Top 10 Free Resources for Background Patterns and Textures for Web Designers

by Patterns, Resources, Tutorial

Quite often we stumble on to a blog that looks bland, in dire need of some color, a little bit of character, these sites maybe aren’t very familiar with blog design, let alone CSS. The simplest way to freshen up a site is with a new theme or to do a little CSS tweaking with your current theme. You could be surprised with the results. In this article I will show you the best resources for backgrounds and textures.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with CSS, here is a brief tutorial on how to change your themes background:
1. Download and save your background tile to your images folder stored in your root directory.
2. Open the style.css file in any text editor, or navigate to presentation / theme editor and select style.css from your WordPress Control Panel.
3. Locate the body tag (should be the first tag you see).
4. And then change the background to: background: url(images/pattern.png) repeat; And then save changes.

Were it says pattern this is the name you give to your pattern tile and the .png is the format in which your pattern comes in ( could be: .jpg, .png, .bmp, or .gif). And then you good to go.

…below are a list of my Top 10 Free Resources for Background Patterns and Textures for Web Designers.

1. Din Pattern (www.dinpattern.com/)

Color LoversWebsite: Din Pattern
This site was created bt Evan Eckard, he started making patterns as a hobby and then professionally. He has made his amazing patterns available for free download.
Have a look there is a style for everyone. You can browse and leave a comment.
Its a great looking site as well, worth a bookmark.

2. Squidfingers (www.squidfingers.com/patterns/)

SquidfingersWebsite: http://www.squidfingers.com
These patterns were has designed by a Professional Graphic Designer with many years experience. This shows in the style of the patterns, absolute quality and flawless. Free download (only a requested linkback required) them all.
He used to have a great javascript section, wonder what happened to it.

3. Kaliber 10000 (www.k10k.net/pixelpatterns/)

Kaliber 10000 Website: http://www.k10k.net
A few years back this was the best design site going, with at the time possibly the best site design ever seen, time may have caught up with Kaliber in terms of design, but its content (especially patterns) is still excellent.
You can browse, download and even submit your own pattern. Well worth a look.

4. milleseicentopercento (http://www.noqta.it/dromoscopio/)

milleseicentopercentoWebsite: http://www.noqta.it/dromoscopio/
Simple page layout, one page full of great patterns. Top notch as well.

5. Tile Machine (www.tilemachine.com/)

Tile MachineWebsite: http://www.tilemachine.com/
Nice site with some very original pattern and background designs. There is even a “Tile Machine” to create your patterns and have them submitted into the gallery. Good fun making your pattern.

6.Everyday Icons (www.playground.everydayicons.jp/)

Everyday IconsWebsite: Everyday Icons
This is a lovely Flash site, with its white backgound and light green borders, it makes it simple for navigation. The patterns are great as well, allowing you to get a full page preview of each pattern.

7. Citrus Moon (www.citrusmoon.typepad.com/patterns/)

Citrus MoonWebsite: http://citrusmoon.typepad.com
This site is in a blog with each pattern broken down via archives and categorised in type (neutral,green, grey etc.). Nice patterns as well.

8. Samurai Shizoo (www.shizoo.frozen-media.de/patternsets.php)

Samurai ShizooWebsite: http://shizoo.frozen-media.de
This is site has a bit of everything, patterns, backgrounds, icons, brushes… The only downside is that its written in german (I don’t speak a word). Still easy to navigate, and the patterns are very diverse, from the conservative to the outrageous.

9. Alice Grafixx (www.alice-grafixx.com)

Alice GrafixxWebsite: http://alice-grafixx.de
There are 33 pages of patterns here, if you can’t find one you like here, you’re not going to find one anywhere. This is another site written in german, but doesn’t detract from the quality.

10. Koller Media (www.kollermedia.at/index.php/pattern4u/)

Koller MediaWebsite: www.kollermedia.at
The patterns are broken down into the following categories: lined, dotted, squares, classic, dirty, funky and real. Fantastic variety, from the simple to the complex. worth a click.

There are a lot of sites that offer patterns and backgrounds, these are in my opinion the best.

Author: (569 Posts)

Paul Andrew is the editor and founder of Speckyboy Design Magazine. You can follow Speckyboy on Twitter, on Facebook, on Digg or you can subscribe via RSS.