterns is one way to go about this, but it’s not always something you want to spend a lot of time on, especially if you’re working with a tight budget. And why reinvent the wheel when there are thousands of patterns out there that could work?
The resources below can help you find the right pattern for your project. Rather than just round up the best patterns, we’ll leave finding the perfect pattern to you, since every project has different needs. And for those of you who do want to create your own patterns, we’ve included a few tutorials at the end.
General Patterns
The patterns included here run the full spectrum of design styles, from clean and modern to vintage and grungy.
PatternCooler
PatternCooler has more than 180 patterns available, and all of them can be customized with color schemes and repeat sizes to your liking.
Patterrific
Patterrific has tons of tiling patterns available, mostly organized into collections based on color.
Brusheezy Patterns
We usually think of Brusheezy as a great place for free Photoshop brushes, but they also have a great pattern selection with close to 100 patterns.
Free Photoshop Patterns
With more than 250 patterns available in a variety of different style, Free Photoshop Patterns is definitely worth browsing.
Patternhead
Patternhead offers a huge selection of high-quality vector patterns, mostly grouped by theme.
WebTreats ETC
WebTreats ETC has a great collection of patterns available, in a variety of styles. They have some of the better grunge patterns available right now.
Pixels & Ice Cream
Pixels & Ice Cream has some fantastic free patterns available, though be aware that there are a few premium patterns mistakenly included in the free category.
DeviantART
DeviantART’s Photoshop patterns category is probably the largest collection of patterns available online. Like everything on DeviantART, quality varies widely, but for the most part the patterns you’ll find here are excellent.
Alice Grafixx
This German site offers some great patterns, though registration is required before you can download them.
Colorburned
Colorburned has a small selection of high-quality patterns available, mostly for Illustrator.
Pattern8
Pattern8 has a great selection of patterns including virtually every style out there.
DinPattern
You won’t find many minimalist patterns here, but if you’re looking for something that’s visually complex, it’s the go-to source. You can preview any of hte patterns on the website’s own background.
milleseicentopercento Background Pattern Library
This site offers nearly 40 free background patterns. Each preview image shows not only the repeated version of the pattern, but also shows what portion of the preview is the actual pattern.
MyPhotoshopBrushes.com Patterns
This site aggregates high-quality patterns from a variety of sources, including DeviantART.
Free Photoshop Patterns
Free Photoshop’s patterns are varied in style, but unfortunately there’s no great way to sort through them, other than looking page-by-page.
Screentones
Screentones offers a small selection of comic-book inspired patterns, including dots and screens, lines, and static.
Klukeart
Klukeart has a small collection of very unique patterns available.
Pixel-Style Patterns
Pixel-style patterns aren’t as popular as they were a decade ago (when bandwidth and tiny file sizes were a huge consideration in web design), but that doesn’t mean they don’t still have a place in more modern web design. Here are some great sources for finding pixel patterns.
Velvet Factory
Velvet Factory offers a big collection of pixel patterns, many that are obviously influenced by fractal art.
Squidfingers
Squidfingers is a great place to find free repeating pixel patterns in a variety of styles and colors.
Ava7 Patterns
Ava7 is another great place to find a variety of pixel patterns. Unlike many other sites offering pixel patterns, though, they offer ways to sort by shape and color.
K10K Pixel Patterns
K10K has pixel patterns from a variety of artists. Licenses vary depending on the creator, so be sure to check before using them.
Pattern Tutorials
Even with all the resources for finding patterns above, it’s possible you might not come across a pattern that fits your project perfectly. In that case, you might need to make your own. The tutorials below can help you do just that.
Complex Repeating Patterns
This tutorial from PSHERO shows how to create a complicated repeating pattern in Photoshop from an image (in the example, they use part of a wallpaper pattern).
Create a Themed Repeating Pattern in Illustrator
This tutorial shows how to create a repeating pattern entirely from scratch using Illustrator.
Create Beautiful Repeating Patterns – Classic Illustrator Tutorial
This tutorial from Digital Arts shows how to create very complex repeating patterns using Illustrator.
How to Turn a Texture into a Seamlessly Tiled Background
This Psdtuts+ tutorial shows how to take almost any texture and turn it into a seamless pattern.
How to Make a Perfect Seamless Vector Pattern
This tutorial from BittBox shows how to create a vector pattern in Illustrator that tiles seamlessly.
Conclusion
There are a ton of pattern creators out there, and thankfully a large number of them put their work up on sites like DeviantART, making it easier for designers to find good patterns to use in their work. Make sure you check licensing terms on all the patterns you use, as they vary widely between creators.