Backgrounds have a huge effect on how a website looks and feels. Switching from a light to dark one or even changing the direction of stripes used changes things a lot.
SubtlePatterns Bookmarklet is a simple but “so awesome” bookmarklet that enables testing the lovely backgrounds provided by SubtlePatterns instantly on any website.
Once clicked, it loads a select box to choose the pattern category and try the items inside one-by-one with the help of prev-next buttons.
In order to get inspired on colors and color-oriented design resources, there are several popular websites that are focused totally on colors, like Kuler from Adobe.
Colrd is another one where you can find high quality color palettes, gradients or patterns and also share your creativity with others.
With a simplistic interface that highlights the resources, it is possible to filter items by colors, popularity and even hue, luminance, etc.
P.S. Colrd has also created and sharing several open source color pickers.
Since ever, we create patterns as image files and use them in web pages by simply attaching them to the backgrounds of elements via CSS.
Patternizer, a web-based pattern design application, brings a different approach in how we create and use them.
The application enables us to design a pattern by simply inserting any number of stripes, rotating them and setting their properties like opacity, color, width or offset.
While we are designing the pattern, the application generates a code including the values of variables which can be used with a JS-library provided (patternizer.js) to build that pattern with HTML5 <canvas>. No images used, just a lightweight JavaScript file and few rules.
The method usually ends up in a smaller-sized solution and, best of all, the pattern can be manipulated by simply changing the values.
Also, with a free membership, it is possible to save and share patterns created.
Subtle Patterns is a fresh website sharing simplistic yet high-quality patterns that are created by Atle Mo.
As the name says; the patterns are difficult to recognize and analyze. But, they help creating a soft contrast with the rest of the design.
Every pattern tile perfectly and, besides .GIF files for each item, they are available as a single .PAT (Photoshop pattern) file.
Lost & Taken is a website, curated by Caleb Kimbrough, that is totally focused on creating and providing free textures to designers.
Currently, there are 750+ high resolution textures in the gallery which are very well categorized (grunge, water, clouds, etc.) that helps reaching the right resource easier.
Besides the gallery, the website/blog itself is a must-follow for texture fans as it features collections of them.
P.S. All textures are free to use in both personal and commercial projects.
Patternify is a free-to-use web application for designing stripe patterns without using any image editing application.
The pattern can be drawn pixel-by-pixel over a custom-sized canvas, where the design can be previewed live, with the colors and opacity wanted
Once it is complete, the output can be downloaded as a .PNG file or you can use the generated base64 CSS code instead.
Patternify also creates a unique link for each pattern design for easily sharing them with others.
Sometimes a design requires little touches for becoming awesome rather than standard. It can be colors, fonts or the objects like icons, images and textures.
This time, WRD is sharing a set of 12 exclusive, free and high-quality liquid textures to spice up your designs.
They are sized 2835*4252px and come in .JPG format (total download size is ~56mb).
Textures are free to be used in personal and commercial projects (no attribution required) but can not be resold or re-distributed.
It is also a community where members can download and upload pictures to share with others.
The usage of brick textures are pretty popular as they are one of the major items of a grunge look.
Here are 10 detailed, high-quality (3543*2362px) and free brick textures in .JPG format that are created exclusively for WRD readers.
It is also a community where members can download and upload pictures to share with others.
Info: The download package is a .zip file & sized 52.2mb.
P.S. The textures can not be distributed in any other media. Please refer to this page if you mention them on your website. Thanks very much for that.
Tileables is a website which creates and shares various sets of beautiful repeating patterns.
They are designed to be applied to the backgrounds in Photoshop via the pattern overlay layer style, with steps:
Currently, there are 4 sets where each set includes ~20 items, new ones are added frequently and they can be used in both free or commercial projects.
TexturePalace is a website which shares 200+ premium-but-free textures that we can use to decorate our designs.
All textures are converted from camera RAW data where the picture size is 3400px*2400px (or more).
The textures are well categorized like ground, nature, grunge, metal, etc. & they are free to be used in both personal or commercial projects.
