Quicklinks to all course lessons: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Lesson 11 Sections: 11-1 11-2 11-3 11-4 11-5 11-JFF 11-IDEA
Lesson 11 Sections: 11-1 11-2 11-3 11-4 11-5 11-JFF 11-IDEA
(11-3) Creating seamless patterns in Photoshop
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To create a repeating, seamless pattern in Photoshop, the key is to get rid of any seams. Let me show you how to do this. It's not hard to do. We will use one of Photoshop's filters - the offset filter. I want to create a watercolor-like seamless pattern, so I begin by creating the start of the pattern...
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Now I need to see if there will be any seams along the edges. I do this by going to the FILTER menu, going down to OTHER, and choosing OFFSET...
Move the horizontal and vertical sliders. Make sure Wrap Around is checked, and that Preview is checked. If there are seams, you will see them (as in the image at right). Now it's time to repair the seams. You do this with the healing (content aware) tools. I'm going to use the patch tool. Once you've healed the seams, repeat the offset filter, and repeat the process until you no longer see any seams. |
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Heal any seams you see.
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Repeat the offset filter as many times as you need to, and heal any seams.
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Once you've repeated this process several times to make sure there are no longer any seams, then it's time to create a pattern. Select your document (Command-A or CTRL-A) - go to the EDIT menu and choose DEFINE PATTERN. Give your pattern a name and click OK. Now, you're ready to use it.
You now have a seamless, repeating pattern. You can use this in a layer effect, like pattern overlay. Or you can fill an area using the FILL dialog.
Seamless, repeating patterns are used in many ways. Often, they are the textures created for pattern fills on website backgrounds. Below are some examples of repeating, seamless patterns. They each link to the source where you can download and use the patterns in your own works.
