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

January 19, 2008 - 67 Comments
Patterns, 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/)

Website: 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/)

Website: 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/)

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/)

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

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

Website: 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/)

Website: 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/)

Website: 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)

Website: 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)

Website: 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/)

Website: 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.

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There are 45 Comments › Leave your comment

Adam Foster
19 Jan, 2008

Great Stuff. All saved as facourites for future use.

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Ed
21 Jan, 2008

nice collection, thx!

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Jurgen
21 Jan, 2008

Thanks for sharing! Love it!

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skarld
24 Jan, 2008

Great resources. I was playing with some of these a couple of weeks ago (the Tile Machine is a great way to kill some time) but you have a lot of others that I have not seen.

Personally, I think patterns in backgrounds are going to become a hot design element within the blogging community.

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Red
7 Feb, 2008

Cool site. I’m actually in the process of testing out some of your patterns. thanks!

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AmeyJah
6 Mar, 2008

Squidfingers is really good site, as I am using it since last three months. And everyday icons site is also good. Overall good collection of designers tools

Keep it up

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Jim
7 Mar, 2008

Nice website I seen this website where you can download some nice clean textures for practice http://www.textureheaven.co.uk/

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Aaron
11 Mar, 2008

This is something I was looking for. Thanks! I posted the list on http://listdid.com. you should post your lists in the future on listdid.com
- Aaron

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Shaman
21 Mar, 2008

Don’t forget http://onepattern.com/us
They make beautiful vector pattern swatches for use with adobe illustrator.

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Michael
30 Apr, 2008

Hi, Just a quick note to say that this is a very well presented and useful site.

Michael

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Ellise
8 May, 2008

Heyy x
I Found Thisss Site We Can Use At Schoool (:
Woooop =P

Heyy Shannon (;

Wb xxxxx

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Harvey Rayner
19 May, 2008

here’s a new one to add to your list speckyboy!

http://patterncooler.com

Add your own colors to contemporary and retro pattern designs, or browse from thousands of pre-colored seamless background patterns.

nice blog btw

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sergii
6 Jun, 2008

Here is another site, not from top ten but could be useful http://bgpatterns.com, there you can design patterns yourself

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ghazii
7 Jun, 2008

very nice stuff. Thanks

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me
7 Jun, 2008

Don’t forget this one:

http://www.lizaphoenix.com/tiles/

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Alex
12 Jun, 2008

That´s what i´ve been searching for. Thanks

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Paul
15 Jun, 2008

Hi
You should also check out http://www.texturebank.com there are loads of great textures and backgrounds on the site ;-)

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Rita
10 Jul, 2008

Thanks for sharing. Very nice site.
:)

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nalurita
16 Jul, 2008

thanks for sharing, makes me easier to find those great stuff, nice work :)

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Reginald Pulliam
21 Jul, 2008

Nice list of pattern sites. I’d like to add my own new pattern site: http://www.hipandtwendy.com/

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Подарки для мужчин
4 Aug, 2008

Неплохо конечно, неплохо

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Ameya
9 Aug, 2008

Stunning collection. I loved it. Keep coming with more!

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Febby Tan
17 Aug, 2008

nice resources, thank you!

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Febby Tan
17 Aug, 2008

another texture site recommendation, my fav one: http://www.urbandirty.com

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jean
6 Oct, 2008

this is great stuff :)

you forgot to mention this site full of patterns http://patterns.ava7.com , found over 300 patterns on it :)

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anfiya
13 Nov, 2008

cool, clasno pishesh, prodolzhay v tom zhe duhe

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dude91
19 Nov, 2008

thanx for sharing ;)

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ummusina
24 Nov, 2008

very nice collection.. thanks for sharing!!

here, more free textures and background: http://www.freebiesup.com/category/Textures-Backgrounds

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pulheriya
25 Nov, 2008

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izrail
26 Nov, 2008

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designersbrush
23 Dec, 2008

nice collection—similar stuff u can find at my website

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vinod nair
2 Jan, 2009

hi, i’ve downloaded some textures for personal use. will send you the finished look the moment they are complete. hope to make you proud twice over:)

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احمد
9 Mar, 2009

more than perfect

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Suzana
27 May, 2009

I loved these sites. Thanks a lot, they are very useful.

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Sagive
16 Jun, 2009

10x Really useful, added you to my favorites

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kama
25 Jun, 2009

“shizoo” web site is no more working :(

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Heather
2 Jul, 2009

Shizoo Patterns – new link
http://shizoo.frozen-media.de/materials.php

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hasfa
25 Aug, 2009

Wonderfull..I add this web link.

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Helene
3 Oct, 2009

This post is just what I’ve been looking for. Thanks

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Loann
18 Oct, 2009

Thanks for the great resources! The Alice Grafixx site now has an English speaking version.

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J2Kfm
23 Oct, 2009

thanks so much for the collection of sites.
appreciated.

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Andy Hughes
6 Nov, 2009

Great resources, do you have anything relating to icons sets? Really need some good alround, non specific icons.

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Peter Claryten
7 Jan, 2010

Thank You.

A big collection of repeat patterns you can find at http://www.free-patterns.org

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Her Bridal Favors
1 Feb, 2010

WOW…I was looking for a background pattern for a header banner in my re-design project and I came across your site and I found exactly what I was looking for…..it’s a great resource. Thank you!

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Infographiste
3 Feb, 2010

It’s awaesome and it’s free! thanks for sharing mate, this is gonna be useful :)

Reply